Publisher: Bloomsbury (7th September 2017)
Author: Ruth Lauren
Valor is under arrest for the attempted murder of the crown prince. Her parents are outcasts from the royal court, her sister is banished for theft of a national treasure, and now Valor has been sentenced to life imprisonment at Demidova, a prison built from stone and ice.
But that's exactly where she wants to be. For her sister was sent there too, and Valor embarks on an epic plan to break her out from the inside.
No one has escaped from Demidova in over three hundred years, and if Valor is to succeed she will need all of her strength, courage and love. If the plan fails, she faces a chilling fate worse than any prison ...
An unforgettable story of sisterhood, valour and rebellion, Prisoner of Ice and Snow will fire you up and melt your heart all at once. Perfect for fans of Katherine Rundell, Piers Torday and Cathryn Constable. (Publishers' blurb)
I'm so happy to join the blog tour for this amazing book. Ruth Lauren has shared the books that inspired her, and then I'll tell you all the things that I loved about this book!
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Top Five Inspirational Books
Hi, and thank you for having me on YA Under my Skin!
Here are the top five books that influenced the writing of PRISONER OF ICE AND SNOW (#2 and #3 I actually read after writing but they’re relevant!)
1) One from my childhood, THE WOLVES OF WILLOUGHBY CHASE. I adored this classic, and still do. Wolves, snow, girls—if you’ve read Prisoner, you’ll see the influence!
2) Katherine Rundell’s THE WOLF WILDER. This book is gorgeous and brilliant. The Waterstones website uses this book and the next one in an ‘if you liked this then try Prisoner’ capacity and I am completely thrilled about that (even if it is entirely to do with the frozen Russian setting).
3) THE WOLF PRINCESS by Cathryn Constable. Another comp on Waterstones website with a wonderful Russian setting and an exciting adventure filled with girls.
4) THE HUNGER GAMES (well, Buffy, and all girls with bows, but you get the idea. I love a bow.)
5) SCENE AND STRUCTURE by Jack Bickham. This is a writing craft book with the subtitle ‘How to construct fiction with scene-by-scene flow, logic and readability’ and I found it endlessly helpful. If you’re a writer and you haven’t read it, I highly recommend!
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Now it's time for my review, and I have so many good things to say about this book! I haven't read any middle grade books for ages and this was a fantastic book to get me back into them.
My absolute favourite part of this was the relationship between the sisters. I love books for all ages that explore sibling relationships and this book did it so well! It was great that both sisters had different strengths and how much they loved each other. I related to both of them and I think they'll appeal to a lot of people.
Valor was probably my favourite character because she was so brave and resourceful. Like Ruth, I also love a girl with a bow and arrow! It was great to see so many women in this book who had personal strength and political power. My least favourite fantasy trope is worlds where men are considered superior and I really appreciated how this book smashed stereotypes to bits.
The plot was so exciting that I had to read this book in a couple of sittings, and I haven't done that for a long time! It was so much fun to work out Valor's next move.
This is a fabulous book for a middle grade audience and for anyone who wants adventure and great characters!
There are lots of amazing spots on the tour to come and you can check them out below.
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