Happy Halloween fellow bookworms! As a Halloween queen myself, I knew I had to read Long Live the Pumpkin Queen by Shea Ernshaw as soon as I heard it was coming out! I snatched it up right away, just in time for spooky season.
As a sequel to our beloved Nightmare Before Christmas, Ernshaw certainly had quite the task taking this on. I commend her efforts as I did enjoy the book, but I do think she could have done more with it.
The story follows Sally after she and Jack were married atop the famous spiral hill. She's struggling with the idea of now being a queen as residents of Halloween Town excitedly surround her with new dresses and crowns and royal duties. I personally wound up getting annoyed with her during the beginning because the headstrong Sally I know wouldn't be this anxious and whiny in my opinion.
While this helps the story along toward it's intended moral, I think it strays a little too far from her original character.
That aside, I liked what Ernshaw did with the story line. Sally and Zero find a hidden door to an ancient realm called Dream Town. Little does she know, that slight moment of curiosity will send her and her town into a spiral of events that will put her courage to the test.
The storyline was cute and fun as Sally explores the other holiday towns and works with new characters to reverse what has happened. I did find some lines a bit repetitive and a couple plot points felt a little forced, but overall I thought it was a fun continuation to The Nightmare Before Christmas and gave me the hit of nostalgia I was looking for!
I gave this one three and a half stars, just because I found parts of it a little predictable, which could just be that I've grown out of Teen/YA to an extent! But if you love The Nightmare Before Christmas it's absolutely worth the read! Also, I have to note how beautiful this cover is!
Read the author's summary --> HERE
Buy it on Amazon --> HERE
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