Book Review: Young Queens Collection: The Velvet Messenger by Megan Hess

It’s October 1st, which means Halloween is this month!

I own a few Halloween themed children’s books, but the one I picked to review this month is The Velvet Messenger by Megan Hess. It is a part of the Young Queens Collection book series. I like to occasionally collect Megan Hess’ books (I’ve slowed down my collecting a lot in the past few years) because I like her artwork. To me, The Velvet Messenger’s plot and illustrations reminds me of Halloween, or of a spooky story, which is why I decided to save my review for October!

The front of the book looks like this…

It looks similar to the other books in the series except the cover is blue and has a picture of The Velvet Messenger’s heroine on it.

The illustrations inside the book is as beautiful as the previous books’…

 

 

 

The book’s synopsis from Amazon is…

Violet lives in the wintry forest with her mother, a renowned locksmith. Her mother taught her many things, but the two most important were how to pick a lock in an emergency, and to always trust your instincts – and when Violet finds a lost key belonging to the Queen, she’ll need to do both if she wants to survive her visit to the Palace …

A mysterious, heartwarming fairy tale about trusting your gut. 

The book is written in the same style as all of Megan Hess’ children’s books are, in a rhyme. It is easy to read, the illustrations are lovely, and the mystery at the heart of the story is resolved at the end of the book.

I did enjoy this story, but the ending is a bit darker than other books in the series. Compared to all the Megan Hess children’s books I’ve read, this one ends the darkest. Despite this, it is still an ending that, to me, is satisfying and makes sense. I also do not think the darker ending is a reason to not read the book. It isn’t so dark that I think children will be bothered by it. Especially when it is compared to other children’s stories, such as the original, non-Disney version of the Snow White story. I think it is just something of note in comparison to Megan Hess’ other children’s book.

I do recommend this book to anyone looking for a children’s book that is perfect for spooky season and the fall (Or winter since it looks like it takes place in the winter) but isn’t actually created for Halloween or fall.

 

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!