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Sarah Henning | 20 Questions: THE QUEEN WILL BETRAY YOU
Author Guest / July 8, 2021

1–What is the title of your latest release? THE QUEEN WILL BETRAY YOU (Tor Teen, July 6, 2021). It is the sequel to THE PRINCESS WILL SAVE YOU. 2–What is it about? After a thousand years of political stability, the realm of The Sand and Sky is up for grabs. Four kingdoms, four rulers vying for the ultimate prize, sovereignty over the entire continent: A ruthless old king spinning webs, whose schemes encompass generations. A widowed queen whose only credo is all kings must die. A runaway queen whose unexpected return upends everyone’s plans. And a prince-in-waiting determined to wait no more. Standing against them are a dispossessed princess and her stable boy love with a surprising claim of his own. Their only hope in the face of unspeakable betrayals, enemies hidden in the shadows, and insurmountable odds is the power of true love… 3–What do you love about the setting of your book?  I love that the continent of partner kingdoms I have set up feel both real and like a fairytale. The world is somewhat based on the Iberian Peninsula because I studied abroad in college in Spain and loved it—it was really fun to create a world…

Sarah Henning | THE PRINCESS WILL SAVE YOU
Author Guest / July 9, 2020

Out July 7th, The Princess Will Save You is a gender-flipped damsel-in-distress tale inspired by one of my most beloved cult classics: The Princess Bride. First and foremost, this isn’t a retelling. Rather, it’s a love letter to all the things I adore about William Goldman’s spin the classic damsel-in-distress fairytale–True love! Sword fights! Mouthy pirates!–as well as an examination of the one thing about the story that I found more and more frustrating as I grew into adulthood: Buttercup’s character arc. I’m assuming the majority of the Fresh Fiction readership knows the story here, but in summation, Buttercup’s adventures in The Princess Bride go like so: Our princess starts off the story as a commoner, so sure in whom she is and what she wants: her farm boy, Westley. And even after Westley disappears, the presumed victim of the notorious Dread Pirate Roberts, she has the same fierce spark. Buttercup has been plucked from her common life to be a princess, and from the outside has everything a girl could ever want, but still she’s willing to push back. Then, when she’s kidnapped by supposed pirates, Buttercup fights back, tries to escape, and uses what she has to try…