Thank you to the publisher for providing me with an eARC via NetGalley to read and review.

I really wanted to love this one, but I struggled with it. I found it really slow and I didn’t feel like anything was happening. The forever night part of the title wasn’t even introduced until 60% into the story.
I wasn’t a big fan of Eve, the main character. I found her rude and unlikeable, and I didn’t think she had any character growth. I wish that her nightmares had been explored more. I also wasn’t a big fan of her friend Lyla.
The Pumpkin King was an interesting character, but his way of talking (“hrmph”) got old really fast. I liked how he reassured Eve that she was his daughter and that she was wanted.
The town of Hallowell was really cool, and I liked the mix of different supernatural creatures living in harmony together. The different magics that we saw were fascinating, and I did like the overall vibes of the story, I just wish that it had been more exciting.

THE PUMPKIN PRINCESS AND THE FOREVER NIGHT was just as cute and spooky as the cover promised it to be. It reminded me a lot of a mix between Scoobys GOBLIN KING and 90s Disney Halloween.

Eve is an expert at running away from the orphanage, but so far she's also an expert at getting caught. This Halloween things will be different. As Eve makes her escapes she runs into an unexpected accomplice - the Pumpkin King! He offers Eve a safe haven - or is it?
This Halloween romp is a fun and joyous read for middle grade!

Sometimes it is really hard to do read aloud with my daughter, but this time it wasn’t at all! I loved this book, and so did she! It was sweet, magical, and just spooky enough!

As a lover of Harvest Moon and other farming games coupled with the found family and Halloween vibes, this was the perfect read for me. Such a heartwarming story in which Eve is trying to escape her orphanage and runs straight into the Pumpkin King. She isn't scared of the creature with a pumpkin for a head which is how she becomes his adopted daughter in a Halloweentown sort of place. She slowly settles in and makes friends with a very blunt witch and a skittish and inventive vampire. But most of the town is wary of this human when they are all supernatural beings so much so that there is a coup to get her out of the town and remove the Pumpkin King from the council. Although, I didn't feel the suspense within the story as this is more of a slow-paced read with lots of warm, cozy vibes.

One of the sweetest father-daughter relationships I've read in a while. I loved how kind and accepting the Pumpkin King was to his daughter. He would spoil her with an overabundance of blankets and books and would tell anyone off if they said anything rude about her. He even joined in her tradition of Christmas and made her feel special. I also enjoyed Eve learning all about the farm and how certain vegetables needed to be treated before they were planted or removed. I think it added to the quiet and cozy atmosphere of the story. The scarecrows were wonderful too especially Scrags who acted sort of like a mother at times. And then there were her new friends Lyla and Vlad. Lyla was so blunt and I loved that about her. She helped out at the local bookstore begrudgingly and so did Eve although she loved it (I loved all the different types and titles in the bookstore). Vlad has a tough home life and just wants to cook a good meal and work on his inventions. He's sweet but I really want more of him and Lyla's perspectives in the next book.

All in all, this was such a wonderful cozy, and touching read. If you are looking for a slow-paced sweet read this fall look no further than The Pumpkin Princess and the Forever Night!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of The Pumpkin Princess and the Forever Night in exchange for an honest review.

*3.5 stars rounded up*

Thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for an arc of this one in exchange for an honest review!

This book follows an orphan who gets adopted by a giant pumpkin king. He takes her to a new world that has a bunch of different creatures and everything happens during the night instead of the day. Eve is able to find her family amongst these different creatures and beings.

I thought this was a cute book. It had a nice found family feeling to it. I liked all of the different creatures throughout this book. It had Halloweentown and Nightmare Before Christmas vibes.

My biggest complaint is that I just felt like the story was a bit slow and I got bored throughout. I think this would be a nice read for middle grade readers since it has that halloween vibe but isn't too scary.

This was an absolutely adorable, perfect for the fall middle grade novel. It was really cozy and sweet. The setting reminded of Halloweentown - in a good way. It's aimed at young readers and I would've loved it when I was one of them, but the story and vibes are great for readers of all ages.

I read an ARC of this book from NetGalley. All comments are my own.

This makes such a fantastic autumn read! It has spooky and whimsy and is just so much fun! Though it is written for middle grade, I think that many older teens and adults will enjoy it as well. It has everything that you could want, familiar spooky creatures with new world building with friendship and family themes and individual development and overcoming fears. I look forward to reading more by Steven Banbury.

The Pumpkin Princess and the Forever Night is the ultimate cosy, spooky and magical adventure middle grade story for Halloween. Eve has run away from the orphanage again but this time for good. She runs into the Pumpkin King in the forest and he offers her something she just can’t quite resist, a ticket to a place far away from here and that’s where our story truly begins, the spooky town of Hallowell. I truly adored this story so very much! Banbury crafted such a magnificent tale of friendship, magic, facing our fears, and that family looks different for everyone. It was so sweet to read about the Pumpkin King navigating fatherhood as Eve, too, navigated her first experience with having a family. Lyla, Vlad, and Eve were truly a mischevious bunch and all their character arcs were so well done. Truly, every side segment was so well weaved into uncovering the mysterious happenings bubbling up in Hallowell as Eve and her newfound family try to uncover what’s afoot. I can’t sing the praises of the story enough! Highly recommend for classrooms and home bookshelves alike💗

Oh, this was lovely. I know others have made this comparison, but if you like the movie Halloweentown you will love this. I loved exploring the world of Hallowell and seeing the growth between Eve and her new friends and her adoptive father, the Pumpkin King, just filled me with so much warmth. I loved that we saw Eve make some mistakes and deal with the consequences of them, and also genuinely feel bad about them as well! That's so real! Just, absolutely lovely.

I really liked this. It's a fun, spooky halloween story that is great for older kids to read alone or for mom and dad to read with littler ones. It's charming, spooky, seasonal and so good! I loved watching Eve find a family and friends.

I am also posting this review rather late and so I can say first hand: we sold out in the first week. It's an easy sell to parents of kids who love halloween!

This debut novel hit it out of the park! This was such a cute, adventurous, cozy and fun middle grade novel! This is a cross between Nightmare Before Christmas and Halloweentown and brings all the feels! If you love found family, friendships, adventure, mystery and all things spooky run to pick this one up! New all time favorite!

Publishing 9/3/24

Thank you so much to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and NetGalley for providing me with this eARC in exchange for my honest review!

if you liked halloweentown and/or nightmare before christmas, this cozy little fall read is going to be your jam.

this is the story of eve, an orphan, who after running away from a harrowing, lonely existence at an orphanage, is brought home by the pumpkin king. he instantly adopts eve, giving her the first taste of a family that she had been missing, but not everyone is happy about the living coming to stay at hallowell valley.

hallowell valley is home to vamps, werewolves, witches, and even a banshee or two. the world is atmospheric and cozy and managed to perfectly balance a place between crisp autumn breezes and the smell of apples in the air with an insidious plot to overthrow the pumpkin king, therefore risking eve losing the only family that's ever loved her.

i think this book also did a pretty solid job of letting eve be a kid and make mistakes, while giving plenty of avenues for future sequels to flourish (werewolf dynamics, hellooooo).

ultimately, this was a very cute story about finding your place, how family can be found, and things that go bump in the night. highly recommend!

This was a cute little Halloween book! I really enjoyed the atmosphere of it. I will definitely be recommending this as much as I can!

I did catch myself multiple times starting to skim because I lost interest at some parties. But overall a great read!

This book was absolutely charming!! It was a little of Nightmare Before Christmas and any multitude of sad orphans findings new families and I adored every minute of it.

Eve (though she does not get called this at first) is determined to make her escape from the orphanage she was placed at after the death of her parents. She is not sure where she is going to go or what to do when she gets there but she has to get away. Just as she thinks she will be caught for the umpteenth time, she is surprised by a tall talking Jack-O-Lantern who is amused by her lack of fear. He adopts her and takes her back to Hallowell, where he is the Pumpkin King, and she becomes his pumpkin princess.

Hallowell reminds me of Halloweentown from NBC but this author did a lot to make it his own and I appreciated the finer details, especially the bookstore. Watching this little family find its way together, with TPK learning to be a "dad" and Eve learning what it's like to have friends and someone who wants her made my heart squeeze.

This book is not at all scary other than some of the residents of Hallowell might frighten younger readers. By the end I wanted very much to visit this place and meet these lovely characters. I hope perhaps the author may make this the beginning of a series, as I think many more adventures could be had with Eve and her friends in Hallowell.

This is definitely going to be a repeat read.

My thanks to Little Brown Books for Young Readers and Netgalley for this advance reader's copy in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.

If you loved The Nightmare Before Christmas, you will love this one! We have an almost creepy Halloween village, the Pumpkin King, and a secretly nefarious character that is causing problems. I loved the character of Eve and the way The Pumpkin King accepted her just as she was. She was strong and smart, but still needed help from others and sometimes made mistakes. Her best friends are a vampire and a witch. This is kind of Halloween story that feels cozy and homey. I adored this book.

A cute and clever Fall read that is fun for all ages.

I loved this charming middle reader novel, and my kids enjoyed it as well. This feels a bit like a spin on The Nightmare Before Christmas, but at its roots it’s a story about found family and that happiness and belonging sometimes look different than you imagine they will.

I liked the world building here, though I would have loved a more developed sense of place and a bit more Halloweenish frippery. Still, it’s a solidly imagined setting, and I loved the idea of what might happen when you’re the only one in town who is actually a living being.

I think this is just spooky enough to satisfy adult readers and older kids, but not too scary for a younger audience. And I loved that this was a sweet story that never tips over into the saccharine and over sentimental.

As an orphan stuck in a horrible institution, Evelyn only dreams of escape. She makes good on that dream on Halloween night. Almost as soon as she does, the dogs are loosed, and the hunters are in pursuit … However, she lucks upon a stranger during her flight. And what a strange stranger he is, a humanoid creature with a dark suit, pumpkin head, and jack-o-lantern face. One sight of him sends the dogs racing home. He is a domineering presence, but when he misspeaks, Evelyn stands ready to correct him. Respectfully, of course, but firmly. And from that initial meeting, that show of spine and cheek, Evelyn finds herself offered something she could only dream about: a home with a new family. She is to be the Pumpkin King’s daughter, a Pumpkin Princess for the mysterious realm of Hallowell.

She accepts, of course, and he spirits her away. The Pumpkin King’s home is a fantastic farm, a place where the plants feel, move, and respond. The king’s servants are all animated scarecrows. The nearby town of Hallowell Station is peopled with the undead and monsters, but they are not frightful things, they are all just trying to get along.

Of course, many of them are reluctant to accept one of the living into their ranks, so Evelyn is met with raised eyebrows, concerns, and occasional scorn. In fact, the haughty vampire Baroness La’Ment has even called for her banishment. However, Evelyn will have some chances to win the town over before a vote settles her fate.

But that is not the biggest dose of drama to strike the land. During the Harvest Festival, Evelyn and her new friends, the inventive vampire Vlad Jr. the 12th Jr. Jr. and the witch-in-training Lyla Creswick, overhear a plot to take the reins of power. And when a mysterious ritual chains the moon in place, preventing it from setting and the sun from rising to end another night and allow the locals to rest and the plants to soak up sunshine, the whole valley is threatened. Can Evelyn and her allies figure out who is responsible and undo the damage before Hallowell falls? Steven Banbury pens a charming coming of age story with a spooky theme in the dark (but cheery) middle grade fantasy novel, The Pumpkin Princess and the Forever Night.

One of the joys to be found in fantasy is seeing characters who assumed they were outcasts and utterly without options discovering that they are not as alone as they first assumed themselves to be. This is Evelyn’s journey in the pages of Banbury’s fiction. She starts out without anyone and soon discovers she has place, and then a purpose, and finally actual power. Not that she will abuse these things. Her roots are strongly in the helping others category, and her mind is very much directed toward the community that she finds herself a part of.

Sadly, the journey to acceptance is not an easy one. It never is, is it? Sure, there are some who like her on sight, but there are just as many to dislike her for nothing she has done, no reasons apart from the way she came into their world. Instead of schisms based on skin color, sexual orientation, or gender identity, she is the lone living girl in a world of the undead. And everyone who cannot see it can certainly smell it (there’s a whole running gag about the creatures of Hallowell sniffing around her). A few of the dyed in the wool traditionalists cannot look past this—it’s really no wonder that the leader of this brat pack of mean girls is a pale and backstabbing bloodsucker of unknown age who’s probably ancient—but there are enough who can, thus keeping Evelyn’s spirits up.

Among this number are a witch coven’s matriarch, a skeleton seamstress and her bony hubby, the aiming-to-please scarecrow workers, the grumbly but good-natured Pumpkin King himself, and a host of others. In the same week, this protagonist gets a new home, a new family (though accepting the Pumpkin King as “dad” will take some time, no matter how many times he introduces her as his daughter), and new friends. It’s a heartwarming book, that way. Even when things turn serious and the future of Hallowell is threatened as is Eve’s continued life in it, the book never loses sight of its heart, its kindness, and its clever approach to the stuff of community.

Banbury’s talents are on best display in the creative turns applied to the setting. The characters are endearing or hiss worthy as we expect, but the surprises are found in the way the world is laid out and works. Like Halloweentown from the famed Disney production of The Nightmare Before Christmas, this is an area where the different spooky creatures can kick up their heels and coexist in peace for the most part. Instead of a mad place, as one might expect from Alice in Wonderland, which has rules no sensible person could hope to understand or abide by, Hallowell is based around a thriving, diverse community. The Pumpkin King feeds everyone and could very well take over completely, but he chooses to be part of a board peopled by spokes-creatures from five of the largest groups. The town of Hallowell Station itself is the domain of a nebbishing goblin mayor. It has its arguments and problems, but at the end of the day, these creatures generally get along. They’ve known each other quite possibly (and possibly literally) forever. But into every utopia a little disturbance must fall, if a book is to have drama.

Banbury’s writing can be a little too meticulous from time to time. There’s a love for language on display that sometimes calls attention to itself and calls our attention as well. Language lovers will enjoy this, but it can slow the reading process some as we smirk at the cleverness in turns of phrase and whatnot. Those who have come for the story may find themselves skimming along in search of the next twist or quotation mark.

That said, the dialogue mannerisms Banbury assigns to the scarecrows is littered with some questionable elements. One gets a sense of the characters as a group of Jar-Jar Binks’ cousins. For certain age groups, the cadence and wording will be utterly without baggage. Readers who come to this material sensitized such things may well be unsettled for all the wrong reasons.

The Pumpkin Princess and the Forever Night is a charming fantasy book overflowing with wit and creativity. The protagonist is a clever and capable young woman, who also is not afraid to acknowledge her vulnerabilities. While the book has a solid beginning, middle, and end, it could also serve as the launch for a series of books for the younger set. Fans of Bradbury’s Family stories (e.g., To the Dust Returned), Baum’s The Wizard of Oz, or The Nightmare Before Christmas will find plenty to enjoy here. And while the scarecrows’ dialogue set my teeth to grinding, it does not seem to be intended in any particularly harmful way. It’s an affectation that sadly carries baggage it seems unaware of. Overall, the book is a story about a young woman discovering a new family, new friends, and the courage to defend these both against the sinister machinations of a few bad apples. It’s a story that indulges an obvious love for spooky season themes and elements, and it resolves its conflicts without even a single bout of violence.

And therein lies the magic of this particular tale. Some of the characters are rude as all get out, some of them are vicious, and some of them cannot help but look upon the main character as a snack, but The Pumpkin Princess uses her wits and alliances to make her way through trouble instead of a left hook. Banbury has made quite the world to play in, and I hope to see another trip into its borders.

Thank you so much for the ARC copy of The Pumpkin Princess and the Forever Night! My 6 yo son is a huge fan of Halloween and all things spooky and even though this is intended for middle schoolers, it ended up being a perfect story for him. It took us a while to finish it since we mainly read at night before bed, but it was a fantastic story with a great moral. We are both really hoping it turns into a series.

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I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and read it with my 6 yo son, who is obsessed with Halloween and all things spooky. While meant for middle schoolers, it was great for my son! He loved the book and looked forward to reading it before bed each night. Witches, vampires, werewolves, magic - it had all of his favorite things but wasn’t graphic or overly scary for his tastes, though he did get really concerned for the main characters at the height of the conflict. I actually found myself reading ahead a few times because I wanted to know what happened and did not want to wait 25 hours to find out.

We highly recommend this and hope there are more Pumpkin Princess books to come!!!

When a young orphan girl runs away, the last thing she expects is to be adopted by the Pumpkin King and move to a whole new magical place. All Eve has ever wanted was to have a family of her own but after so many rejections because of er night terrors, she's given up and just wants to escape the orphanage. Yet on Halloween during her latest escape attempt she runs into a talking Pumpkin man, the fabled Pumpkin King himself. When he offers to adopt Eve as his own daughter and make her the pumpkin princess, Eve has nothing to lose and accepts. Soon she find herself whisked away to Hallowell Valley, home to witches, vampires ghosts, and ghouls and all sorts of paranormal creatures. Yet not all of them are happy to have her there and if she wants to stay she'll have to convince them that she is meant to be part of the community. With sinister plots against her and her new father, Eve also finds friendship and family for the first time in her life. Can she protect them or will she lose them all? This was such a sweet and adorable read and I absolutely loved the quirky world that was built. The father daughter relationship in this book was so charming and I found myself smiling over how heartwarming this book was. It's the perfect mixture of found family, spooky season, and friendship. It's a wonderful read for fans of the Addams Family and Nevermoor!!

Release Date: September 3, 2024

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*