Welcome to my stop on the Princess of Thorns blog tour presented by Random House Children's Books! Today I'll be sharing my review of the book with you all.
Princess of Thorns
Author: Stacey Jay
Genre: YA Fantasy/Fairy Tale Retelling
Release Date: December 9, 2014
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Description:
Game of Thrones meets
the Grimm's fairy tales in this twisted, fast-paced romantic
fantasy-adventure about Sleeping Beauty's daughter, a warrior princess
who must fight to reclaim her throne.
Though she looks like a mere mortal, Princess Aurora is a fairy blessed with enhanced strength, bravery, and mercy yet cursed to destroy the free will of any male who kisses her. Disguised as a boy, she enlists the help of the handsome but also cursed Prince Niklaas to fight legions of evil and free her brother from the ogre queen who stole Aurora's throne ten years ago.
Will Aurora triumph over evil and reach her brother before it's too late? Can Aurora and Niklaas break the curses that will otherwise forever keep them from finding their one true love?
Though she looks like a mere mortal, Princess Aurora is a fairy blessed with enhanced strength, bravery, and mercy yet cursed to destroy the free will of any male who kisses her. Disguised as a boy, she enlists the help of the handsome but also cursed Prince Niklaas to fight legions of evil and free her brother from the ogre queen who stole Aurora's throne ten years ago.
Will Aurora triumph over evil and reach her brother before it's too late? Can Aurora and Niklaas break the curses that will otherwise forever keep them from finding their one true love?
Fairy tale retellings are all the rage right now in YA fiction, and I have to admit that I'm loving the different twists that the tales are getting this time around. When I read that this book was a retelling of Sleeping Beauty - but with her daughter being a warrior princess who is going to fight to win back her throne from an ogre queen - I knew I had to read it. I found the story to be very original while maintaining the "feel" of a fairy tale. I loved Aurora as the main character right from the beginning. Aside from being blessed with fairy magic to have enhanced strength, mercy, and bravery, she is also smart, determined, a loving sister and daughter - and someone who will do whatever it takes to make things right and avenge her mother's death. She was easy to relate to and I was definitely cheering her on throughout the entire book. Niklaas is a strong secondary character with a lot of personality and a great backstory of his own. I liked reading about his family's curse and about his life - and, of course, I loved seeing Aurora and Niklaas get to know each other and watching their relationship grow. (There always needs to be romance in a fairy tale!)
The writing was exceptional with a very fast pace with lots of obstacles and twists thrown in. The author uses first person point-of-view to tell the story; however, it's not just Aurora we hear from. The book is told in varying viewpoints between Aurora, Niklaas, and the ogre queen - which gives the reader an intense inside look at the story from three very different angles. We get to see the story through each of their eyes - hearing their private thoughts, inner dialogue, hopes, dreams, fears, desires - everything that makes them unique as a character. I love when authors write in this point of view because it really gives the reader a greater understanding of each character - good or evil - while giving the story a new depth that couldn't be achieved otherwise. The plot was full of action and adventure - there was never a dull moment and the pace was quick but not confusing for the reader and there was an effortless flow throughout the story that made transitioning between character's viewpoints seem natural. Overall, this was one of the best fairy tale retellings I've read - this year or ever. I haven't read any of the author's other works, but you better believe that I'll be snatching them up whenever I get a chance. I can't recommend this book high enough for readers who love fairy tales, retellings, fantasies, and action/adventure novels. If you give this novel a shot, I promise you won't regret it!
One of the Best Fairy Tale Retellings I've Read - A Definite New Favorite!
Stacey Jay is a recovering workaholic (or at least working hard at recovering) with three pen names, two small children, and a passion for playing pretend for a living. She’s been a full time mom-writer since 2005 and can't think of anything she'd rather be doing. Her former careers include theatre performer, professional dancer, poorly paid C-movie actress, bartender, waiter, math tutor (for real) and yoga instructor. (Author picture & bio taken from Goodreads)
Author Links:
*A huge thank you to the people at Delacorte/Random House Children's Books for sending me a copy of the book for review!*
I love this book! Everything you said about it absolutely spot on.
ReplyDeleteI want to read Princess of Thorns so bad, I have seen nothing but good reviews for it!
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