Fairy blessed Aurora (Sleeping Beauty’s daughter) is on a mission to free her younger brother and to reclaim her kingdom from her ogre of a step-grandmother. Literally. Her step-grandmother really is an ogre. She embarks on her journey with Button, her horse, and one prince from a neighboring kingdom who happens to think she’s a boy. On their quest they eat blackberry scones, encounter ogre-eating trees, and drink too much beer–not necessarily in that order.
What I liked: So we all thought Sleeping Beauty’s name was Aurora, right? Turns out, it’s not. I’m a sucker for fairy tale retellings and this one combines two separate fairy tales–double whammy. I like that Aurora is a strong character. I’ve read at least two books where a girl is pretending to be a boy, but then spends half the book crying or freaking out over nothing. In short, being very un-boylike.
What I didn’t like: I don’t like when romances go from 0 to 60 in two pages and I felt like that happened a little bit (this is not a spoiler because we all knew it was going to happen). Granted, Niklaas doesn’t know that Aurora is a girl for about two thirds of the book, but still. It didn’t feel like the relationship between Niklaas and Aurora the girl was properly explored before they were all over each other–in their minds at least. I also thought they way the ogre queen talked was weird, but what do I really know about ogres?
Overall Rating: 4
Violence: Moderate. Sword fighting and hand-to-hand combat, but not much gore.
Sexual Content: Mild. Mild innuendos and kissing.
Language: Mild
Smoking/Drinking: Mild. They drink beer a few times.
What's She Reading? 