Princess of Thorns

I was provided with an ARC of this title by Random House Children’s & NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to both for the opportunity!The story of Aurora has some familiar elements to it, as it’s a bit of a twist or continuation of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. Aurora is the daughter of Sleeping Beauty and her handsome rescuer, but her parents happily ever after never quite materialized. Aurora has grown up in a cruel and unforgiving world, and is forced into some pretty unfortunate circumstances. I thought Aurora was an amazing main character, and the bravery and strength she possessed was exactly what I was looking for when I started reading. She’s also a sympathetic character but I never really found myself feeling sorry for her, because she is just so capable and brave. Go on girl!!I also found it really intriguing that she spent much of the book disguised as a man, not as a way to create an image of strength and capability to others, but as a way to disguise herself so she could accomplish what she needed to. Aurora is smart, strong and bad-ass and, thanks to her fae lineage, the woman knows how to handle herself in a fight! She reminded me a lot of Celaena from the Throne of Glass series and Scarlet from the Scarlet series, and because of that she’s earned a spot on my roster of favorite female fantasy characters.As part of Aurora’s journey, she finds herself paired up with a prince that has his own secrets to keep and battles to fight. Being the bad-ass female that she is, Aurora quickly enlists Prince Niklaas’ help in her quest to rescue her younger brother and reclaim her throne from an evil queen, and they become a dynamic duo. It was pretty interesting to see their relationship develop while Niklaas is under the belief that he’s travelling with a man. Stacey Jay did a fabulous job creating layers in each of her main characters, allowing them to become individually distinct but even better together. Their chemistry was absolute perfection, and when Niklaas finally discovers his travelling companion’s true identity, things are taken to a whole new level. Don’t expect sunshine, roses and love poems though…this is a uniquely complicated relationship and I was totally sucked in to seeing how on earth Aurora and Niklaas’ relationship would evolve.I’m going to be honest and say I wasn’t a huge fan of Niklaas’ at first. He was a bit cocky, a lot arrogant and totally clueless when it comes to women. But, as the novel progresses his character growth is absolute perfection, and by half way through the book I was alllll about him! I was rooting for Niklaas just as much as I was rooting for Aurora, and their individual stories come together so perfectly and this makes the novel that much more intriguing.Princess of Thorns hits all the right fantasy notes and completely delivers in the world-building category as well. This is the first Stacey Jay novel I’ve read and I was completely blown away by how beautifully she presents the world in which this story takes place. Aurora and Niklaas travel far and wide, and each location was more spectacular than the last. I got completely lost in the fantasy of this world, making it so easy for me to get totally sucked into the story.If you love romance and high-fantasy, I highly suggest Princess of Thorns be added to your reading list as soon as possible. It’s incredibly adventurous, beautifully written and totally delivers on the swoon, and if you ask me that’s a perfect combination. Maybe it will make your favorites of 2014 list as well!

The joining of two fairy tales with some remarkably innovative twists and memorable lines, this book was one of the most enjoyable that I have read this year. This is a story about a Princess and Prince. Princess Aurora is the child of Sleeping Beauty, who turned out to have been kissed and awakened by a philandering and lying King. Prince Nicklaas is the last son of an evil King who has cursed all of his sons to become swans on their 18th birthday so that they cannot depose him. He has 3 weeks before he becomes a dumb swan. The two meet because she was trying to gather an army to save her brother from the Ogres and he was trying to marry Princess Aurora so that he doesn't become a swan and mistakenly thinks that she is her younger brother. They have fun adventures together. There is great suspense and tension, both romantically and action-wise. I can't remember having marked as many memorable lines in any book before. The book has some interesting asides for adults that probably would fly over the heads of less experienced teenagers. The book has great quips and some of the best-written action scenes that I have seen. This is stuff for a great movie.

The Story:Princess of Thorns was the second book of Stacey Jay’s that I’ve read. I adored her retelling of Beauty and the Beast with Of Beast and Beauty and was so excited to see she was taking on Sleeping Beauty.I expected this to be a retelling but in actuality it was more of an expansion to Sleeping Beauty. The main character, Aurora, was Sleeping Beauty’s daughter. The story was the slightest bit confusing in the prologue and first chapter just because I was wrapping my mind around the world and players. Once the story got started I was hooked and wanted nothing more than to read this book (why must I do other things when all I want to do is read??).I absolutely love the girl disguised as a boy trope. I never get tired of this particular plot device and when it’s done right, which it is here, it’s so much fun to read. I loved the way Jay utilized it and made it work with her story beautifully. I felt that it was never obvious that Aurora was a girl dressed as a boy and was fully believable.The adventure side of this story was fast paced and kept me riveted. I loved the action scenes and could easily visualize the fighting scenes. There was a good amount of adventuring which felt pretty typical to the fantasy genre but of course the writing made it fun and never boring.Many aspects of Princess of Thorns have been done before- girl dressed as boy, curses, miscommunication and a kiss stealing the will of another person-regardless Jay was still able to give this book it’s own heart and mesh these together to create a story that I adored (even with my reading a ton of fantasy and seeing these things used often).Have I mentioned I enjoyed this book?It was such a pleasure to read and was perfect for what I needed right now. I wanted a fast paced, absorbing book that had heart and the sense of adventure. Jay gave me all of this plus a couple I could ship.The Characters: I loved, loved the characters in this book. Aurora was badass and perfect as the ‘boy’ Ror but also as the Princess out to avenge her family and save her brother. She was a true heroine ready to sacrifice to save others. I loved her struggle with the line between deception and truth and how much of herself to give. She was a well developed, likeable character that I immediately rooted for.Niklaas was such a great addition to Aurora/Ror’s quest. I adored their banter and felt their connection early on. I loved his witty dialog and cocky attitude. He was so much fun to read and felt incredibly fleshed out to me. I also appreciated that he wasn’t just a side character there to help Ror on her quest, he was on his own adventure with very high stakes.The villains of the story, the ogres, were wonderfully done as well. I loved that Jay gave them a mythology and appearance that stood them apart from other things I’ve read. They ate the souls of people and marked their bodies with symbols representing the souls they’d devoured. I loved this tidbit and would love to see more about them in a future book.Final Thoughts:Princess of Thorns was a wonderful expansion to Sleeping Beauty that kept me riveted to the page (or my phone in this case). I loved the characters and story and want more from this world (hoping for a novella or additional book).

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