Review: A Wicked Thing by Rhiannon Thomas (COYER Challenge #10)

First thanks to Harper Teen and Edelweiss for allowing me to read an egalley of this.  I didn't realize till just now, but I downloaded this clear back in July!  I always try to wait till a month or less between the time I do a review and the book is published, but man, I could have read this sooner!  If you've been following my blog for very long, you know that lately I've been on a real big fairy tale retelling kick. And this book definitely hit that mark in a big way! 

It's a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story.  What if the kiss that brought her back to life had nothing to do with being her true love, and just was some kind of magic?  That's what this Aurora is dealing with. And she was the only one that went to sleep, so now all her family and every one she knew has been dead for a hundred or more years.  She is woken up by a kiss from a prince named Rodric.  He's nice enough, and handsome, but he doesn't really come across as the confident prince you'd imagine.  And Aurora doesn't know that she loves him. There is something about him that just doesn't send her over the moon with love at first sight.  The curse on her says that whoever wakes her will marry her and become the ruler of the country.  At the moment Rodric's father is the King.  His mother does not seem to be very friendly, and pretty much tells Aurora to just be quiet, and do what is asked of her.  Smile, be pretty and do as she's guided.  Aurora soon finds that the King is cruel, and her land has been in disarray in the years since she's been sleeping. 

As before she first pricked her finger and fell asleep, it seems she is to be kept as a sort of royal prisoner. Only in her rooms, not allowed to leave the castle to go out to see her beloved city and forest.  But she knows how to pick the lock on her door, and she sneaks out and meets a boy in the town named Tristan.  With no one knowing who she is at this bar, she is able to enjoy herself, and not feel like she must hold herself up to the palace's standards.  Within the the palace there are other princes around, including one Prince Finnegan from a town across the sea.  A kingdom that purports to have actual dragons.  Finnegan has his own proposition for Aurora, trying to convince her to come to his country and be his bride.  To align herself with his kingdom, and that would be the only way to change the rule of the current king.  Tristan is also one of the rebels in her own country and has his own ideas about how to change the kingdom.  And then there is even the evil witch, Celestine, who cursed Aurora in the first place, who wants Aurora to come with her.  You see there is something about Aurora that can help her, that can give her the magic back that she wants and needs.

Aurora must decide who she can trust.  Who truly has the best interests of her kingdom in mind, as well as who she can actually live with what they want from her.  She will find betrayal, and there is one point where I was so mad/sad about who died.  In the end, I'm not sure who the romance should be with.  None of the men in her life really live up to what she needs, or who I think she deserves.  As I ended and found that there will be a sequel, I was glad, because there is more to tell of this tale.  Will Sleeping Beauty actually end up with her Prince Charming, and who is he? And together will they bring her kingdom back to the happiness that she remembers from the days before she fell into her long sleep.

Such a different view of the story.  And thinking about all the princes who tried to kiss her to bring her awake, well her viewpoint on it was kind of an eye opener.  How much would that feel like people just kissing you, strangers, with no permission, with you not knowing.  Kind of reminded me of the sleeping beauty/Snow White stories in the Beau Rivage series by Sarah Cross a bit for that.

So now I'll just be waiting until  the 2nd book comes out, projected for 2016.  That's a long way away.

Giveaway: Romance is in the Air Blog Hop 2015

I think this is my 3rd or 4th year participating in this and it is one that I enjoy picking out my favorite romance books. I have set my own plan for February of reading romance type books in between the review books I have scheduled to read.  This is sponsored by Kathy at I Am a Reader.  This Hop features Young Adult and Clean Adult Romance only.  This year I'm picking 12 books that I think of romance when I think about them.  They are also books that I think are underappreciated and need some more love in some cases. All except one are YA, and the one that is not YA is a fun memoir about romance.  Whoever wins will choose one of the books, and this is open internationally as long as The Book Depository ships to your country.  Here are your choices of books:

 

(Forgive my funky spacing on the pictures, I had a lot of issues trying to get this post finished for some reason!)

So, now, fill out the rafflecopter, and then hop along to the other blogs in the linky below that for more chances at winning more great prizes!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review: Tear You Apart (Beau Rivage Series) by Sarah Cross (COYER Challenge #8)

First thanks to Netgalley and Egmont USA for allowing me to read an egalley of this.  And before I go on, I want to mention some upsetting news that I heard this week from another author, supposedly Egmont USA is going to be shut down.  This makes me very sad as they seem to publish so many books that I enjoy.  I hope that all the authors that will be losing out because of this get picked up by other publishing companies as soon as possible.  This author, Sarah Cross, is an author that I know I will be sad if there are no more books in the Beau Rivage series.  I loved the first book in the series, Kill Me Softly, which was kind of a retelling of a fairy tale I wasn't familiar with. But I was really intrigued by it, and even better it had all the more familiar fairy tales included. This second book, which is a sequel, but not really, tells the story of a Snow White fairy tale.  But a little different than normal.  We do get to see Blue and Mira from the first book, but they are pretty minor characters. 

Vivian is the girl with the Snow White curse.  Her on again, off again boyfriend/childhood friend Henley has the curse of the Huntsman in the Snow White story.  He is supposed to cut her heart out for her stepmother.  In this book Vivian gets a message from the boy who has the Prince Charming curse for her story.  She's never met him, but finds out that he lives in the Underworld.  When she meets him he seems like a really good guy, and he wants her to come live with him, where she will be protected from her stepmother and the huntsman from her curse.  The thing is, Vivian really is in love with Henley, and he seems to be really in love with her.  He promises, swears, that he could never kill her, never hurt her. But sometimes, usually when she's done something to make him mad/jealous, his anger is very violent and destructive.  It scares everyone around, including Vivian, who thinks that once the curse takes over him, he will not be able to keep himself from taking her heart.  So she goes and visits her Prince in the Underworld, but it seems everything there is not as wonderful as it seems.  The Prince, Jasper, has a father with some kind of curse that seems to scare everyone who works for him, as well as his own children.  Every night the Twelve Dancing princesses come down to dance with their princes, Jasper's brothers.  And Jasper has a sister, who has suffered at the hands of their father, so much that it has kept her from fulfilling her part of her curse.  When Vivian's stepmother Regina hires an old retired huntsman to get the job done, things take a turn for the worse.  Vivian escapes to the Underworld, not knowing if Henley has died from trying to save her, and soon she is trapped down there by the troll that is Jasper's father, and she must figure a way to get back and see if Henley is still alive.  The more she is around Jasper, the more she knows that she truly loved Henley, and she will do anything, give up her own life even, to be with him, and change the fate of her curse.

Again this is so reminiscent of the tv show Once Upon a Time, even down to the stepmother's name this time, Regina.  I love the way the fairy tales have been changed, and how they all turn out different even if they are the same curse, just because everyone is really different.  I loved the story, and was so glad to hear about some novellas that are available so that I can get back into this fairy tale world that Cross has so wonderfully created.