Slumber

I received an arc of this book in exchange for an honest opinion. I'll start with that I liked Lucy was not your stereotypical girl in these kinds of stories. She didn't want to wear dresses, knew how to use a sword and bow and arrow and didn't do what was expected of a commoner woman during the time period. Lucy is an orphan who is almost 18 and doesn't want what is expected of her to marry some guy so she decides to run away and her best friend Jack ends up following her and going with her on her adventure. I liked that the author made Jack someone who couldn't do what we would call typically guy traits and made him unique in his characteristics. Prince Thomas is shallow and spoiled when he first meets Lucy and when she saves his life. Throughout the story Prince Thomas gradually changes into a halfway decent guy. The author did a great job building the characters and setting the story. One issue I had was how the author made Aurora. I felt she was a little too shallow. I also thought most of the characters felt younger than their ages. I thought they seemed more like they were 13-15 at times instead of 16-18 years old. I think this might be a first book for this author and if that's true she's off to a strong start. I don't read too many YA books anymore, but this is a good read for those who do like young adult stories.

**Disclaimer: I was given a free e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley.**

Title Slumber

Author Becky Bird

Description

YA retelling of classic fairytale Sleeping Beauty. On his quest to find Sleeping Beauty, a shallow prince must rely on a tomboy orphan for his survival after the cardinal spells his guards to kill him.Prince Thomas cannot take the throne without a queen. Though the problem isn’t his lack of suitors but his refusal to marry a princess that is less than perfect. The cardinal presents him with an opportunity: a quest to find the most beautiful princess in the land who has been in slumber for a century. But, unbeknown to the prince, the cardinal plans to kill him as soon as the prince embarks on his quest, and take the throne for himself. Luckily, Prince Thomas’s path crosses with Lucy, a spirited orphan runaway, who saves his life and convinces the prince to continue the quest. When they eventually find Princess Aurora, they also find another contender – Prince Philip – vying for the princess’s heart. Despite their mutual disdain for each other, Lucy agrees to assist the prince, and Thomas accepts her help to keep him alive long enough to beat out his competition and return to rule his kingdom alongside his perfect bride. They just don’t count on falling for each other in the process.

Initial Thoughts

I love retellings. I feel like you know that already, but, I wanted to make sure I stated the obvious. I love retellings because I love to see a story that I am already familiar with through another person’s perspective. How did Becky Bird think of Sleeping Beauty? I was super excited to have been chosen on NetGalley for this book.

Favorite Character

I LOVE LUCY. I adored Lucy’s character. She was a total tomboy with a no-nonsense attitude. She reminds me so much of myself and I loved her for it. I thought she was a perfect balance of angry, know-it-all and wise advice-giver. I also respect the fact that she hates dresses and would rather be out hunting and fighting than dancing or putting on make-up. I get that. I so get that. I applaud the use of a strong female warrior character in this setting.

Some Things I Liked

I really enjoyed the fact that this was an unconventional retelling. Instead of being from Sleeping Beauty’s perspective, it was from one of the princes fighting for her attention. Furthermore, I loved the ending. It was both expected and surprising. I love how it all played out.
It was a smidge corny — but I liked that! There were scenes that were almost too much. Almost too predictable, but I thought that was a cute touch.
Just the right amount of romance. It wasn’t over the top but it was definitely present.
The Duchess of Fenway — I just really liked that name. As a Red Sox fan, I thought that was a fun nod to my team (even though I’m pretty sure that was not the author’s intention).

Something I Wasn’t Crazy About

Jack’s storyline. I felt that it was somewhat incomplete. I’d like to see a spin-off or sequel featuring his happily ever after.
Final Thoughts

This book was a super fast read for me. Started last night and finished this afternoon. This was a super cute story and I hope to see more like this from debut author, Becky Bird.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Release Date July 10, 2019

Recommendations for Further Reading

Cruel Beauty by Rosamund Hodge – Set in the same universe as Gilded Ashes, (which is also another awesome retelling), this story is a mythological spin on Beauty and the Beast. If you enjoyed the fairytale retelling aspect of this book, give Rosamund Hodge’s works a try.
Veiled Allurement by Elle Beaumont – this is another creative twist on Cinderella as it incorporates fictional mythology into the storyline. Elle Beaumont also has a trilogy of novellas out that are a spin on the story of the Big Bad Wolf (which is not to be missed).
A Curse of Thorns by Nicole Mainardi – this is another awesome Beauty and the Beast retelling with a twist. The setting in this book is amazing and is going to make an amazing backdrop to what I hope will be many sequels.

“True love could change a person for the better. The prince he had met a week ago was a selfish, unsure and conceited brat who was ready to quit at the first sign of defeat. “

Yes I think this quote sums up this story and Prince Thomas very well. The Prince we initially meet is spoilt, picky and pretty odious. Yes he's young but honestly he's written as someone you would like to throw something at and that's exactly what happens. Lucy is an orphan who really doesn't fit in as she's not modest or demure but quite the tomboy in many ways. She didn't mean to throw an apple at the Prince well at least not the first time but honestly who could blame her ? The pair are at complete loggerheads from the start but Lucy is about to spend a lot of time with his royal jerkiness and it's a journey that doesn't quite follow the usual fairy tale or does it ?
A quick retelling of Sleeping Beauty that turns the original story on its head. It's easy to like Lucy with her quirky friend Jack. It's less easy to like Thomas and also ironically Aurora. There's danger, magic and lots of humour. Perhaps at times if I'm brutal the dialogue was too contemporary for a fantasy book but I forgive that as this story did make me smile. A difficult one to rate though so for this reader a three and a half

Slumber is a Sleeping Beauty retelling that isn’t really about Aurora, Sleeping Beauty, at all! Oh, she is there and a kiss happens and she awakens, but this story is about what happens when we look beyond what we think we are supposed to want.

This book is short and a quick read and is the exact book you should pick up if you want a fun fairy tale with some girl power, magic, and true love. This book isn’t meant to be, in my opinion, a great life changing work of literature and that is more than ok because sometimes readers just want a good book that will help them escape the world for a little while. The characters sometimes think and speak in a language too modern for their time, but just right for the reader. There is no way to write about true love’s first kiss without being a little bit cheesy. But, Becky Bird does so in a way that is self-aware and one way that shows is in some of the characters who border on caricature, but have enough moments of personality to avoid it.

Read this book and enjoy it for an immensely good time that will have you smiling and remind you of the joy we had as children with fairy tales but in a slightly more grown up way!

Thank you NetGalley for an early copy of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

This is a wonderful fairytale retelling of Sleeping Beauty. I found this to be a quick read and I just fell into this fairytale world. love retellings and this is a Sleeping beauty retelling. It is a different retelling as it is from the perspective of a different prince trying to get to Aurora while Prince Phillip is also trying to get to her. Phillip and Aurora are side characters as the story mainly focuses on Lucy and Thomas.
Lucy is such a great character! She is strong, independent and hates dresses. She can use a bow and arrow and is such a badass. I really enjoyed her story and I felt connected to her as she reminded me a little of myself. Then we have Thomas who is an arrogant Prince sent out to marry a Princess before he becomes King. I enjoyed his story and how he developed.
I loved all the fairytale elements in the story, I enjoyed the evil Cardinal and I found him to be a little creepy. I enjoyed the ending.
The only thing I would say against this is that it is a little predictable. I would have also liked to know what happened to Jack after the story.

A cute enough retelling of Sleeping Beauty. Lucy is a fun lead character- not your typical teen female who bats her eyes at good looking guys. Lots of moxie! I like that this is a pretty tame book that I can suggest to younger tweens/teens and those who don’t want a lot of “trash” in what they read. Not many like it! Write more!

Again a fairytale retelling just means I have to snap it up.
Loved it! Sleeping beauty retellings are my least favourite type of tale but I liked the twist in this one. Spoilt prince needs the help of a sassy orphan in order to get the girl but in actuality ends up falling for her instead.
Enjoyed it :)
Bring on more retellings :p

This will be a spoiler free review and thank you NetGalley for providing a free copy for review!

I’ll be honest, I mainly downloaded this book as a quick read to help boost my NetGalley Reviewer Rating. The synopsis sounded cute and I figured that it would be a fun read that I could read quickly.

Well, it’s been sitting on my Kindle for about a month now, but I did happen to just read it in a matter of hours. I enjoyed this book way more than I thought I would, especially when I started it. It’s been so long (or at least it feels like it’s been so long) since I’ve been able to read a book and really just enjoy it. I was anxiously trying to anticipate what was going to potentially happen next. My heart was never racing, trying to leave my chest. It was just this kind of heartwarming, ridiculously fun, take on Sleeping Beauty. The feel of the story reminded me of the movie version of Ella Enchanted. It doesn’t take itself too seriously.

Everything I’ve read lately has been a pretty fantastic read, but they’ve required a lot of brain power, mental gymnastics and all my emotions. Slumber was kind of the opposite in the best way possible. It’s just a book you can sit down and enjoy and not go through an emotional gauntlet with the characters.

As for the characters, they were pretty fun! Prince Thomas is the one who goes through so major character growth, Lucy is your typical badass YA fantasy heroine, and doesn’t conform with the stereotypical norms for women. Her friend Jack was the comedic relief and mediator and just a fun and bit of annoying character. Aurora and Phillip – well, you’ll just have to meet them.

This book definitely takes the classic Sleeping Beauty (at least the Disney version) and kind of flips it on its head. There’s also this sort of meta element to this book, which weirdly worked. It’s not super prevalent, but some of the characters hint at things.

OH! This is also an ‘enemies to lovers’ sort of story, and in my opinion, it was pretty well done. You can tell that even when they (vague for spoiler-y reasons!) are going at each other’s throats, that there’s chemistry beneath it all.

Overall, I really did enjoy this book! When I started my review, I was going to rate it a solid 3, but I have to bump it up. The more I think about it, the more I genuinely enjoyed this book and everything about it!


*Review will be posted to my blog on September 12, 2019 at 8AM EST

*Disclaimer: I received a free e-ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley.*

Slumber by Becky Bird
4/5 Rating
Cover: Astoundingly eye catching!

If Disney ever decided to change up how Prince Phillip won the hand of Sleeping Beauty THIS would be it. I can literally see this being played out by Disney Pixar characters. Mind you, this isn't really about them.. this is about Prince Thomas and Lucy. The arrogant and conceited Prince and the tomboy orphan who are thrust together on a venture to wake the sleeping princess so Thomas can be King. It just so happens that Prince Phillip is also on his way to wake her.

I adore a good re-telling. By the end of this book I was grinning at the witty banter and loving how this tied into the original Sleeping Beauty fairy tale we all know. The book is full of empowering themes:

- Being more than what you think you are, you just have to desire to be more.
- Not conforming to the stereotypes of gender roles.
- Beauty is more than skin deep.

... among many others. I also need to take a moment to say that I frickin' LOVE Jack. Jack is the sidekick to Lucy. I consider him the metro-male of the group and the adorable PG comedic card.

I did struggle a slight bit to get into the beginning of this book. The author emphasizes Lucy's lack of adherence to being defined by her gender/appearance. Though I love a good empowered, nonconforming and sarcastic heroine; this one message was overused during the first few chapters. I feel Lucy's ability to be more than just a female with looks elegantly blossomed through the remainder of the story when it wasn't outright stated. My only other distraction occurred when the story changed scenes abruptly. One second we are in the thought process of Lucy or Thomas and the next paragraph we are looking through the eyes of the evil cardinal. It doesn't completely pull from the story though.

Overall, this book was a 4 for me. It's a tame and unique spin that has all of the best parts of a fairy tale we love: evil sorcerer, true love's kiss, prince and princesses, adorable sidekicks and the possibility for happily ever afters (maybe).