Princess of Thorns

by Stacey Jay

After ten years of exile among fairies who teach her to use her magically-enhanced strength and courage, Sleeping Beauty's daughter Aurora enlists the help of Niklaas, eleventh son of King Eldorio, in the fight to reclaim her throne.

• ISBN10: 038574322X
• ISBN13: 9780385743228
• Publish Date: 9 December 2014
• Publish Status: Remaindered
• Imprint: Delacorte Press
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

[lizarodz]

Quite the Novel Idea http://quitethenovelidea.com http://quitethenovelidea.com/liza-reviews-princess-thorns-stacey-jay/Hi there gorgeous readers!  I'm trying something new for me and writing bullet points for the things I liked and didn't like and an overall impression of the book for this review.  I'm trying to find a method that makes it easier for me to write the reviews (I tend to be very wordy) and for you to read them. Please let me know what you think in the comments!

• The character development was awesome!  Since Aurora pretends to be her brother Jor for most of the book the interaction between her and Niklaas is so raw.  They both have secrets, but overall they get to know  each other pretty well.


• Princess of Thorns is NOT a Sleeping Beauty re-telling, but rather a story that Aurora's children AND the story or Prince Niklaas who has been cursed, just like the the Brothers Grimm Six Swans.


• The world building is also amazing.  A world that has been taken over by ogres, where fairies live, where trees eat, where magic is prevalent... I loved it!


• Some - not all  - of the bad people, were not really all bad.  I found that the characters were complex.


• I enjoyed that the book was told from dual POVs and we also had a glimpse at the ogre queen's thoughts and planning.


• The romance was to die for *sigh* *swoon* I really liked that Niklaas and Aurora got to know each other first and then fell in love.  Their personalities were similar, selfless, full of secrets, stubborn, but they complemented each other at the end.

 

• That it wasn't longer?  The the prologue didn't last 100 more pages?  That is to say that I love this book to pieces!

 



I adored this book.  I have no idea why it took me so long to read it since I've had the audiobook for a while.  I love these characters, this world, this magic, and most of all the romance of it all.  One of my favorite fantasies for sure!

Did you like this review format?  Have you read Princess of Thorns?  How about another book by Stacey Jay?  

This review was originally posted on Quite the Novel Idea

[Silvara]

Check out my other reviews, discussions and link ups at Fantasy of the Silver Dragon.

I like when a girl pretending to be a boy is done well. This book does it well. In part because Aurora never actually means to pretend she's a boy with Niklaas. It happens by accident while she's still under the influence of the drugs the slavers gave her.

And when she's in her right mind again, she's afraid to tell Niklaas that she's not her brother. Partly because he's a big guy and she isn't sure if he won't try to capture her himself. And partly because she needs him to help her save her brother.

I like that there is no insta-love. They both fall for each other gradually, after becoming friends first. They deal with the issues of Aurora's deception, as well as Niklaas' stubbornness. And Niklaas had his own secrets, so it wasn't all on Aurora lying to him, he was basically doing it to her even if it was mostly by omission.

There was a lot of world building, without it ever being too much or too complicated. I also liked how Aurora and Niklaas picked on each other during their journey. It was funny and you could see just how well they got each other, and got along together.

There are 3 different POV characters in this: Aurora, Niklaas, and the Ogre Queen. It wasn't hard to follow who was the current POV, and I loved getting to see inside the heads of all of them. The Queen is the evil one, everyone knows it including herself. She has moments of doubt that her path is actually the right one, which makes for a really wonderfully rounded character.

If you haven't read this one yet, you need to do so.

This review was originally posted on Fantasy of the Silver Dragon

[cornerfolds]

In case you're new to the blog and don't know, I LOVE retellings! I haven't actually found one I completely hated because I feel like it's really hard to mess up a story that's already amazing. This take on Sleeping Beauty was one I was really excited to dive into. While Aurora was never my favorite princess, I was definitely excited to read this retelling! Unfortunately... it was weird.

First of all, this is not a Sleeping Beauty retelling. It's the story of Sleeping Beauty's daughter, who also happens to be named Aurora, for some reason. It seems like lazy planning to me, but whatever. In this story Aurora 1.0 was trapped by the evil queen (a troll here, instead of Maleficent) and forced to off herself in order to pass on her fairy magic to her daughter, Aurora 2.0, whose job it is to bring balance to the force (or something like that).

This.Book.Was.Weird. I wanted to love it so much! And I did love parts of it. Most notably, the romance between Aurora and Niklaas. I loved their relationship when he thought she was a boy and after! They were great! Unfortunately, all of the characters weren't great so that's really where the amazingness ends.

The evil Queen Ekeeta was ridiculous. Her sudden redemption was unbelievable and way too convenient and really took away all the greatness of her evil character. The book lost most of its credibility with that move. And that's not even the worst of it! Princess of Thorns makes the totally noble and amazing Prince Phillip out to be a completely disgusting pig. And I'm not okay with that.

The world building was okay, although I didn't feel like I got nearly enough fairytale elements for a fairytale retelling. The writing was good and tried really hard to be poetic, but that wasn't enough to save this really weird retelling that wasn't actually a retelling.

I feel like all this book did was recycle a character's name and use it to build a totally unrelated story, while calling it a retelling. Perhaps on its own this would be a good book, but trying to tie it into a preexisting story (and failing miserably) ruined it for me.

Actual Rating: 2.5 stars

[angelarenea9]

This review is posted on Reading with AngelaRenea

The Princess of all fairy tale retelling stories! This book was astounding from cover to cover! This is everything I want in a book! Excitement, action, romance -but not too much- bravery, flaws, loyalty! I absolutely love it! Did you love Arya in Game of Thrones? How about the Alana series? Fairy tales? Then you will love this book!

The main character is a young girl who disguises as her brother in order to rescue him - and her kingdom! She teams up with Niklaas, the eleventh son of a king to help her. Stacey Jay writes a beautiful romance for them that feels so natural you can't help but love it!

I will say, I was a little bit resistant to it at first because of how much I loved their relationship as friends! Every character was beautifully written, and the story never lets up! Each new adventure follows right behind the previous!

I particularly enjoyed that this was not a typical retelling story. This was about Princess Aurora's (Sleeping Beauty) children, although that took a moment for me to figure out because in this story Sleeping Beauty's name is actually Rose. Bit confusing, but once you get that down it's fascinating.

This is a stand alone book with no sequel, and although I am disappointed because I would love to keep reading about theses wonderful characters, I thing I am actually glad. So often anymore, we have authors pumping out trilogies, and 7 book series there are very few stand alone books in fantasy anymore (or at least that I can find!). I did notice while poking around Goodreads that Stacey Jay has written about 14 books to date and one of them is called Of Beast and Beauty so I think I know what I'm looking into next!

Basically I have nothing whatsoever to complain about for this amazing piece of literature and everyone ever should pick this book up! Do it yesterday because you need to read this book!

What is your favorite retelling story?

[reveriesociety_]

It's definite. I'll read anything Stacey Jay ever writes. Princess of Thorns is amazing and has a heart-warming romance that you would think might be fluffy, but I can only see honesty, and... *needs to get over it*

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

Princess of Thorns is an adventure-filled take on the life of Sleeping Beauty’s daughter after everything she has known is stolen from her—her home, her family, and her kingdom. The book takes readers on a wild journey across Aurora’s realm and introduces them to both magic and romance. However, the book also bravely takes a look at the darkness hidden in magic and fairy tales—and also inside of us.

As a teen fantasy novel, Princess of Thorns is wonderfully satisfying. If I had encountered it during my middle school years, it undoubtedly would have found a place among my most-loved books, probably right next to Tamora Pierce’s work, as both feature strong female protagonists, exciting quests, and hot romances. As an adult, I appreciate the strong pacing, writing, and character development.

The world-building is also well-planned, though it does take a little bit of time and patience to figure out how the world and its magic work. The scene is set somewhat ambiguously, but after all the background bits are done—the explanation of how Aurora got to where she is as a teen—the mechanisms of the world are fairly straightforward. And there are no info dumps. Jay gracefully weaves information about the kingdom and its various magical inhabitants into dialogue and thought.

Jay also successfully takes some fantasy stereotypes and turns them subtly, but strikingly, on their heads. Readers get a lot of familiar fare—a girl disguised as a boy, an overly macho love interest, a girl cursed to never fall in love—but none of these things either start or end exactly as one would expect. Readers may think they have general idea of where the whole plot, and various plot elements, are going, but the book always stops short of being predictable and throws in some twist and turns.

My one major disappointment: how Aurora breaks her curse. At the time of reading, I was pretty appalled. Aurora seems to make all the wrong choices in order to get what she wants. After further reflection, however, I understand that that is sort of the point. Magic is dark in this book and tends to work in unexpected ways, ways that no one has to comprehend or like. Aurora also reworks this moment as a learning opportunity and understands, if she had wanted, she could have done things differently. She gets what she wants—but the event is hardly unblemished.

Princess of Thorns is a beautifully strong fantasy novel, full of all things that fans of the genre love: complex characters, a richly developed setting, and a well-imagined set of magical rules and values. It has action, adventure, and romance—and just enough philosophical musing to get readers thinking about love, morality, and friendship. Highly recommended for fans of Tamora Pierce, Robin McKinley, or Gail Carson Levine.

Source: ARC from Netgalley