Book Review | Princess of Thorns | Stacey Jay

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay
Published by Delacorte on December 9, 2014
Genres: Fairy tales, Fantasy YA, Retelling, Young Adult
Pages: 400
Format: eARC
Source: the publisher via NetGalley
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four-half-stars

Game of Thrones meets the Grimm’s fairy tales in this twisted, fast-paced romantic fantasy-adventure about Sleeping Beauty’s daughter, a warrior princess who must fight to reclaim her throne.

Though she looks like a mere mortal, Princess Aurora is a fairy blessed with enhanced strength, bravery, and mercy yet cursed to destroy the free will of any male who kisses her. Disguised as a boy, she enlists the help of the handsome but also cursed Prince Niklaas to fight legions of evil and free her brother from the ogre queen who stole Aurora’s throne ten years ago.

Will Aurora triumph over evil and reach her brother before it’s too late? Can Aurora and Niklaas break the curses that will otherwise forever keep them from finding their one true love?

Umm, exsqueeze me: A story that picks up where the original fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty, left off, in a world where there are ogres and fairies and curses and a young girl fighting for her rightful throne? YES. PRINCESS OF THORNS by Stacey Jay was really enjoyable, with touches of magic, politics, fairy tales, and romance. ALL GOOD THINGS.

So PRINCESS OF THORNS is the story of Aurora, or Ror, the daughter of Sleeping Beauty. Her father is Prince Philip, the tried-and-true hero. Except, maybe not so much. (I’ll get to that.) In this world, ogres are soul-sucking demons who are trying to eliminate the human race. The Ogre Queen captured Ror, her brother Jor, and her mother when she was a child, but Sleeping Beauty managed to get her children to safety at the expense of her own life. Now, years later, after being raised by fairies, Ror must return to the Ogre Queen’s castle to rescue her younger brother before it’s too late to avoid the fulfillment of an ogre prophecy that predicts that the only person who can stop the ogres from being reunited with their dark mother is someone who sounds suspiciously like Aurora. Along the way she meets Prince Niklaas, himself cursed by a witch, who is looking for a way to break that curse so that he remains human after his 18th birthday. They journey together, with Aurora disguising herself as a boy, Ror, in the hopes of building an army to attack to Ogre Queen and save her brother from sure death.

The thing that stands out to me the most after reading PRINCESS OF THORNS, which I admittedly did several months ago, is Aurora. She is now carrying the gifts that the fairies bestowed upon her mother–bravery, mercy, and strength–and she uses them to her advantage in going in search of an army. You might think that her bravery in this story is mostly thanks to that gift, but I didn’t think so. She’s ballsy and confident and determined to save her brother. When she meets Niklaas, she finds out that he’s ventured far from his own home to find Aurora with the hopes of marrying her, so he agrees to accompany “Ror” so that they might free “Aurora” from the Ogre Queen. They get into scrapes and fights–with each other and with others–but I liked Aurora/Ror a lot. She’s smart and devoted and kind of reckless sometimes, but never with her heart. See, once she kisses someone, they become utterly, madly obsessed with her happiness, and she struggles with that every day. Especially as her feelings towards Niklaas grow.

Speaking of Niklaas, I LOVED HIM. He’s funny and charming and protective, but not overly so. His own demons revolve around a curse that his father placed on all his sons to turn into swans on the morning of their 18th birthdays so that they can never take the throne from him. Niklaas is the last one and, like Aurora/Ror, he has only a few weeks left to find a bride and break his own curse. I loved the way he interacted with Ror. Kind of brotherly like. He’s a little bit of a cad, but he’s also very dynamic and strong. The banter they have together is immensely enjoyable.

Ror and Niklaas are a likeable pair. They argue and bicker and laugh. They stick together when they don’t have to, and gradually develop a really strong connection, even though Niklaas thinks Ror is a boy for most of the book. But as their secrets gradually come unraveled and their connection becomes something else, I liked them EVEN MORE. I reread some parts a few times just so I could swoon again. YAY FOR SHIPS!

There were other things about PRINCESS OF THORNS that I liked, obviously. I was really intrigued by the ogres. Their magic was dangerous and their mythology and prophecies made everything more dire and urgent. Things like ogres of the same family being able to read each other’s minds was scary and awesome. And I liked the way Stacey Jay used the royal we when the chapters were from the Ogre Queen’s perspective. It took a little getting use to, but it certainly set her chapters apart and, in the end, made her a little more pathetic and pitiful, but like in a sad way, not an angry way.

Another thing that I liked and wished we got a little more of is the backstory between Aurora’s mother and Prince Philip. Understandably, this wasn’t possible because PRINCESS OF THORNS isn’t about those two, but the history we do get is very different from the fairy tale romance most people know: Philip is kind of a cold womanizer and Sleeping Beauty isn’t his first or only wife, and he’s eventually killed by the ogres after they take Sleeping Beauty, Aurora, and Jor captive. So THAT’S interesting, right? I’d read more about that business for sure.

Guys, I know that PRINCESS OF THORNS isn’t a series, and things wrap up nicely enough for a standalone, but I’m so curious about this world that Stacey Jay built and I’d love to read more. I haven’t read any other books of hers, but I’m going to now. Big fan of PRINCESS OF THORNS.