Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay
- Pub. Date:December 9, 2014
- Publisher: Delacorte Press
- Pages: 400
- Rating:3.5/5
- Goodreads/Amazon/Book Depository
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?
First Line:"Having discovered the secret to eternal life, and jealous of his throne, the immortal king summoned a witch to the castle and ordered her to curse his eleven sons, ensuring none would live past their eighteenth birthday, the age at which Kanvasol prince may become king."
Review:Okay so I didn't really get into the book until about the thirty percent mark, up until then the story dragged for me I even found myself almost falling asleep a couple of times. So needless to say I felt it was quite slow paced in the beginning but luckily things picked up.
My biggest problem was I didn't feel any connection to Aurora or Niklaas not until about midway into the book when the relationship between them grew from strangers into friends in which I finally felt something for them and started to care about what happened to them.
Both Aurora and Niklass are cursed. Aurora is Sleeping Beauty's daughter, who lets just say doesn't have the Disney happily ever after ending in this book, instead Sleeping Beauty had to kill herself to bless her daughter with a fairy gift and since Sleeping Beauty's prince wasn't charming after all but instead a cheater and just a downright crap of a husband she wanted to make sure her daughter would never suffer the same fate she did so she blessed Aurora with a heart no man would defy along with mercy and warrior like skills. Anyways thanks to that first blessing any guy who truly loves her and kisses her ends up becoming a mindless being of sorts only there to please her and nothing else almost like a shell of a human. So love is a bit of a challenge for Aurora for that reason alone. As for Niklaas' his curse causes him to become pretty desperate and I would be to if I knew I would be turning into a swan on my eighteenth birthday because my evil father doesn't want anyone to take over the crown, so yes he is in a rush to find Princess Aurora and marry her so he can end his curse.
My favorite part was the friendship that developed between Niklaas and Ror who Niklaas thought was Princess Aurora's brother the whole time on their journey when in reality the Princess he was so desperate to marry was right under his nose the entire time and who had no intentions to wed him whatsoever. I really found myself anticipating when he would finally find out who Ror really is and what his reaction would be and what would happen between the two after that.
There was a good amount of adventure and fighting which showed off how kickass of a fighter Aurora was and I found Niklaas' reaction funny every time he saw Ror fight and didn't understand how a "boy" so tiny in stature could fight the way he did. My only issue was for a fantasy book there wasn't much world building and even though the characters grew on me they were still forgettable. Then my least favorite of all there was quite a bit of info dumping. Also the ending, it felt rushed I would have rather read an extra fifty pages or so instead of everything wrapping up so quickly.
Overall it was still enjoyable, the banter between Niklaas and Aurora "Ror" is what kept me reading and moving forward with the book.
Memorable Quotes
Review:Okay so I didn't really get into the book until about the thirty percent mark, up until then the story dragged for me I even found myself almost falling asleep a couple of times. So needless to say I felt it was quite slow paced in the beginning but luckily things picked up.
My biggest problem was I didn't feel any connection to Aurora or Niklaas not until about midway into the book when the relationship between them grew from strangers into friends in which I finally felt something for them and started to care about what happened to them.
Both Aurora and Niklass are cursed. Aurora is Sleeping Beauty's daughter, who lets just say doesn't have the Disney happily ever after ending in this book, instead Sleeping Beauty had to kill herself to bless her daughter with a fairy gift and since Sleeping Beauty's prince wasn't charming after all but instead a cheater and just a downright crap of a husband she wanted to make sure her daughter would never suffer the same fate she did so she blessed Aurora with a heart no man would defy along with mercy and warrior like skills. Anyways thanks to that first blessing any guy who truly loves her and kisses her ends up becoming a mindless being of sorts only there to please her and nothing else almost like a shell of a human. So love is a bit of a challenge for Aurora for that reason alone. As for Niklaas' his curse causes him to become pretty desperate and I would be to if I knew I would be turning into a swan on my eighteenth birthday because my evil father doesn't want anyone to take over the crown, so yes he is in a rush to find Princess Aurora and marry her so he can end his curse.
My favorite part was the friendship that developed between Niklaas and Ror who Niklaas thought was Princess Aurora's brother the whole time on their journey when in reality the Princess he was so desperate to marry was right under his nose the entire time and who had no intentions to wed him whatsoever. I really found myself anticipating when he would finally find out who Ror really is and what his reaction would be and what would happen between the two after that.
There was a good amount of adventure and fighting which showed off how kickass of a fighter Aurora was and I found Niklaas' reaction funny every time he saw Ror fight and didn't understand how a "boy" so tiny in stature could fight the way he did. My only issue was for a fantasy book there wasn't much world building and even though the characters grew on me they were still forgettable. Then my least favorite of all there was quite a bit of info dumping. Also the ending, it felt rushed I would have rather read an extra fifty pages or so instead of everything wrapping up so quickly.
Overall it was still enjoyable, the banter between Niklaas and Aurora "Ror" is what kept me reading and moving forward with the book.
Memorable Quotes
~ "You're like a parrot. A lazy parrot, who would only be trained with a single, stupid phrase."-Ror
~"But that's what searching for love is like. You keep pushing on, breaking and being broken, until you find the person you want to hold safe, the only one who knows how to keep you in one piece." -Niklaas
