ASIN: B00CYM1916
Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books
Pages/File Size: 480pages/498KB
Formats Available: Paperback, E-Book
BLURB from Goodreads
For Briar Rose, life is anything but a fairy tale. She's stuck in a small town in deepest Georgia with parents who won't let her out of their sight, a bunch of small-minded, gossiping neighbours and an evil ex who's spreading nasty rumours about what she may or may not have done in the back of his car. She's tired of it all, so when, on her sixteenth birthday, her parents tell her that she is cursed and will go to sleep for a hundred years when the clock strikes midnight, she's actually kind of glad to leave it all behind. She says her goodbyes, lies down, and closes her eyes . . . And then she wakes up. Cold, alone and in the middle of the darkest, most twisted fairy tale she could ever have dreamed of. Now Briar must fight her way out of the story that has been created for her, but she can't do it alone. She never believed in handsome princes, but now she's met one her only chance is to put her life in his hands, or there will be no happy ever after and no waking up.
INITIAL THOUGHTS
Prior to starting the book I went through feeling a little worried as I loved Jana Oliver's Demon Trapper Series so much . . .will I like and enjoy this new book or will it pale in comparison?
After starting the book the story seemed to get curious and curiouser! I'm only seven chapters in but enjoying things so far.
I have to add that this book has great characters,Briar, Reena, and loving the caring guy Joshua too. He has to be Briar's Prince at the end of all of the craziness? There is just one thing negative I keep thinking, I'm slightly apprehensive as I seriously totally loved Jana Oliver's Demon Trappers series so much, will this be as good? Brilliant? or pale by comparison?"
MY REVIEW
I was lucky enough to receive a paperback finished copy of this book from Jana and her publishers Macmillan whom I love to bits as they are so great to work with as a blogger! The cover has a beautiful sleeping girl on the cover which is Briar Rose as she is the "sleeping beauty" in this tale. The font and its colour for the title are really bright and stand out as they are in a loud rosey pink colour. The byline above the title says "Once upon a dream". . . and that's what Briar Rose suffers at the beginning of the book from really realistic dreams and/or nightmares.
Would I pick this book up from a store shelf? Yes I would feel drawn to this cover and then once I saw the lovely Jana Oliver's name I would have to purchase it to read and learn more!
So the book is about two families and their feud. There's the Rose family who have a daughter Rose and the Quinns who have a son, Joshua the same age as Briar. Everything used to be okay and then a curse was put on the Quinns. The curse warped and attached itself to Joshua whilst his mum was pregnant. Then there was an incident when the children (Joshua & Briar) were playing and Joshua fell in the water. Briar instinctively jumped in after him and refused to let go of his hand. Joshua dies in the water, though was revived once taken out of the water, however the curse jumped from Joshua to Briar. The curse is that Briar will die on her sixteenth birthday. Briar and Joshua were kept apart ever since the incident of Joshua drowning as his mum was worried that Briar would some how pass the curse back to him. Joshua has always felt a connection to Briar and as they get older he develops to loving her. No one has told Briar about the curse and her mum and father don't tell her until the eve of her birthday. Her friend Reena and her great grandmother Lily practice Hoodoo and they try to change the curse. They manage to change it slightly but Briar is locked in a dream, that rapidly turns into more of a nightmare.
Reena and Joshua team up and manage to get into the dream to find Briar and help her sort out the curse. the also accidentally take the school jerk Pattison Daniel along with them. Will the three friends even find Briar in the dream and can they fight the curse and win?
I love the main characters, I like the fact that Briar will in my opinion appeal to all females. Briar is girly in that she loves fairy tales and wishes to meet her own Prince. then she's also kind of a tomboy when she takes part in the civil war re-enactment as her ancestor Elmer Rose.
To me this book had elements of other tales in it. to me of course it was mainly Sleeping Beauty with a little Wizard Of Oz - Return To Oz and a smidgen of Alice In Wonderland too.
It has metallic references within the book that give it a steampunk edge. It has love story happy elements yet also has darkness and twists in it too.
It is really well written, descriptive to the point you have the images in your head to "see". There's the whole Good Vs Evil going on throughout the book too. Will there be a happy ending? Who will find their Prince? Will they even want a Prince?
It's so much more than a re-telling of a fairy tale.
So did I enjoy the book? I truly loved reading this book. Would I recommend the book? Definitely, yes. Would I read another book about Briar Rose and her family? With how the book ends I feel this is probably a standalone boo. Having said that if ever there was a book two it would be going straight on my to read list! Would I read other books by Jana Oliver? I already have. I read her Demon Trappers Series and also loved that. Jana Oliver really writes characters for you to fall in love with and care about. I will also be on the lookout for more books by her too.
And I suppose I should ask myself the extra question I did as I going to read the book . . Did this book pale by comparison to the Demon Trappers? No,I loved it just as much, In one word I'd say Brilliant!
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