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Summary
Summary
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.
It's been ten years since Princess Aurora's mother, the Sleeping Beauty, sacrificed her life to give her daughter her magical powers. Aurora knows that magic is never free. The price for hers is that she will never know romantic love.
Prince Niklaas is living on borrowed time. Unless he is able to convince a princess to marry him before his eighteenth birthday, he will meet the same terrible fate as his ten older brothers.
When Niklaas and Aurora meet under unusual circumstances, they must race to prevent the fulfillment of an ogre prophecy foretelling the end of human life. But will they be able to break their curses?
"Compelling and action-packed . . . . The combination of adventure; lovable, complex characters; and a touch of romance make this a book that teens will be drawn to, especially those who appreciate strong female protagonists."-- School Library Journal
"The plotting is impeccable , the world building ample, and the resolution neatly done without feeling pat."-- Booklist
"The banter between rakish Niklaas and feisty Aurora is crackling with chemistry and wit ."-- The Bulletin
"We absolutely loved Stacey Jay's Princess of Thorns, a riveting retelling of 'Sleeping Beauty' that's full of action, drama and romance."--romantictimes.com
"Will appeal to fantasy lovers."-- VOYA
"Jay creates people with real flaws, but endows them with enough integrity to be characters to respect and want to know."--examiner.com
Praise for Juliet Immortal
"The bones of the classic Beauty and the Beast story are all here, imaginatively fleshed out with tropes from science fiction, fantasy, even political drama. . . . Will please readers who like to believe that fairy tales can come true, even under dire circumstances." -- The Bulletin , Recommended
Praise for Of Beast and Beauty
"The romance is intense, and so is the horror in this strong reversal of the Romeo and Juliet story. . . . Teens will enjoy the macabre fantasy story of forbidden love." -- Booklist
Author Notes
Stacey Jay has written several popular books for young adults. She lives with her family in California.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
A pair of cursed royals-Princess Aurora, facing death to fulfill an ancient prophecy, and Prince Niklaas, son of an immortal king whose descendants never reach age 18-rely on each other to survive in Jay's (Of Beast and Beauty) re-imagining of "Sleeping Beauty." Their partnership, however, is steeped in lies. Blessed with mercy, bravery, and preternatural strength, Aurora is masquerading a boy as her brother, Jor, in order to conceal her quest to save him from captivity by the Ogre Queen. Niklaas, meanwhile, feigns interest in wooing Aurora without revealing his own dire circumstances. Chapters are split between the two characters' perspectives, allowing them to reveal their motivations, fears, distrust, and growing affection for one another in distinct but equally stubborn voices. This dual narrative becomes even more effective when Niklaas is robbed of his free will, after which he conveys his single-minded pursuits with a flat, cold voice. In giving the two teens ample room to explore their emotional journeys, Jay's book maintains a languid pace, before picking up in the second half of the tale. Ages 14-up. Agent: Ginger Clark, Curtis Brown. (Dec.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Briar-born siblings Aurora and Jor have been in hiding for 10 years, ever since their mother, Sleeping Beauty, was assassinated by the Ogre Queen. But now Jor has been kidnapped, and the fairy-blessed Aurora must save him before his blood is spilled and the prophecy of living darkness comes true. She disguises herself as a boy, planning to hire an army that can rescue Jor, but instead becomes unlikely travel partners with Nikklaas, cursed to turn into a swan on his eighteenth birthday unless he can marry a princess. Jay has turned fairy-tale elements on their heads to create her own unique tale of adventure. Both Aurora and Nikklaas are complex characters whose backstories are released incrementally, creating romantic tension. The plotting is impeccable, the world building ample, and the resolution neatly done without feeling pat. An excellent choice for older fans of Donna Jo Napoli and Robin McKinley, this book is satisfying in its own right, but readers will be hoping for a sequel.--Moore, Melissa Copyright 2014 Booklist
School Library Journal Review
Gr 9 Up-At age seven, Aurora is confined with her mother and brother Jor in a miserable dungeon. Her mother sacrifices herself, gracing Aurora with fairy blessings, and the two children escape to the fey. Fast forward 10 years, and Aurora meets Niklaas, a blindingly handsome, conceited prince with a heart of gold, who mistakes Aurora for her brother. Niklaas plans to use this "brother" to find Aurora, since marriage to her will thwart his curse (turning into a swan on his 18th birthday). The plot is typical for girl-disguised-as-boy adventure, with the expected awkward moments as the girl keeps her femininity under wraps. Aurora is injured, Niklaas discovers the truth, and swordfights, bickering, and tickling ensue, as the two travel to the Feeding Hills to free Jor from the ogres. The plot has imagination, though the happily-ever-after ending sticks with tradition. Narrator Julia Whelan does an excellent job switching between narrators, primarily Aurora (a hint of Celtic lilt) and Niklaas (appropriately haughty). -VERDICT Whelan's narration adds zing, elevating this from strictly additional to suggested for libraries seeking middle-teen fantasy and romance.-Maggie Knapp, Trinity Valley School, Fort Worth, TX © Copyright 2014. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Kirkus Review
Exiled warrior-princess Aurora, the Sleeping Beauty's daughter, attempts to save her brother and reclaim her throne. Fairy-blessed by her dying mother with strength, 17-year-old Princess Aurora hopes to raise an army to free her brother, Jor, from evil ogre queen Ekeeta. Arrogant, crass and beautiful Prince Niklaas is cursed to become a swan on his 18th birthday unless he marries a princess. Disguised as a boy and calling herself Ror, Aurora is disgusted by Niklaas, but when he promises to help her find an army in exchange for an introduction to "his sister," Ror agrees. While their journey occurs over the span of several days, Aurora and Niklaas' very Lizzy and Darcy-esque relationship, as well as their growing bond, is entirely believable given the intensity of their experiences. When secrets are finally revealed, their sexual tension practically sizzles, but it's refreshingly realistic that trust and forgiveness take time. Furthermore, things aren't as straightforward as they'd seem, as Aurora's mother's blessing also came with a curse. The conclusion may come a bit too easy for some, and discerning readers may be left with multiple questions. Those able to overlook the incomplete worldbuilding will find the compelling, fully fleshed romance and gems of truth scattered throughout the story satisfying and worth the effort. (Fantasy. 14 up) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Excerpts
Excerpts
Chapter One Aurora Prophecy foretells that in the last days of the Long Summer, the Age of Reaping will dawn with the rise of the living darkness. The four kingdoms will dwell in shadow, and the souls of man feed the First One's hunger for a hundred years. And when the land lies barren, and not a single man remains upon it, the gates of the underworld shall open and all souls--human and ogre--descend to dwell in peace with the Lost Mother for all eternity. Only a human child, briar-born, can usher in the Final Age. And so such children must be collected and held captive until the coming of the Long Summer. Any citizen found to be sheltering or aiding in the escape of such a child will be sentenced to death. --ROYAL PROCLAMATION, 20TH OF SUNSWANE, 1458 "It's time, button," Mama whispers. Her voice is like lines of music--delicate bars that trap and hold me prisoner on the floor before her. I am so terrified that I can't move, but I love her too much to run, even if I could. Even if there were somewhere to run to, some way out of this cell where Mama and Jor and I have been brought to await our moment to die. The queen said Jor and I would be spared and allowed to live out our lives in the dungeon, but Mama doesn't believe her. Neither do I. Queen Ekeeta will finish with the nobles and judges and merchants loyal to my father, and then her guards will come for us. Before nightfall, she and the ogres who came in the black ships from across the Winter Ocean will magic the light from our eyes, drink our spirits down, and throw our soulless bodies into the sea. I have seen our fate. The sun was rising when the guards forced us along the wall walk five mornings past. I saw the waves crashing far below the keep. I saw the ladies in their fine dresses and the men in their shining armor washing in and out on the tide, their limp bodies knocking against the rocks like dolls some spoiled child had thrown away. I realized they were dead--all the human members of my father's inner circle, every one dead and gone--and I screamed. I screamed and thrashed and kicked until the guard pulling me along had to pick me up and tuck me under his long arm to carry me to the dungeon. I fought for my freedom, but I was too small. Too weak. I am only seven years old. I will never be more than seven years old. "As soon as it's over, take Jor and go down the waste chute," Mama says. The waste chute? I look up, lips parting, but Mama pushes on before I can protest. "There is no other way. It will be tight, but you will fit, little button." Mama smoothes my hair from my face with her soft hands. We've been in the dark with the biting beetles, the filth of the prisoners who slept here before us, and the sour water leaking down the walls for five days, but her hands still smell like spring blossoms. Mama always smells like flowers. Daddy says it's because she is as beautiful as a flower, the most beautiful woman in the world. The fairies made her the most beautiful when she was only a baby. Mama wouldn't let the fairies bless me when I was born--she said it was too dangerous, that fairy blessings, no matter how well intended, too often become curses--but she's going to bless me today. She's going to give me the fairy magic hiding inside her. Time is running out, and there is nothing left to lose. "Are you ready, Aurora?" Mama cups my cheek. "Will it hurt?" I try not to cry, but fail. Hot tears spill down my cheeks, and my body shakes hard enough to wake Jor, who has fallen asleep with his head in my lap. "Ror," he mumbles. He pats my face with one pudgy hand. He turned four last month but still has a baby's hands. I love his baby hands. I love my little brother. I can't imagine a world without him. But we are both briar-born--children birthed within the circle of enchanted fairy briars--and Mama says the queen will kill us if we don't escape. Even if Mama is wrong, and the queen sincere in her promise to hold Jor and me captive until the long summer of the ogre prophecy, a life lived in a cell is worse than no life at all. I am Jor's only hope, which makes me even more afraid. "Don't cry, Ror." Jor sounds near tears himself as I settle him on the floor beside me and tuck his blanket beneath his cheek. "It's all right, biddle bee. Go back to sleep." I sniff away my tears and rub his tummy until his eyes drift closed, trying to be brave the way Mama wants me to be. But I'm not brave. I am so frightened that frightened is too small a word to describe the feeling crushing my heart to liquid inside my chest. I need a bigger word, a word with fangs and blood dripping from its chin, but I haven't learned a word like that yet, and now I never will. I will die tonight. I know it. I can't do what Mama asks. I'm too little, so small people often mistake Jor and me for twins when we go to visit the castle with Father. I will never be a hero, not even with the help of fairy magic. "There is no more time, love. Be my brave, strong girl." Mama plucks the long knife from the floor. "I know you will make me proud." One of the prison guards smuggled the knife in with our breakfast this morning. He is loyal to Ekeeta but can't bear to see two innocent children killed. Mama believes we can trust him to take Jor and me to the fairies, and that the Fey will protect us until it is safe to return to Norvere. "I love you both so much," Mama says, her voice breaking as she begins to cry. "Tell Jor how much. He's so little he might forget. You must help him remember." I've heard Mama cry before--when Daddy would leave our estate with bags full of gifts, bound for some secret destination in the east--but I've never heard her sound this sad. Despite everything she's told me, and the hours spent discussing her plan, it is only now that I realize she truly intends to do it, to take herself away from us. Forever. I clutch her soiled skirt in my hands. "Mama, no, I--" "You and your brother are the brightest lights I've ever known," she says, trembling as hard as I was a moment ago. "You will shine for this kingdom. You will grow up strong and brave and clever and kind, and you will make everything right. I know it." She pulls in a desperate breath. "And I will always be with you in your heart, button. Always." "Mama, don't! Please!" I throw my arms around her waist, press my face to her chest, and hug her tight, but Mama doesn't hug me back. She tenses and her body jerks. Moments later, I feel it--something hot and wet rushing over my forehead, sticking my hair to my skin, running down my cheeks. Even before I wipe my face and bring red away on my fingers, I know what it is. Blood. Mama's blood. Because fairy magic will only leave a body in blood, when a human chooses death in order to pass the power to another. Mama is dead. I am alone. Alone! I open my mouth to scream for Mama to come back, to beg for help, but before words can escape something flickers within the hollows of my bones and a transformation begins deep inside me. Deeper than blood or sinew, deeper than this dungeon, deeper than the sea crashing against the rocks below the keep or the world the ogres believe exists beneath ours. A place so secret and deep I had no idea it was there until the light of Mother's magic fell into the darkness and lit me up. But now it has, and I know I am more than a frightened little girl; I am a briar-born child, beloved by the Fey. I am a daughter and a sister and a princess, and as fierce and strong as I choose to be. And I choose to be strong. I choose to fight, even if I am small and alone. I choose to be the hero my mother wanted me to be. Without a sound, I ease Mother's body back onto the stones and hurry to the pallet we've shared since the morning we were brought to the dungeon. I use our thin covers to clean my face and hair as best I can, then lay the blanket gently over Mama, refusing to look too closely. I will not remember her as a corpse. I will remember her smile and the way her eyes danced when she built castles of pillows for Jor and me on days when it was too cold to go outside. I will remember her stories and songs and the way she never let a day go by without whispering "I love you" in my ear. I will remember the flower smell of her clothes when she hugged me tight and her laughter when we would sneak out to dance in the rain without Jor, because rain dancing was our secret, just between Mama and me. I will remember her, and I will avenge her. "Goodbye, Mama," I whisper, ignoring the stinging in my nose. There will be time to cry later, when Jor and I are safe. Being careful not to wake him, I scoop my brother into my arms and carry him to the dungeon's waste chute. He is tall for four and I am short for seven, but it's easier than I thought it would be to hold him to my chest as I shuffle across the stones. I'm glad. It will be better if Jor doesn't see Mama again, and if he doesn't realize he's falling until he's halfway to the bottom. The waste chute empties onto a street outside the castle walls. The kind guard promised to have a cart of straw waiting there to break our fall, but even if he's changed his mind about helping us, there's a chance we'll survive the thirty-hand drop to the stone road, a better chance than we'll have if we stay here to await the coming of the ogre priest. I saw Illestros yesterday, his long white robe dragging along the filth-caked floor as he came to fetch Father's spymaster from the cell next to our own. He is even taller than the other ogres, with dozens of tiny coin-shaped tattoos marking his large bald head. Queen Ekeeta wears a wig to cover her hairless skull and looks nearly human--though taller than a mortal, with larger eyes and mandrill fingers Mama said are leftover from a time when the ogres consumed more than human spirits, when they would pry between our bones for each tender piece of meat--but the priest makes no effort to hide what he is. He flaunts the tattoos that show how many souls he's captured inside of him; he bares his pointed teeth when he smiles. He is a wolf, and Jor and I are rabbits he means to devour, but he will not have us. Ignoring the putrid smell, I ease Jor into the waste chute and give him a push. He wakes as he falls and begins to scream, but I am already climbing into the chute, muffling his cry with my body, keeping it from the ears of the guard at the top of the stairs. The longer our departure goes unnoticed, the better the chance we'll reach the woods where the fairies will be waiting. I count to ten--knowing I must give Jor time to land and hopefully be pulled out of the way--and then I flatten my body, lift my arms, and slide down the chute. My spine knocks painfully along the slimy stones for a few moments, but after a fall of a dozen hands, the narrow passage joins a larger tunnel where rushing waste water carries me along more gently, gaining speed as the channel dips sharply toward the ground. Less than two minutes later, I am born into my new life in a rush of filth and wet. I land with a grunt in the sodden, stinking hay of a farmer's cart and turn to look for Jor. I find him clinging to the neck of the guard with the dark eyes and the single brow scribbled across his broad forehead. When he sees me, the guard's breath rushes out, his eyes widening as he takes in my bloodied hair and face. "She's dead, then? Lady Rose?" I nod, and he hugs Jor tight before whispering, "The gods rest her beautiful soul." "She didn't believe in the gods." I brush the hay from my dress. "She believed in good people. She told me to tell you thank you with all her heart," I finish in a voice I scarcely recognize. I sound like a grown-up. A girl who will become a queen. I will be queen. Father is dead, and he had no children with his first wife. He named me his first heir and Jor his second. I will go to the fairies now, but one day I will return with an army and reclaim my kingdom from those who have stolen it, and I will start gathering my allies now. I come to my feet in the cart, putting myself at eye level with our savior. "When I am queen, I will grant you forgiveness for pledging yourself into Ekeeta's service, and land of your own, if you're still alive to work it." The guard nods, but I see the pity in his expression. When he looks at me, he sees a helpless little girl. He doesn't know that I have Mama's magic inside me. He doesn't know that I will never stop fighting to avenge her, not so long as there is breath in my body. "Come, Princess. My horse is tied in the alley. You and your brother will both fit on the saddle in front." He shifts Jor to one arm and reaches for me with the other. "Think you can hold the little man tight as we go?" "I can." Ignoring his hand, I vault over the edge of the cart, landing lightly on the stones, my bones vibrating pleasantly from the impact. I feel as if I could leap the entire road, run for miles. As if I could lift the heavy sword hanging from the guard's belt over my head, storm the castle, and knock every ogre inside it into the sea. I've never felt so strong or fearless or full of life. Excerpted from Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.