“I can’t see my reflection. Not here in the window, nor in any of the mirrors throughout the castle… Sometimes I dream I am standing over myself, and it is as though I am looking down on a statue. I imagine my skin hardening to white stone that will crack and chip away over time, my eyelids never to open. The garden vines climb all around me, suffocating me until I disappear into them, never to return.”
Trapped in a cursed sleep, the only experiences Princess Eglantine has are the ones in her dreams. There she meets Prince Henry of Fallund, a neighboring kingdom on the brink of war.
Meanwhile, Prince Henry’s brother Duncan discovers a vicious beast imprisoned for murder. Captivated by her, he works to free her from both the prison bars she’s locked behind and the ones surrounding her heart and mind.
Title: Sleeping Beauty and the Beast
Author: Melissa Lemon
Publisher: CreateSpace
Release Date: June 20, 2014
ISBN: 978-1499788808
Formats: 300 pages, 6×9, softcover; e-book
Genre: Young Adult Fairy Tale
I love to read rewritten and twisted fairy tales, so I was excited to get a copy of this book and see what the author did to combine Sleeping Beauty with Beauty and the Beast. The story involves two brothers who are princes in one kingdom, a cursed, sleeping princess in a neighboring kingdom, and a girl turned “beast” by the barbaric nature of yet another group of people. I liked how the two stories were woven and tied together. Really, only the main basic idea of each original fairy tale was incorporated in this story, so it didn’t feel like too much of just a repeat. I thought all the characters were well done and liked the alternating perspectives. Overall, I really enjoyed it!