Slumber by Becky Bird

Posted July 29, 2019 by Robin in Book Review / 6 Comments

Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.


Slumber by Becky BirdSlumber by Becky Bird
on August 1, 2019
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 163
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
Goodreads
AmazonBarnes & Noble
One StarOne StarOne Star

Prince Thomas cannot take the throne without a queen. Though the problem isn’t his lack of suitors but his refusal to marry a princess that is less than perfect.

The cardinal presents him with an opportunity: a quest to find the most beautiful princess in the land who has been in slumber for a century. But, unbeknown to the prince, the cardinal plans to kill him as soon as the prince embarks on his quest, and take the throne for himself.

Luckily, Prince Thomas’s path crosses with Lucy, a spirited orphan runaway, who saves his life and convinces the prince to continue the quest. When they eventually find Princess Aurora, they also find another contender – Prince Philip – vying for the princess’s heart.

Despite their mutual disdain for each other, Lucy agrees to assist the prince, and Thomas accepts her help to keep him alive long enough to beat out his competition and return to rule his kingdom alongside his perfect bride.

They just don’t count on falling for each other in the process.

Fairytale re-telling’s or re-imaginings are totally my jam.  I’m always looking for another really good one. Slumber is Sleeping Beauty re-imagined if two princes were sent to wake Aurora at the same time and then needed to figure out who really is her true love.  The premise is super promising and a new take, so I was completely in.

Slumber is listed as YA but I think it is really more for Middle Grade.  The characters aren’t as complex as I’d like them to be and often felt only one or two dimensional.  There are some things that completely worked for me but then others that fell flat.

What is working in the story is Lucy an orphan and spirited young lady who doesn’t fit into the regular mold of what a girl is supposed to be.  She ends up saving Prince Thomas, nice change up by the way and decides for the good of the kingdom she will help him find the prefect looking sleeping princess so he can marry and claim the throne.  Lucy and her best friend, Jack, are the best characters in the story and I love the friendship between the two.

Prince Thomas is a spoiled brat who has never had to work for anything in his life.  He is arrogant, pompous and rude. The only value he places on women is how they look.  He is extremely hard to like in the story and yes eventually he gets better but it is frustrating.

There is also an evil wizard with a plan to kill Prince Thomas and take over the kingdom.  In some chapters I loved hating him and in others I thought that even he was really just a one-dimensional bad guy as well.

What I really wanted to work for me, but didn’t was the combo or Aurora, Prince Phillip and Prince Thomas.  I really was looking for more in this fight to prove who was her one true love. But Aurora herself is very difficult to like and is only interested in looking pretty and twirling.  Honestly, she was so vapid and boring with no other ‘skill’ than being beautiful that I didn’t understand why either Prince would want her after a five-minute conversation.

Also, the way the story is written the reader jumps in and out of the thought of the various characters.  There isn’t a lot of rhyme or reason as to when the jumps are going to happen, no obvious clues that we are switching from seeing Lucy’s thoughts and moving into Prince Thomas’s.  I think this book could have really used an editor’s eye to smooth out the layout of the story.

Still there is Lucy, and she is the bright and shining star of this book. She was the best fleshed out character and made all of the story for me.

Rating Breakdown
Plot
One StarOne StarOne Star
Writing
One StarOne StarHalf a Star
Characters
One StarOne StarOne Star
Dialogue
One StarOne StarOne Star
Overall: One StarOne StarOne Star
Robin
Please follow and like us:
Follow by Email
Instagram
Twitter
Visit Us
Follow Me
RSS

Posted July 29, 2019 by Robin in Book Review / 6 Comments


6 responses to “Slumber by Becky Bird