Awaken (REVIEW)

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Awaken

Sleeping Beauty Retold

Author: Demelza Carlton
Category: Fairytale, Romance, Fantasy, Paranormal, Medieval, Historical Romance

Suitable for: 17+

My Rating: 3.5 Stars

Format Read for Review: Kindle

Pages: 204

Description: This is a Medieval Romance, a twist on a Fairy-Tale based on Sleeping Beauty. It features royal living, medieval tournaments, magic, conspiracy, and of course passion and romance. The story follows sleeping beauty, Princess Rosamond, who goes from being a carefree young lady to a woman on a mission when a magical curse changes her life and her kingdom forever. Read it to see how she gets her fairy tale Prince and happy ending.

In Short: This book has potential and I think there are many readers who would love it but for me it had some issues. If you like sweet medieval romances and fairy tales retold you should check this series out, as long as you don't mind some plot holes. Overall, I thought it was entertaining and I was completely sucked into the story and the characters until the end.

Pros: This is a cute story and overall the book was fun to read. I really enjoyed the beginning of the story it was action packed and exciting and drew me in right away. I was able to easily devour it in one sitting. There was some good depth to this book and the plot takes some surprising twists and turns. I enjoyed the Princess's powers. The way she could heal people and control plants was very interesting and well implemented. For the most part I actually really liked the protagonist's character. She is a princess and a spoiled one but also a very strong and admirable character. She consistently acts with arrogance and entitlement but she also manages to be a very sympathetic character who can be incredibly caring and she proves she is willing to sacrifice herself for others.    

Cons: There are some grammar and spelling errors that could be corrected with basic copyediting, it wasn't too distracting. There were some holes in this story and in the characters I'll try to describe them without spoilers. For example Rosamond claims she never wants to get married and then suddenly she wants to marry someone, and she's demanding sex and disrobing all willy-nilly. I could not suspend disbelief at the very unlikely sex scene. I didn't really care for the ending. I didn't think the coronations were fair as far as gender equality is concerned. The king received a grand reception and the queen - not so much. But maybe she created that situation for herself. And I didn't understand why the matter that needed to be taken care of as soon as she became queen was OK to put off for a year. I also still have no idea exactly who created the curse, who the target of it was, and why. Missed opportunity for a more powerful story because the ending was just too confusing. I also didn't like that there were so many mentions of how the Princess could barely eat anything. I thought it was borderline glamorizing eating disorders and wasn't a good influence to young ladies.   

Parent's Guide: Sex and innuendo (not very graphic).

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