Review: Princess of Thorns

Title: Princess of Thorns
Author: Stacey Jay
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Published: December 9th, 2014
How I Served It: Kindle eBook
How I Got It: Stalked it on goodreads for months, then bought

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.

Though she looks like a mere mortal, Princess Aurora is a fairy blessed with enhanced strength, bravery, and mercy yet cursed to destroy the free will of any male who kisses her. Disguised as a boy, she enlists the help of the handsome but also cursed Prince Niklaas to fight legions of evil and free her brother from the ogre queen who stole Aurora's throne ten years ago.

Will Aurora triumph over evil and reach her brother before it's too late? Can Aurora and Niklaas break the curses that will otherwise forever keep them from finding their one true love?" -- Goodreads

Review:
I loved this book.  Couldn't put it down from the minute I picked it up.  This is the book that forced me to learn how to master the Kindle app for my iPhone.  I've always loved girl-power books where the girls kick ass or dress up as guys to infiltrate an army.  This was like taking the Lioness (Tamora Pierce) books and amp-ing up all of the things I loved about them.  It's definitely not a book for everyone, and I really don't think it can/should be sold as a fairy-tale retelling, but I will recommend it to anyone who loves losing themselves in ink (or pixels, whatever floats your boat).

This is not a retelling of Sleeping Beauty or really any fairy tale. Yes, Aurora is the daughter of a woman presented as Sleeping Beauty, and Niklaas a twelfth son of a mad king, and there are hints of Rapunzel and a few other famous princesses, but this isn't a retelling as much as it is a new adventure that hints at familiar roots.  At the start of the novel Aurora has disguised herself as her brother Jor in an attempt to win an army to storm the palace of the ogre queen.  Aurora is the rightful queen but the ogres took control through murder and bloodshed and literal soul-sucking.  The ogres aim to invoke a prophecy that will doom the world but requires the blood of a fairy-blessed briar-born child... which as far as I can tell really just means Aurora or Jor.   Ogre Queen Ekeeta has kidnapped Jor (not knowing that it's Aurora who is fairy blessed), and it's the mission of the novel for Aurora to save her brother.  Hence the need for an army.


Niklaas's story is a lot simpler.  In order to escape his father's curse (which turns all male heirs into a swan on their 18th birthday) Niklaas needs to marry a princess in line for her own throne and take her name.  He agrees to help "Ror" (who he thinks is Jor) raise an army in exchange for an introduction for Aurora.  Thing is, in addition to hiding as her brother and initially despising Niklaas, one of Aurora's fairy blessings makes her unable to ever really marry anyone.  She is basically cursed with the power to break any man who kisses her (regardless of whether or not she wants to break him).  You can imagine where the story goes from there.  Love-hate, surprise reveals, gender equality, misunderstandings, rebellion, perfection...

The relationship development between Niklaas and Aurora was so well crafted.  I know a lot of people get squicky about relationships that start off with one party believing that the other was of a different gender, but Jay makes it work.  I think it's because she flips between their two POVs so often, you see Niklaas grow fond of 'Ror' (and then fall quickly for Aurora), and you see Aurora fall horribly in love with Niklaas, a boy she's trying actively to hate for his own sake.  Their interactions are fraught with lies and misunderstandings, it's awesome.  Literally all of the other characters know what's going on before they do, there's so much angst.

The political plot is kind of cool too.  I mean, for the most part the fact that Aurora is the rightful Queen is ignored and forgotten. Her main objective is to save Jor; taking back the kingdom was part two, maybe. Her lineage really only comes into play when she needs something from others (who happen to be her supporters) and at the end when she reclaims the kingdom.  To be honest, I'm not 100% sure if I would trust her to lead anyway, considering how that didn't seem to be her priority at all throughout.  Then again, it all worked out in the end!  So maybe there is hope for her yet. Plus her brother seems to have his wits together, as does her fairy mother, and Niklaas at least grew up in an actual castle. But it all doesn't really matter seeing as her being heir to the throne was totally the minor plot.  The real story was all about her and Niklaas and learning how to trust, and I was totally okay with that.

The Final Noodle: A short review but really, I liked this book so much and didn't want to ruin it for anyone.  The romance between Aurora and Niklaas didn't feel forced at all, but was so nice a fluid and had just enough angst to make it believable.  Plus there were swords and spears and Aurora used them both.  I love girl-power novels.  If you liked anything Tamora Pierce, or the His Fair Assassins books, you'll like this!