Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay [ARC REVIEW]

TITLE: Princess of Thorns
AUTHOR: Stacey Jay
PUBLISHER: Random House Children's
PUB DATE: Dec 9 2014

Game of Thrones meets Grimm in a twisted continuation of the Sleeping Beauty's daughter, a warrior princess, who must fight to reclaim her throne in a politically fraught fantasy world.

Known for reimagining traditional fairy tales, Stacey Jay delivers a fast paced romantic fantasy adventure twisted in a feminist direction, featuring the fairy blessed warrior princess Aurora, the Sleeping Beauty's daughter, who doesn't take life lying down.

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

In spite of being uncertain of who to trust, Aurora grows close to Prince Niklaas during their arduous quest. Still nothing will stop her from reclaiming the crown that is rightfully hers and gaining control over her future. Will they triumph over evil and reach her brother whose days are numbered? Can Aurora and Niklaas break the curses that will forever keep them from finding their one true love?

- Source: NetGalley

Rating:

---

“Last night was what love is supposed to feel like, terrifying and beautiful and so close you're afraid you'll lose a piece of yourself, but you don't. You gain a piece of the person you love instead, a piece that makes you stronger and happier than you could have imagined possible.”

Beautiful!

I feel the need to give this book a standing ovation after I finished it. It was just so darn sweet!

Now when I glanced upon the name “Aurora” I immediately thought this would be a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. And I oh, so love retellings, don’t I? So yes, I must read Princess of Thorns!!! But Stacey Jay had other plans. While this book did involve Sleeping Beauty, it wasn’t exactly a retelling. This story involved Sleeping Beauty’s children rather than herself. And although this is a fairy tale, might I warn you that even though Sleeping Beauty met her prince, it didn’t turn out exactly a happily ever after. Not that I’m such a party pooper, but it’s kind of nice to see a fairy tale that showed an unhappy ending for the princess. Change is good sometimes, right?

I also appreciated that this book was focused on more than one fairy tale. It was fascinating to see how well the author was able to merge the two stories in one. Cleverly done, my friend.

Top Ten Tuesday: Top Ten Books On My Fall To-Be-Read List

Top Ten Books On My Fall To-Be-Read List

Top Ten Tuesday is an original feature/weekly meme created at The Broke and the Bookish. Each week they post a new Top Ten list  that bloggers are welcome to join in and answer. 

So many exciting books are coming out this fall but I think this time I'm focusing on my current book pile. Okay, maybe with a couple of fall book releases. Here's my list:

OPPOSITION by Jennifer L. Armentrout
I don't know why but I've been holding off from reading this one. Maybe knowing this is the final book makes it just so... final. No more Daemon! *sobs*

THE INFINITE SEA by Rick Yancey
The Fifth Wave became an instant fave for me after reading it. It was absolutely awesome! I'm really excited to dive into book two.

THE QUEEN OF ZOMBIE HEARTS by Gena Showalter
Another conclusion to a series. *sobs* I think I'm developing issues with endings!

ANTIGODDESS by Kendare Blake
This has been on my shelf for quite some time now. I've been picking it up from time to time but never quite sat through the whole book yet, so maybe it's time I should.

MORTAL HEART by Robin LaFevers
Series ender again! I don't think I'll be as heartbroken as I would be with anything else but with His Fair Assassins. I'm excited over this one, but I don't want it to end!!!

Book Haul [21]

---

My "Weekly Book Haul" is pretty much just like In My Mailbox by the Story Siren, This Week In Books by Pop Culture Junkie, and Stacking the Shelves by Tynga's Reviews and all the other titles with the similar concept here and there. This is a weekly post showcasing the books you received for the given week, either bought online or from a physical bookstore, borrowed from the library or from a friend, received for review or won from a giveaway, etc.

---

Hello! Happy hearts month! You know what I mean. LOL.

Anyway, it was my birthday last Sunday, January 27th and I just had a fabulous week in books and I can't wait to share them with you all. So here they are:

TITLES:
(from Book Depository)
LEVEL 2 by Lenore Appelhans
FALLING KINGDOMS by Morgan Rhodes
 
(from Tina @ tinamats.com)
PERFECT ESCAPE by Jennifer Brown (ARC)
A BOTTLE OF STORM CLOUDS by Eliza Victoria (won from Filipino ReaderCon 2012)

(from National Bookstore)
EVERNEATH by Brodi Ashton
THROUGH THE EVER NIGHT by Veronica Rossi

(from Fully Booked)
HARRY POTTER BOXSET by J.K. Rowling (birthday gift from hubby! ^_^)
ROMEO REDEEMED by Stacey Jay

Tadaaaa!!! Aren't they fabulous? *sigh* I can't help but admire their beauty. 

Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay

        

Juliet Immortal
by Stacey Jay

Summary from Goodreads:

""These violent delights have violent ends And in their triumph die, like fire and powder, which as they kiss consume."

—Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare

The most tragic love story in history . . .

Juliet Capulet didn't take her own life. She was murdered by the person she trusted most, her new husband, Romeo Montague, a sacrifice made to ensure his own immortality. But what Romeo didn't anticipate was that Juliet would be granted eternity, as well, and would become an agent for the Ambassadors of Light. For 700 years, she's fought Romeo for the souls of true lovers, struggling to preserve romantic love and the lives of the innocent. Until the day she meets someone she's forbidden to love, and Romeo, oh Romeo, will do everything in his power to destroy that love."

Rating:

“The greatest love story ever told is a lie.”

That catch phrase was enough to make me pick up this book. When I read the excerpt, it just made things a lot more interesting. And thus, I began reading the story of Juliet and her Romeo in a different kind of light.

So the first part of the story takes us to where Juliet and Romeo are at present. Of course, they’re already dead but their souls jump in and out of different bodies for centuries now. They do this to accomplish their missions; Juliet, working as an Ambassador of Light, saves true love/preserves soul mates and Romeo tries to win one of them to the Mercenaries’ cause, where one has to sacrifice his/her soul mate’s life, just like what he did with Juliet. Juliet is in Ariel’s body while Romeo inhabits the now dead body of the boy who made a fool out of Ariel.

Oh, Juliet, nothing tastes as bitter as the grudge of woman scorned! LOL. Juliet had a lot of hate-issues in her. I really pitied Juliet on how her fate ended up at. Not that I can blame her for falling deeply in love with a boy she thought would give her the world, she was young and naïve; and I hated Romeo for what he did.

But as I progressed through the book, I realized that Juliet wasn’t the only one who was gullible, Romeo was just the same. They were both young after all. I felt how Romeo, despite being a total jerk, regretted his actions.

I wish I got to know more things about the Mercenaries and the Ambassadors of Light though, since they seemed so significant in Juliet and Romeo’s present lives, but there weren’t much of them to be seen around.

I was very much surprised about the ending. I don’t know if this book has a 2^nd one from the way it ended but I cringe at the idea of what happened. I’m not going to say what it is, but it seems that no matter how the author tried to make it seem like a happy ending, it was still tragic.

Although, I have to say; I’d give Stacey Jay a pat on the back with how beautiful her writing style is!

I really enjoyed reading this book even though it’s not particularly my type of stories. I’m not one to go for the somewhat-dramatic kind of books but I’m happy I gave this a try.

Juliet Immortal is a story that teaches us that in spite of all the pain, we can learn to love again; and that in more ways than one, we can learn to forgive others but mostly, forgive ourselves.

In My Mailbox [5]

In My Mailbox [5]

hosted by The Story Siren

No IMM last week, because I saved them for this week... and because I didn't have much to show then. 

First, let me show you what happened on September 13-18, 2011:

Hooray!

It was the very first time I attended something like this, simply because I wasn't aware there was such an event here in the Philippines. I guess diving into the reading-addiciton really kept me up to date to anything that related to books. 

It's sad that I only got to go there once (on September 14) since I'm packed with things to do for the rest of the week but I'm glad I got to take part on this. I'm definitely going to anticipate next year's book fair and I hope it gets better.

Anyway, here's what I got.

 

Going Too Far by Jennifer Echols *
Bones of Faerie by Janni Lee Simner
Fury by Elizabeth Miles
Juliet Immortal by Stacey Jay

Also, since I didn't post an IMM last week, I'll just add them here. I got two ebooks which are:

 

The Lost Files: Six's Legacy by Pittacus Lore *

Dream Dark by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl *

So that's it for me, what did you guys get?

* Books with available reviews here on The Blair Book Project