Princess of Thorns by Stacey Jay
Published by Random House on December 9, 2014
Genres: Fantasy
Pages: 400
Format: Hardcover
Source: Publisher
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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?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?

Princess of Thorns is the fantasy novel I’ve been looking for.  Stacey Jay took the tale of Sleeping Beauty and made it completely fresh.  I devoured this novel!

Princess Aurora is unlike any other princess I’ve read about.  She’s very self-sufficient and possibly even a little too independent.  She doesn’t trust easily because of her past.  She teams up with Niklaas to save her brother only because she can’t avoid it.  Niklaas is an extremely likable character, mainly because of his complete honesty.  Aurora is disguised as her brother when they meet and she keeps up that pretense through their relationship.  She and Niklaas form this amazing bond as friends because of that.  Their friendship and their banter is probably one of the best things about Princess of Thorns.

Aurora’s story is 100% unique.  She is not Sleeping Beauty, she is the daughter of Sleeping Beauty and her mom blessed her with fairy magic before she died.  However, the magic is both a blessing and a curse.  It makes her extremely strong and fierce in battle but it also means that she will never know the true love of a man.  The powers she’s been given make her very much a loner and it’s part of the reason she doesn’t trust easily or rely on others often.  She’s a little too stubborn for my liking at times but it made things even more awesome when she realized the error of her ways.

The world that the story is set in is very much a fantasy world.  The land is ruled by ogres and there is a prophecy stating that dark times will come at the hands of one briar-born child.  Since Aurora and her brother Jor are the only two briar-born children left, it makes things in their lives very interesting.  It’s up to Aurora and Jor to stop the prophecy from coming to pass.  That’s not exactly an easy task though since the ogre queen is determined to have them and she’s pretty much all powerful.  There truly is never a dull moment in Princess of Thorns.

Overall, I really have no way of doing justice to this book.  If you love fantasy worlds, fresh retellings, kickass females, and witty banter, definitely check this one out immediately!

What others are saying about Princess of Thorns:

Lili’s Reflections’ review: “Perfect for fantasy lovers and fairytale nerds like myself, this is a book that cannot be ignored!”

Shae Has Left The Room’s review: “As soon as I finished, I wanted to start over and read it again.”

Bibliodaze’s review: “There’s some good stuff to recommend it, but right now, the bad stuff outweighs it for me.”