While Beauty Sleeps by Ripley Proserpina ~ Review

Source: ARC provided by the author in exchange for a fair and honest review.

While Beauty Sleeps (Once Upon a Harem #7) by Ripley Proserpina

“She shall prick her finger on a spinning wheel, and fall to sleep...”

There once was a girl who was born to be cursed. By no fault of her own, she was doomed to remind her kingdom of everything ugly. No matter how many good deeds she did or how kind she was, it was her destiny to die, and take her kingdom with her. Her mother and father wept when they saw her, and the witch who cursed her celebrated gleefully as each year passed.

Except there was hope. Her sisters, older and wiser, and with no small amount of magic of their own, countered the witch's curse. If Kumiko could be loved, truly loved, the curse would be broken, and everyone would see what the witch had hidden.

But all her life, Kumiko had been let down—by the parents who hid her away and by an ill-fated curse.

Until they arrived.

Four princes, full of smug confidence and pride, were determined to break the princess's curse before her twenty-first birthday.

All they had to do was fall in love.

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I've been meaning to pick up a Ripley Proserpina book for a good while. Her Searchers series, in particular, has been recommended to me numerous times. For some reason, I have yet to get around to picking it up. But then an ARC of While Beauty Sleeps landed in my inbox and it piqued my interest. A standalone reverse harem fairytale retelling? Sign me up! (Note: this is technically the 7th in the Once Upon a Harem series, but each story in the series is written by a different author and stands alone, so don't let the series thing intimidate you! This is my first read in the OUAH series, so I can vouch that it stood completely alone.) So now this has been my first book by Proserpina, and I'm glad to say it was a total success.

While Beauty Sleeps has an amazing premise -- it's a reverse harem retelling of Sleeping Beauty. How cool is that? Proserpina also put a unique little spin on the curse put on Kumiko, adding an extra layer to the story that I very much enjoyed. On the level of being a retelling, I'd say this one was amazing. It had a whimsical, enchanting feel. But the story also felt so fresh. It was well executed.

The characters were another strong point in the story. Kumiko was the best developed, I think, and I liked getting to know her. Her sisters were pretty great too. Then there were the guys. I liked some more than others -- I think this is mostly because a couple of them were better developed than the others. Dai and Goro were my favorites (Dai more than Goro). Reiji was awesome, I just wish we'd gotten to know him BETTER. Same with Wataru. That said, I loved getting to be in all their minds throughout the story, and though I wish a couple of them were developed more thoroughly I did grow very fond of them.

The best way to describe the romance was sweet. So, so, so very sweet. I adored the relationships between Kumiko and her princes. I like how pure it was. How cute. It started as "maybe we won't be in love, but we'll definitely be friends because I like this person" to more and it was lovely. And the romance fit perfectly into the enchanting atmosphere of the story as a whole.

All that said, I do have a few *slight* issues. The first of which I already mentioned -- the little lack of character development. As I said above, I ended up fond of them anyway so it's not a huge deal, but it's worth mentioning. My other gripe is the timeline of the novel...maybe I wasn't paying enough attention and missed something but I don't think the timeline matched up. It started with there being two weeks until Kumiko's 21st birthday. Then the princes were there for a few days. Then all of a sudden her birthday was the upcoming Wednesday. Maybe I simply lost track of days in the time in between? But if I did, that'd probably mean it was hard to follow/keep track of, which is still worth at least mentioning. 

Overall, While Beauty Sleeps is a sweet and dazzling retelling! I really enjoyed this one, and definitely plan on picking up more by Proserpina soon. If the idea of a unique, reverse harem version of Sleeping Beauty intrigues you, I say give this one a shot! 

4 stars - A sweet & dazzling Sleeping Beauty retelling--featuring a reverse harem!

Kissing The Boss by Linda Kage ~ Review

What’s the one thing you shouldn’t do when your boss is your ruthless evil widowed stepmother who hates your guts more than anyone?

Kiss the man she’s interested in.

So what does Kaitlynn Judge find herself doing?

Yep, she kisses the one man her stepmother currently wants, who also happens to be the CEO of the company where she works.

Can we say doomed?

After the death of her father, Kaitlynn's life has been stuck in a rut. But that begins to change after meeting a dashing stranger during the office Halloween party. Now she has to navigate vengeful stepmothers, meddling stepsiblings, and gorgeous guys in hot pursuit to reach her happily ever after.

While making a detour from the fantasy aspect, this contemporary take on the Cinderella story continues to cling to a few of our favorite traditions. You’ll still find the unmerited oppression along with fleeing women, missing shoes, mouse companions, magic wands, pumpkin-like rides to the big bash, and so much more. So rest assured, it’s all familiar and yet quirkily different.

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This is great retelling of Cinderella with a few twists and was a fun read.  It comes complete with the wicked step-mother (truly dislike this character), a dance that involved customs and lost shoes, and a gorgeous guy who gives a yummy kiss.  But the siblings are step-brothers, both of whom I end up liking lots.  And the loss after Kaitlynn's father dies is a bit more than inheritance.  It's the kind of book you can sit down and just enjoy for a few hours with some laughs, some grimaces and a happy at the end.

I enjoy this author.  She writes books with strong characters who get inside my heart.  The story is always good and usually has some interesting subplots that make it unique.  This one is just the same.  I haven't read the first book in this series but I want to.  I do love a fairy tale retelling but sometimes they reach too far to make them work.  Not this one.  It's very modern and contemporary romance but the touches of the fairy tale make the story even better.  Really enjoyed it.

I highly recommend this book and the author in general!

                                    



Check out the teaser and the swoon posts for this book!

Winnemucca by Laura Elliott

Source: Author provided digital copy in exchange for a fair and honest review

My summary:

Ginny is about to turn eighteen. Ginny is about to marry the high school quarterback, Bobby. Ginny is having issues with her feet. Mostly her feet are wondering everywhere except where they are supposed to, walking away from commitments that no one in her small town would walk away from. Now she has to try and figure out if her empty bag of dreams is more important than doing what’s expected of her, from everyone who keeps trying to run her life. Her journey to figure out her life happens on the road trip to Winnemucca. Does that place hold the answers to her road blood ripening? Is there such a thing as prince charming and happily ever after? Ginny’s gonna find out.

My thoughts:




2 stars – not my taste

So I struggled with this book. It’s like nothing I’ve ever read before. It’s a fairy tale. It’s a small town story. It’s a coming of age story.

I didn’t enjoy it.

I wondered a lot about why I didn’t enjoy it while I was reading it. A lot of other people have read this book and loved it. So, I kept asking myself, what is about this story that I don’t like? I think the most important thing I came up with was that I never got attached to Ginny. I didn’t like her and because of that her story just didn’t interest me.

The tale itself is intricately woven among many different shorter stories. The journey that Ginny takes has many stops. Each one has a new cast and a subplot with twists and turns but each one also contributes to the whole story. It takes a brilliant writer to weave those together into one great whole. I admire the writing that went into this story, well done. But in the end, I just didn’t care what happened to Ginny.

I guess I don’t feel like I can recommend this book one way of the other. It wasn’t for me, but it may be for you. I don’t know.

Need a second opinion?  Check out this very positive review.

Laura Elliott | Goodreads | Amazon

I am not compensated for any of the links in this post.