I do love a good retelling of a fairy tale and there don't seem to be too many out there about Sleeping Beauty.
The blurb of this book sounded right up my alley and I was thrilled when my request was filled by Netgalley.
Unfortunately, I really struggled with it for the first half but my god that ending is worth hanging on for.

There were bits in the book that could have easily have been edited down and I had the feeling that the author knew exactly how she wanted the book to end but she just wasn't sure how to get there - and for me some of the book was rather messy, in a sense.

Despite all of my complaints, I look forward to reading more by Heather Walter and feel that she is definitely going to be someone to watch with interest.

This is a sleeping beauty retelling that was okay. It was a fun read but it did feel slow to start. I liked it but it isn’t a favourite of mine. The plot was good, I liked that it had new elements whilst also having elements from the fairytale. Writing was okay but I felt there was more telling rather than showing especially with all the worldbuilding.

The characters are done well. It follows the main character of Alyce who is considered a villain and while she does do some villainous things she also gets misled. I thought she was an okay character, I didn’t connect with her but I didn’t dislike her. Aurora is another character and they forge a friendship and love between them. The lgbt romance was good, I liked it. It was sweet and I hope the sequel keeps it.

The ending let me down, I wanted it to be a happy ending but it was a cliffhanger ending. I’m not sure if I’m invested enough in the book to read the next book but maybe.

Thank you to NetGalley.co.uk for giving me a free copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I feel like I have read so many retellings lately, I feel like they end up blending together. This was a nice surprise, the book had a unique premise and I really enjoyed reading it. The first part of the novel was a little slow to start however as I read the novel, the pace started to pick up. I loved the characters and how familiar they felt to the original but they were presented in a completely different light which I loved about this book. Well written by the author and I would love to read more by this author.

Alyce is a well drawn character, and this is a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story which is told from a different perspective. It was a bit slow to start with, but improved as time went by. All in all a good read. Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for letting me have an advance reading copy of the novel.

This book sounded fantastic, I love the retellings of fairytales and I've not come across many sleeping beauty ones so was really looking forward to it. Sadly I was disappointed in it, the twist on a few of the characters was obvious and the main character just wasn't that likeable.

The world built up around it was missing pieces but was original and interesting to read about. The backstory was quite good but I just couldn't find myself enjoying it after the first half of the book and found myself rushing to the end just to see if it was a happy ending (it was a cliffhanger and a bit disappointing).

Overall the idea was good but it just didn't work.

Let me start by saying that when I was growing up, I didn’t care about princesses. I wasn’t bothered about happily ever afters, only coming to care for them more in romance novels as I’ve grown up. But this Aurora, this version of a princess, a princess who wants to forge a better world with someone she cares about and who cares about her in turn? That I care about.

Alyce is a brilliantly crafted character, and reading about how cruelly she is treated simply for being different was genuinely painful at times. The author has done an excellent job of bringing not just empathy out, but also making you consider the world from the perspective of an outsider. I know a little of this myself, being disabled and registered blind, but nevertheless I wanted to reach through the pages and squeeze Alyce into a hug. I wondered, how would I have treated her, if I was a Grace, or a commoner? And if I was Aurora?

Aurora herself is equally beautifully crafted, and she and Alyce find that they have more in common than it would initially seem. Both different in their own way, Alyce treated as cursed because of her Vila blood, and Aurora literally cursed, approaching the age she will die at without finding her true love. The connection they have is forged in a genuine and lovely way, and morphs into a powerful love that allows them to find some happiness.

The prose itself is written in a delicious way, full of vivid images and conversations that seem plausible as well as magical. The author has done a stunning job of conjuring up real magic with her words, and the twists and turns she takes us on through Alyce’s eyes could be shown on a screen they are so clear.

A Sleeping Beauty retelling from "Maleficent's" point of view (albeit that's not her name in this one, she's Alyce here!). This book had a very refreshing and different take on the age old story. Aurora doesn't want to wait around to be saved, Alyce ("Maleficent") isn't all the evil she is made out to be, plus we see more of the world, the people of the kingdom and why they view Alyce the way they do.

Not your average "good v evil" tale, more of an anti-hero one - seeing how and why our main character has turned out the way she has. Think of Maleficent in that first scene at the party, casting a death curse on someone because she wasn't invited to the party - how could someone be driven to do that? Read this and you might see her perspective...

Some of the characters were so interesting, their motivations for betrayal/treating someone badly/making huge risks were explained and revealed so well. It's hard for me to hate any of them, none of them are inherently good or evil. They are acting... human!

Some of the scenes are DARK and if you are in to your dark fairytales, you will find these as cool/grim as I did... plus there are some nods to the original tale. Which I was hoping for!

There is LGBTQ+ representation in this story also, which I loved to see.

I almost gave this 4.5 stars, because the first few chapters are a bit slow paced and it took a while to get hooked. So I would say if you are finding the start a little slow, please keep going - it picks up pretty quick and it gets better and better. The last few chapters bumped up my rating to 5 stars, they were so thrilling!

This book comes out in April, keep your eyes pealed for it's arrival in stores!!

I won’t lie to you – I had a fun time reading this book. I’m not suggesting this is a laugh a minute sweet little romance – cause that would be very misleading – but it is the kind of story that sort of just swept me up for an entertaining few hours of reading. I was surprised by how much of a good time I had reading this, just because I have a tendency to be a bit cynical about YA retellings and this one does have some cheesy elements.

I think the saving grace (pun intended) is that Alyce is a great main character. Too often in stories that attempt to repaint the villain they either get the ‘it was never anything to do with me’ or the ‘I am genuinely a terrible person but let’s pretend otherwise’ edit. In this case I liked that the book does both, we get the sense that Alyce is being misused and misled for sure, but equally she has her own agency to a point. She’s not villainous in a ‘mass murder’ kind of way but nor is she the innocent lamb who would never hurt a fly. Alyce would hurt a fly a little if it was being horrible to her.

I liked the story, both the elements that were new and the elements brought in from Sleeping Beauty. One thing this book does well (which is usually a hallmark of a good retelling) is holding on to that key fairytale element to use it in a moment of tension. I won’t spoil what happens in this book but it would be the equivalent of a Snow White re-imagining bringing in an apple – as a reader you know what that means even though the characters don’t and it’s almost a Chekov’s gun moment.

I also thought that that romance, while not particularly substantial, was very sweet. I wouldn’t have said this book was a revolutionary LGBT+ narrative but given the amount of non revolutionary straight romances in YA retellings I certainly think we deserve a few where it’s two women! It’s hard to call the romance without having read the sequel but I’m just begging them to not bury the gays.

My biggest qualm with this book was that it does tend to tell rather than show – particularly in the start of the book. I think this was due to the amount of worldbuilding necessary to set up the world Alyce is a part of. I would have maybe liked to find out that information in a more natural way than being outright told it by the main character which felt a little clunky. It would be interesting to see if that is still the same in the sequel or if, without the worldbuilding needed, it would feel a bit smoother. We shall see!

My rating: 4/5 stars

I received a free digital advanced review copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley – all opinions are my own!

Malice is out April 13th

One of my favourite sub genres over the last few years has been reinventing classic fairytales. If I see one I read it – there have been some brilliant ones and, let’s face it, some terrible ones- luckily for readers everywhere, Malice comes under the brilliant category- beautifully imagined, then executed with a flair for descriptive world building and featuring a deeply layered set of truly diverse characters.

This may have its roots in the classic Sleeping Beauty, but this is far more Grimm than Disney, with a villainous perspective and an addictive, twisted story that is also a darkly compelling love story. Heather Walter manages all the elements of her wonderful plot with an insightful eye and a cleverly woven set of dilemmas both moral and otherwise. You fall into it and don’t want to stop until you see where it goes.

Malice has one of the best finale sequences I’ve read in a long time, a truly first pump the air but oh my gosh what next feel to it that I’m sure would have induced paper cuts in my desire to turn pages. Luckily I was saved by my digital copy, no blood soaked fingers here…

Can we also just take a moment to admire that fantastic cover, I will be purchasing a physical copy when Malice comes out next year just for that – one more reason why this is definitely one to watch in 2021.

Fantastic. Highly recommended.