Blurb: Neither of us will bow, so one must break.
Princess Briar Rose has been betrothed to Seelie Prince Loren since her naming day—the same day the Unseelie King cast the sleeping curse on her. With her entire life already decided, she yearns to make choices for herself instead of being dragged along by tradition and fate.
Loren knows that he is the one at fault for the wall between Briar Rose and himself. But now that the curse is upon them—and the only way to break it is through True Love’s Kiss—he is terrified that, no matter how hard he is falling for her, he may not be enough.
The Unseelie King has been working to restore the fractured Faerie Courts before the In-Between destroys them all. There is nothing he will let stand in his way, not even true love.
So, he has a choice for Briar Rose that will save Faerie… at the cost of betraying everyone.
Review: On Princess Briar Rose's naming day, the Unseelie King cast a curse upon her. She is betrothed to the handsome Seelie Prince Loren who has been her friend since childhood, but now uncertainty hangs between them as they approach her eighteenth birthday. Faerie itself is being torn apart. If the two factions do not unite, the In-Between will consume it all. The Seelie believe Briar Rose's marriage and becoming fae will save their realm, but nothing is that simple, especially not True Love's Kiss.
This is a fantastic retelling of Sleeping Beauty where the princess is not utterly powerless. Briar Rose knows the curse is coming and there is nothing anyone can do about it, but she can train on the Dreamscape and hope that will help when she does sleep. She does this with the help of her faerie "godmothers" and has a very close relationship with them, but as she grows older, she wonders if they're just doing their duty to prepare her to become their Queen. Briar Rose's relationship with Loren is like most YA relationships in books with the awkwardness, new feelings, and misunderstandings. If you like clean teen romances and coming of age stories, this is what the book is mostly about. Add on top of that the fact that Faerie itself is in trouble and the Unseelie King only wants to help the land as does Briar Rose, and things get more complicated. I did very much like the Unseelie King, dark, handsome, and brooding, with a tiny wyvern full of attitude on his shoulder! I'd love to see more of him. The end felt anti-climatic. It came together too easily considering how difficult the journey, but I can forgive the ending for the great story. I would have also liked to know more of the In-Between and Faerie and how it connected to multiple human realms, but hopefully there will be more books in this world.
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