Title:
A Wicked Thing
Author: Rhiannon Thomas
Published: February 24th 2015
Series: A Wicked Thing #1
Genre: YA Fantasy
POV: 3rd person, past tense
Pages: 352
Publisher: HarperTeen
Format: electronic ARC
Source: Edelweiss
Rating: Tea Party
Rhiannon Thomas's dazzling debut novel is a spellbinding reimagining ofSleeping Beauty and what happens after happily ever after.
One hundred years after falling asleep, Princess Aurora wakes up to the kiss of a handsome prince and a broken kingdom that has been dreaming of her return. All the books say that she should be living happily ever after. But as Aurora understands all too well, the truth is nothing like the fairy tale.
Her family is long dead. Her "true love" is a kind stranger. And her whole life has been planned out by political foes while she slept.
As Aurora struggles to make sense of her new world, she begins to fear that the curse has left its mark on her, a fiery and dangerous thing that might be as wicked as the witch who once ensnared her. With her wedding day drawing near, Aurora must make the ultimate decision on how to save her kingdom: marry the prince or run.
Rhiannon Thomas weaves together vivid scenes of action, romance, and gorgeous gowns to reveal a richly imagined world … and Sleeping Beauty as she’s never been seen before.
Highlights: What happened after the kiss? Rhiannon Thomas explores this idea, beginning her novel with the kiss that wakes Sleeping Beauty from her cursed slumber. But life isn't much of a fairy tale for Aurora, who is treated more like a pawn in a game of chess. True love and the happily ever after is hardly what Aurora wakes to. Instead, she finds secrets, rebellions, and the realization that she'll have to claim the life she wants to have, because no one is going to hand over the perfect happily ever after ending. Thomas' writing style has a nice flow to it, which makes
A Wicked Thing easy to breeze on through in a matter of hours.
Lowlights: As much as I wanted to fall in love with this book (Sleeping Beauty retelling!), I was simply bored throughout a good portion of the story. The romance was frustrating (both of them), and Aurora barely did anything until the conclusion. She was, in my eyes, a very passive character throughout most of the novel. The ending proved to be more intriguing, so I'm guessing the sequel might have more story to it, but this novel was ultimately a bit underwhelming.
Rating: Tea Party: Liked, 3 out of 5. While I found myself feeling slightly bored with the story, the last 50 or so pages picked up the pace, excitement, and finally gave Aurora the chance to become a character with agency, instead of merely a pawn for someone else to control. I have high hopes that the sequel will be the story I was looking for when I opened this novel.
I received an electronic advanced copy of this novel from the publisher for review consideration.
This is no way affected my opinion of the novel.
