Book Review: Sleeping Beauty by Jenni James (Faerie Tale Collection #2)

Book: Sleeping Beauty
Author: Jenni James
Series: Faerie Tale Collection #2
Publication: December 1st, 2012
Source: Intern-Library Loan
Read: May 22nd-24th, 2014
Summary (from Goodreads):

The sleeping girl has no idea she is asleep.

 After Aleyna witnessed the cruel deaths of her family, she was put to sleep by Ezralon the unicorn. He has been keeping her safe, hidden in the forest, until her true prince could come and rescue her.

 While Aleyna is protected in the forest, her spirit walks the halls of her ruined, deserted castle in a dream-like existence, believing everything is still perfect. However, she is halted in this state—almost as if time were frozen—until the prince awakens her. 

Prince Darién of Lybrooke Court loves a challenge as much as the next man, but believes it will be a fool’s errand to rescue a ghost who is already dead! He’s convinced no one could have survived sleeping thirty years, so what is the point of rescuing a girl who is quite content to haunt on her own?

 Of course, if Darién wasn’t so afraid of ghouls, this whole thing could be much easier to fathom..

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My Thoughts:

I had a hard time deciding how I wanted to rate this book. I really did enjoy which is why I decided to give it 4 Stars, but I did still have a few complaints about Sleeping Beauty. I'm going to start this review by saying that I enjoyed Sleeping Beauty a lot more than I enjoyed Beauty and the Beast. 

There was more originality added to Sleeping Beauty. Aleyna our sleeping princess, was put to sleep by unicorn Ezralon after she witnessed the death of her mother, father, and brothers. She was put into a state of altered reality of dream-like existence. She would wake up and walk around, but Aleyna was not really living. She did not know what was going on in the world and she had no idea of the horrible past that had happened. 

Then there is our prince Darien sets out to rescue the sleeping ghost otherwise known as Aleyna. Here's the thing the story, the idea, it was all magical. The story as it was written lacked depth, and the characters lacked depth also. The characters were rather two dimensional. I think it is all in the author's third person writing style. Despite these characteristics I did end up falling in love with the character of Aleyna. I was impressed how she was able to have a role in the story despite being asleep. My favorite character has to be Margie, the cook. She has the motherly essence that I really fell in low with. Eralon, the unicorn, really made this story magical and I enjoyed his protective role in the story. 

There were also a number of minor characters in this story that I really could care less about. Their role in the story was rather unexplained. Humphrey, George, and Michael. I think this is a downfall of the story although George has a role in the end of the story. I still think these characters should have been explained better what their role in the story was. 

Although Sleeping Beauty was a four star read for me, it still had its flaws. I enjoyed reading this magical retelling of Sleeping Beauty, but more depth could have been added. I will be moving on to the third book in the series, but overall I don't think these were every be my favorite series of fairy tale retellings. I also think the cover is beautiful.