Rose & Thorn

June 15, 2016
Prineas is back with another high-concept fairy-tale retelling, this time tackling "Sleeping Beauty." Raised in isolation by old Shoe (from Ash & Bramble, 2015), thrice-cursed Rose has gone 16 years never passing the magical boundary that keeps her safe. When the barrier fails, it signals that Story is rising again and Rose's destiny can no longer be fully avoided. Rose leaves home and finds her way to the grim, closed society of the City, where she meets handsome Griff and quippy Quirk, both secretly related to the larger machinations of Story. The companions are then drawn through the Forest into Story's version of "Sleeping Beauty," where only their combined strength can stop the relentless coming of the spindle and sleep curses. Prineas aims high, with conceptually fascinating scaffolding--Story as enemy, individuals forced to play out hackneyed tales and destroyed in the process--but it never amounts to more than just another retelling; curse three, beauty, when lifted, leaves Rose a lovely blonde; the narrative is circumvented by a kiss from a handsome hero; and in the end, it's mostly the same old story, truncated in some parts and lengthened in others, with charming but underdeveloped white principals and a should-be-fascinating villain that makes no sense. Pleasant but slight and, unfortunately, less than it might have been. (Fantasy. 11-15)

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August 1, 2016

Gr 8 Up-Fifty years after the end of Ash & Bramble, the crafty machine known as Story threatens to overtake other lives. When Rose was born, bearing a triple curse and a rosebud birthmark on her wrist, she was taken by the Penwitch to be raised in the forest by Shoe. Sixteen years later, they are both dead and the spell that protected Rose is broken. Leaving home, she follows a path to the City, which is governed by the harsh Lord Protector, who has banned all storytelling, lest it revive the evil Story. There, Rose meets two Watchers-short and friendly Quirk, and Griff, the brooding son of the Lord Protector-who realize immediately that she is cursed. When her curses cannot be broken, the Watchers help Rose escape the City with the assistance of a resistance group called the Breakers. But wily Story leads them to a castle where Princess Rose is reunited with her strangely distant parents, and she must fight the curse of touching a spindle and sleeping for 100 years. Prineas once again weaves a fascinating narrative of magic, adventure, and romance and breathes new life into the "Sleeping Beauty" fairy tale. The characters are memorable and distinct, and their backstories are gradually told, revealing links to the previous volume. VERDICT Although this book capably stands on its own, it is a must-read for fans of the first installment and is highly recommended for all lovers of romantic fantasy.-Martha Simpson, Stratford Library Association, CT

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

September 15, 2016
Grades 8-11 Fifty years after the events of Ash and Bramble (2015), Shoe the shoemaker has grown old helping defeat the machinations of Story, which forces people to fulfill fairy tale roles. For the last 16 years, he has raised a girl named Rose, born with three curses and hidden away as an infant. When the spell protecting her fails, Rose must leave the only life she's ever known, and finds herself entangled with two menhandsome, stoic Griff and warmhearted Quirkas she struggles to escape her curses and the destiny Story has in store for her. As with its predecessor, the setup is better than the execution: Story is too high-concept to be truly frightening, and this lacks both the energy and the chemistry of the first volume. Still, fans of Sleeping Beauty retellings will appreciate the development of Rose, who transforms from a naive girl into a determined young woman, as well as the treatment of beauty, which burdens Rose more than it helps her. An intriguing reentry into an imaginative world.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)