Review: The Sleeping Beauty

The Sleeping Beauty

By Mercedes Lackey

Publication date: July 1, 2010

My review:

Princess Rosa is grieving the loss of her mother when her father abruptly remarries. Her new stepmother appears to be cold and aloof and she owns a mirror that can tell her who is the fairest in the land. You may think you know what happens next but in this humorous retelling of Sleeping Beauty and Snow White, nothing is as it seems, especially when The Tradition is involved.

The Sleeping Beauty is a clever and funny take on two fairy tales that traditionally feature a passive damsel in distress who needs to be rescued by a prince and awoken by his kiss. In this case however, Princess Rosa is a damsel in distress who learns self defense and becomes a very capable young woman. There is also a prince who is desperately trying to avoid all sleeping shieldmaidens like the plague, a prince who is a little too charming, vile and lazy dwarves, and a stepmother who may not be evil at all.

The characters are likeable, especially Godmother Lily and Siegfried and his bird. I also enjoyed the various fairy tales and mythological stories that are mentioned. Just as in the other titles in the Five Hundred Kingdoms series,  The Tradition is a character in its own right. It does its best to force people's lives along "traditional" paths that correspond with fairy tales. I liked the addition of Norse mythology along with the usual fairy tales. It is part of a series but the book can be read on its own with little trouble. Although One Good Knight is still my favorite book in the series, The Sleeping Beauty is a close second. Once again Mercedes Lackey has written a witty and entertaining fairy tale fantasy. 

Readalikes: A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn, Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George, Beastly by Alex Flinn, Princess Ben by Catherine Gilbert Murdock, Stardust by Neil Gaiman, The Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger

I received a digital ARC of this title from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.