Book Description (from Lackey’s website – the jacket is too painful):
Godmother Lily serves the Kingdom of Eltaria, which may be the most imperiled of all the Five Hundred Kingdoms. It has the misfortune of being small, rich, and surrounded with enemies. Governing it has been a constant juggling trick.
But now The Tradition has decided to land the blow of making the King a widower, and his daughter the Fairest In The Land. This can only mean bad things for the King, the Princess Rosa, and above all, the Kingdom itself.
You can read an excerpt here.
Review:
Honestly I think this entire series has been a victim of marketing fail. If you saw the cover, if you read the jacket, you’d never guess that a tongue in cheek romp was lurking between the pages. You’d think it was a painfully cheesy romance with high fantasy trappings and pass it on by. I would have, if I wasn’t a long time, well established Mercedes Lackey fan. So take my word for it, as a person who doesn’t like romances – ignore the cover and ignore the jacket blurb, they don’t do justice to this lighthearted romp. You also have to power through the first two chapters before you start to start get a true sense of exactly where this story will take you.
This is the 5th book in the 500 Kingdoms series, which takes place in a fairy tale world where magic tries to force everyone down the traditional fairy tale paths (they call the magic The Tradition). Our heroes do their best to subvert tradition, twisting the fairy tale tropes to create their own happy endings.
In Sleeping Beauty we have our Hero, Siegfried, who is running pell-mell from his Traditional fate (or doom, in his case) – he’s supposed to wake a Sleeping Beauty, but unfortunately the one that keeps showing up everywhere he goes is his Aunt. Our princess, Rosamund, who is the Fairest in the land, is Traditionally chased by the Huntsman and captured by Dwarves, only to be awakened from her inevitable enchanted sleep by her fairy godmother, Lily, just before a slightly lecherous prince can wake her up with a kiss – but that doesn’t stop him from groping her anyway. Rosa firmly ends the moment with a knee to the groin. From there Rosa and Siegfried, with Lily’s help, must figure out a way to avert their Traditional fates from bringing disaster down on their futures and on their kingdoms.
I can’t say that the plot isn’t predictable, because let’s face it, we all know how fairy tales end, but the subversive and silly way Lackey gets us there is just plain fun. This is a story that makes fun of fairy tales yet still gives you a fairy tale ending. It’s frothy, fun, sweet, and a little silly, the perfect read for when you’re in the mood for a sugary treat.
Byrt Grade: B
As Levar Burton used to say – you don’t have to take my word for it…
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That’s Queen Bitch to You says:
Mercedes Lackey’s The Sleeping Beauty is a lovely and fun fantasy romance. In some ways it’s a very old school fantasy romance, but yet it felt more modern and fresh. I really enjoyed it. It almost reminded of Shrek (but without the crudeness) or Hoodwinked in a way because all the characters knew they lived in a fairy tale land
While this wasn’t a “funny” book, there was much humor in the way that The Tradition manifested, especially in the characters and in the competition for Rosa’s hand. I also liked the way Lackey brought various cultural tales and archetypes together cohesively, some thing the author has done in at least one other series. This isn’t my first Five Hundred King doms story, but it is definitely one of my favorites.
The fifth Five Hundred Kingdoms fairy tale romance is an amusing entertaining tale that obviously follows for the most part The Sleeping Beauty legend but also includes pieces from other fables as Mercedes Lackey spins the original into a refreshingly new Tradition. Fast-paced and very jocular, the plot lacks the passion of previous entries like The Snow Queen, but is still fun as the insider fairy tale puns and jokes mindful of Shrek (with a nod to Puss N Boots for instance) make for a lighthearted frolic
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