This was a nice read.
Unfortunately it was let down by the characters being very sweet or really nasty.
Sickening.

This is one of these books that you can only fully enjoy if you love mushy romance and female leads that get coddled by men. I wanted to root for her but it felt like she never got the chance to prove her worth. It's an interesting Sleeping Beauty retelling and had me thinking of Sleeping Beauty from the start.

publisher synopsis: For a century, the nations of Jerdun and Lyond have been at each other’s throats. Princess Aliénor is a proud woman of Jerdun, and King Thomas of Lyond should have been her hated enemy. Yet from her first meeting with the foreign king, she cannot deny the tender connection between them. After a brutal ambush leaves them stranded in a strange land together, the two decide to face the many perils of the journey back home united. But as suspicious allies only—love is out of the question.

When danger strikes at them on the road, Aliénor immediately regrets hiding her feelings. A sorceress with plans to make herself Queen of Lyond captures their group and lays a hideous curse on Thomas, damning the brave king to an eternal, bitter sleep. If the spell is not broken, if Thomas is not woken in time, the king will fall into madness. Frightened and alone, Aliénor must fight free from her wicked captor, for herself and her sleeping king. Only then does she have a chance of breaking the curse.

Yet even if she does save Thomas, how can love conquer the bitter feud between their nations? How can she betray her homeland, even to be with the man she loves?
This story was actually hard to read for me. The main character was everything she thought she wasn't. She thought she was fierce, but a lot of the characters shielded her, she thought she was smart, but a lot the characters, even some peasants, had to correct her. She seemed to think that since she had red armor and money her husband should listen to her. I didn't make it all the way through the book, but it was not holding my attention.

I received this copy from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.