Once in a while I browse through Netgalley to see what they have to offer. A lot of times I see books I already saw here on goodreads or on instagram, but sometimes a book catches my eye that I haven't seen anywhere. And when I saw this book, I just knew that I really wanted to read it. So, I requested it and crossed all my toes and fingers!

When I started the book yesterday evening, I quickly noticed the very easy writing style. I had absolutely no trouble flying through the book and I read a lot more pages in an hour that I had thought possible. I had to get used to the constant switching of perspective, but the moment I was used to it, I also realised that it really adds something to the story. I wouldn't want it in every book, but it worked great in this one.

It also helped to connect to the characters. This story is a fairytale retelling and it has a lot of true fairytale vibes. We're dealing with magic, true loves kisses, princes and peasants, a mean villain and there are some lessons to learn along the way. The characters aren't too complicated or layered, and yet, by giving them all a moment to show us their thoughts and trail of thinking, we see glimpses of their personalities, parts that set them apart and lessons they have to learn. And it were those glimpses that made me love them.

And even though the plot is not the most original plot I have ever seen, it's amusing from start to finish. From the very first page I was sucked into the fairytale world and the story and until the last I kept smiling, enjoying the journey of the characters, even though that journey was somehow predictable. And along the way there are some really clever things incorporated in the story, small details that add just a little extra.

Slumber is one of those perfect summer reads: Quick, light hearted and absolutely and totally feel good. If you're in the mood for a typical fairytale, this might be the perfect book to pick up!

I love fairy tale retelling and this one didn't disappoint, the characters were great and the changes to the plot were perfect.

Slumber is a cute novel that is a twist on the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. the novel is mostly seen through the perspective of Lucy; an orphan commoner, who takes no BS from anyone.

I liked the novel, overall, I liked the characters and thought that the characters arcs were done well.
My only complaint about the novel would be that I had a hard time following the story at parts because of the format of the novel.

Slumber from author Becky Bird is one of many ‘twisted versions’ of a fairytale. In this case it’s the Sleeping Beauty fairytale. A story everybody knows about a princess being cursed as a baby, who punctures herfself on a spinning wheel, to sleep for the rest of her life. Her only chance is ‘true loves kiss’.

Bird managed to create a different view on this fairytale. Her accessible writing is very well detailed. It tells the story of prince Thomas, who after his father dies has to find ‘sleeping beauty’ and make her his wife, so he can follow in his fathers foodsteps. Unknown to Thomas are the real plans of the cardinal fort he prince and the kingdom. He wants to kill Thomas and mary the queen, so he can rule the kingdom.

The cardinal is determined, but Thomas is getting some unexpected help. Orphan-girl Lucy runs away and stumbles upon Thomas. She helps him. Together they follow the pad to free Aurora from her eternal sleep. When they are there, Lucy shows Thomas what a ‘true loves kiss’ should be like. Thomas awakes Aurora. The big question – whas it realy the kiss between Thomas and Aurora that broke the curse?

The story itself is well written, with beautiful characters and a nice storyline. But I have to admit, for people who love to read twisted fairytales and have read more than one the book will not be very surprising and original. The storylines are predictable, and so the story lacks the adventure you would expect when you start reading this story.

It’s safe to say Slumber is a wellwritten story, but does not contain the surprising elements you hope for when you are a lover of twisted fairytales.
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In Slumber van Becky Bird is voor de zoveelste keer een ‘twisted version’ van een sprookje neergezet. In dit geval van het verhaal van Doornroosje. Wie kent het nou niet? De prinses die als baby vervloekt wordt, zich prikt aan het spinnenwiel om eeuwig te slapen. Haar redding is ‘true loves kiss’.
Bird is er in geslaagd een andere kijk op dit sprookje neer te zetten. Met haar toegankelijke schrijfstijl en gedetailleerde beschrijvingen verteld ze het verhaal van prins Thomas, die na het overlijden van zijn vader genoodzaakt is ‘sleeping beauty’ voor zich te winnen als zijn vrouw, zodat hij kan trouwen en de rol van zijn vader over kan nemen. Wat Thomas niet weet is dat de kardinaal hele andere plannen heeft met Thomas en zijn toekomstige koninkrijk. Hij wil Thomas vermoorden en trouwen met de koningin, om zo zelf te gaan heersen.

De kardinaal is vastbesloten, maar Thomas krijgt hulp vanuit een onverwachte hoek. Weesmeisje Lucy – die is weggelopen – biedt hulp. Samen vervolgen ze de toch om Aurora vanuit haar slaap te bevrijden. Eenmaal daar laat Lucy aan Thomas zien hoe een echte ‘true love kiss’ hoort te zijn. Thomas slaagt erin Aurora wakker te kussen. De grote vraag is echter – wiens kus heeft er werkelijk de vloek verbroken?
Het verhaal op zich is een prima geschreven verhaal, met mooie personages en een leuke verhaallijn. Voor liefhebbers die regelmatig twisted fairytales lezen is het boek wellicht weinig verrassend en origineel. De verhaallijnen hebben een bepaalde voorspelbaarheid, waardoor het verhaal minder avontuurlijk is dan je in eerste instantie zou verwachten.

Gesteld mag worden dat Slumber een uitstekend geschreven verhaal is, maar voor fans en veel lezers van twisted fairytales weinig verrassend zal zijn.

I received this book for an honest review - thnx to Netgalley.com

Unfortunately not for me, far too light and frivolous, the characters are far too superficial that I just couldn’t enjoy this.


Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion

Cute and super fast read. The story is a twist on Sleeping beauty, but Aurora is almost a peripheral character. I enjoyed this light read. It was great to wind down with before bed. My only issue was the spacing of the sections. Maybe it was the editing on my kindle version, but the story constantly switched point of views with no breaks or warnings. Several times I had to stop and reread to figure out who was "speaking".

Fairytale re-telling’s or re-imaginings are totally my jam. I’m always looking for another really good one. Slumber is Sleeping Beauty re-imagined if two princes were sent to wake Aurora at the same time and then needed to figure out who really is her true love. The premise is super promising and a new take, so I was completely in.

Slumber is listed as YA but I think it is really more for Middle Grade. The characters aren’t as complex as I’d like them to be and often felt only one or two dimensional. There are some things that completely worked for me but then others that fell flat.

What is working in the story is Lucy an orphan and spirited young lady who doesn’t fit into the regular mold of what a girl is supposed to be. She ends up saving Prince Thomas, nice change up by the way and decides for the good of the kingdom she will help him find the prefect looking sleeping princess so he can marry and claim the throne. Lucy and her best friend, Jack, are the best characters in the story and I love the friendship between the two.

Prince Thomas is a spoiled brat who has never had to work for anything in his life. He is arrogant, pompous and rude. The only value he places on women is how they look. He is extremely hard to like in the story and yes eventually he gets better but it is frustrating.

There is also an evil wizard with a plan to kill Prince Thomas and take over the kingdom. In some chapters I loved hating him and in others I thought that even he was really just a one-dimensional bad guy as well.

What I really wanted to work for me, but didn’t was the combo or Aurora, Prince Phillip and Prince Thomas. I really was looking for more in this fight to prove who was her one true love. But Aurora herself is very difficult to like and is only interested in looking pretty and twirling. Honestly, she was so vapid and boring with no other ‘skill’ than being beautiful that I didn’t understand why either Prince would want her after a five-minute conversation.

Also, the way the story is written the reader jumps in and out of the thought of the various characters. There isn’t a lot of rhyme or reason as to when the jumps are going to happen, no obvious clues that we are switching from seeing Lucy’s thoughts and moving into Prince Thomas’s. I think this book could have really used an editor’s eye to smooth out the layout of the story.

Still there is Lucy, and she is the bright and shining star of this book. She was the best fleshed out character and made all of the story for me.

Slumber has one of many reason I dislike YA books because they are cheesy and might make readers feel like they are being talked down too.

While the story is fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty with characters from the fairy tale it lacks heart and soul of what makes fairy tales last for hundreds of years being retold many times over.

Prince Thomas character changes to quickly with a lack of build up. Lucy however is the redeeming character of the book. This book might be more perfect for girls between the ages of 8-13 years old.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance copy of Becky Bird Slumber

This was an interesting twist on a classic tale.  I really liked where the author took this story.  It was unlike any retelling I'd read before and that really made it stand out.  I think the author did well with this being her debut book.  The storyline could have been developed better, it was too rushed, and short for my liking.  I was really falling for these characters and I needed more of them.  I also wasn't a huge fan of how and when she would change character perspectives.  I really enjoyed getting to hear from everyone, but it would switch in the middle of the page and that would throw me off sometimes.

Lucy was by far my favorite character in this book.  She was bold and brash.  She knew who she was and never apologized for it.  She could hold her own in a man's world better than most of the men could.  Her character showed growth throughout the book.  I loved her from start to finish.

Prince Thomas's character showed the most development throughout this book.  I liked seeing the progression from arrogant and spoiled to the man he was when the book ended.  He wasn't a character I liked in the beginning, but he grew on me by the end.

I enjoyed this book and am looking forward to more books from this author.  I can't wait to see what she does next.

In a strong YA field with lots of novels based on fairy tales, I do not believe that Slumber stacks up against the rest. Tweens will see right through the superficial characters which will cause them to quickly lose interest in the plot.

2.5/5 Rounded up to 3 Stars.

I love fairytale retellings, there are some great ones out there and so I went in with the mindset that I was going to love this. And don't get me wrong, I did love some parts of it but overall it just wasn't for me. It was a cute premise but poorly executed in a lot of ways. It felt cartoonish and over the top when it came to the characters of the personality and I think this would fair much better as a TV series or movie rather than a novel. I will say that it did mature in its style a bit and I did enjoy it a good bit after the 50% mark. The ending was also adorable but like others, I just felt that Aurora was too shallow, not just vain, but as if she might not have much going on under the hood if you catch my drift and despite my misgivings, I actually thought Prince Phillip was better written than her. Unfortunately, though I appreciated Lucy, I just couldn't get over how 'over the top' she was.

Again a fairytale retelling just means I have to snap it up.
Loved it! Sleeping beauty retellings are my least favourite type of tale but I liked the twist in this one. Spoilt prince needs the help of a sassy orphan in order to get the girl but in actuality ends up falling for her instead.
Enjoyed it :)
Bring on more retellings :p

I was really happy that I’ve been able to read this book for giving a honest review for netgalley.

The story is a retelling from sleeping beauty. We will meet Aurora and prince Philip.

The story start with Prince Thomas who has to find a princess so he can become the King. He has not chosen a princes because Thomas doesn’t want to marry. He is still mourning he’s father who died 3 weeks ago. And not to forget that the people in the kingdom Orwell really don’t see Prince Thomas as a future king.

We meet Lucy and her best friend Jack when there out hunting. Lucy and Jack are both orphans. And Lucy also has to make a choice because she will turn 18 in a couple off days and the nuns want Lucy to find herself a husband.

When Prince Thomas is going on a quest to find himself sleeping beauty Aurora herself he’s faced with a tread. Someone doesn’t want him to return alive and with a bride. While Prince Thomas is on his quest he finds himself in the company off Lucy and Jack who are running away from the orphanage.

I enjoyed the book. It was sometimes hard to follow the story line. Like I was missing some pieces. But I loved how Lucy and prince Thomas start to chance. I didn’t really like Jack, I had a feeling that we could miss him in the storyline. because he doesn’t feel important.
I loved how the story ended. And that sometimes it’s hard to make the right choice. But that you have to follow you’re heart.

Slumber
By Becky Bird

2.5/5

This goofy retelling of Sleeping Beauty is absolutely ridiculous—sometimes in good ways, but mostly in less than ideal ones. Prince Thomas, a spoiled brat of a future ruler, is looking for the perfect bride—in the sense that he is looking for the most beautiful woman. After finding fault with many princesses, his advisor the Cardinal shows him a picture of Aurora and sends him off with a magic map to find her. But it’s all a plot by the Cardinal who is actually a sorcerer to steal the crown and the heart of the queen. When the bewitched royal guards attempt to assassinate the Prince on the way to Aurora, the prince is saved by Lucy, an orphan girl running away from her orphanage before she ages out at 18. She’s a tomboy who wears men’s clothes, fights with a sword, and excels at hunting. As Lucy, her friend Jack, and the Prince set off on their adventure to get the princess, the Cardinal continues to plot his takeover. Etc etc.


Potentially spoiler info below:

This story doesn’t know what it wants to be. It is set in a magical kingdom, but the world building is essentially zero. It takes modern concepts (and references) for granted—I guess in magical kingdoms with archaic social norms you can still age out of an orphanage at 18 like a kid in the US foster-care system. Another issue I took with the writing was the use of scientific terminology that adds nothing to the story or the characterizations, as none of the characters mentions even a passing interest. A particularly heinous instance, for example: “...as the fruit made contact with his parietal lobe...” Like no, Prince Thomas, you actually have a skull—a word more appropriate to the actual situation! All these instances did was draw me out of the story and wonder why those terms were used. You don’t have to specify that a puddle is “convex.” So I found that really frustrating. The writing itself is clearly tongue in cheek—the Cardinal, for instance, uses the phrase bibbity bobbity boo at once point. But the problem is that it feels very slap dash and occasionally overly colloquial. Of my many complaints, the last is a small one but set the mood for the entire reading; on the very first page, the author, describing the prince riding his horse, used the phrase “with reckless abandonment” which is not AT ALL the same as “reckless abandon” the clearly intended phrase. Starting out with something that so clearly should have been caught in editing made me instantly very irritated with this book. What this book needs is a good editor! In spite of my many complaints, I still liked the story enough to find parts of it enjoyable. It wasn’t wholly bad, just clearly very rough. It reads like a first draft. (an abbreviated version of this review was posted to Instagram).

I received a advanced readers copy of this book from the publisher and Net Galley, in return for an honest review. This is a great retelling of Sleeping Beauty and one I haven't heard before. It is told from multiple characters point of view, which gives the reader a more in depth look into the characters and the story line. I will admit I wanted to reach through the book and slap Prince Thomas like thousands of times in the beginning of the story, but I promise he gets better. Lucy is a strong female character, who doesn't care what people think of her, and doesn't care about her looks. Of course Aurora and Prince Phillip are in the story as well, and let's just say they are different from the one's that we know from Disney, but you grow attached to them. The author uses a unique spin on this retelling of a classic story, and it's one that is guaranteed to keep you up reading late into the night. I will admit when I started the book, I thought it would be the same old song and dance, but I was pleasantly surprised at the turn of events, and can say that I love this version so much more!

I'm a big fan of retelling and was super excited to get into this one !

Before you read : I just realized that the author is self-publishing her book. It might explain why I didn't like it as much as I could have. It only lacks an editor eye :)

We follow Prince Thomas, Lucy and Jack (both commoners) who end up on a quest to find Aurora, the most beautiful princess of the land, so she can be the prince's bride.

This absolutely sums up the books, as nothing else happens. I swear half the book is them running around in the forest trying to escape some danger. This is not what bothered the most though. Severeal things made this book disappointing for me. I mean, this is a Sleeping beauty retelling and she and Prince Phillip are not the main characters...

The biggest issue here for me is the writing style. I believe this is Becky Bird's first published book ever, and unfortunately, it shows. The book is labeled as a YA retelling, but I feel like this is a kid's writing style. Every little action is overdescribed ("Lucy scratched her head in surprise" ????? WTF ?), and it lasts through the whole book. It really bothered me and almost made me DNF the book after 50 pages of boredom (I swear I lost the count of how many times Lucy thinks "Ok, the prince is pretty" and 2 words later "Oh no he's not, I can't like him, he's annoying". It's supposed to make the flirt cute but is plain irritating)

Next up are the characters. They are BEYOND clichés. They're caricatures. I can't believe someone went over this and thought that Lucy was badass, that Prince Thomas was brave and human, or that Jack was a good sidekick. I felt like punching ALL the characters in that story. I mean there's litterally a line where the author writes that the villain lets out an evil laugh. That would be good for a Disney script, but not in a YA book.

Somehow, it got better after the first half of the book. I don't know why, but I feel like the writing was less forced after a while. It still wasn't perfectly to my liking, but it was readable. Maybe Becky Bird still needs to practice her writing styles a little more. I actually think she could write great children stories, and maybe afterwards she can find her style to write more mature books !

All authors need to start somewhere, and I'm sure that Becky will get better with time and experience ! I'll wait for her next novel and see how much she has improved :)


Thank you Netgalley for providing me with an e-arc !

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I am disappointed to say that I did not finish this book. I love children's fantasy, but this fell flat for me.

Thomas is intentionally a brat, and four chapters in, has no redeeming qualities. While I expect he will develop over time, his selfish and bratty attitude makes him annoying and unsympathetic. His motivation is completely shallow and self centered. While I enjoy characters starting out as unlikable and growing over the story, I need to have something in common or an understanding of the character. Or, at the very least, enjoy their internal narration.

Lucy should have been more endearing, but her point of view felt like straw feminism, Her story felt like it was written in the 90's, filled with empty promises and redundant statements. She feels like the butt of a joke and part of an out-dated story.

I didn't expect the plot to be original, so the predictability didn't bother me.

The author also refused to use the word said, which was noticeably distracting from the narrative itself.

I wish this book had been a first draft, as I feel that is has a lot of potential. But between the characters and the writing style, I was unable to enjoy it.

Fairy-tales and Fairy-tale retellings are my jam. I LOVE them, I love to hear about them, I love to watch them, I LOVE to read them. I was so excited that I got approved for this. Once I started reading I quickly realized it was really a retelling of "Sleeping Beauty" at all...sure Aurora and her prince were in it..but it was not focused on them. So, I was quite bummed about that. But overall, this book was a quick, easy read and I did like it. It just wasn't what I was expecting.

I give this 1 star because I honestly could not make myself finish it.
It did not keep my interest and the run on sentences throughout drove me insane.
Lack of punctuation and too much detail (most of it completely unnecessary) just ruined it for me.
I was so excited by the synopsis but this was such a disappointing turn out..

A cute enough retelling of Sleeping Beauty. Lucy is a fun lead character- not your typical teen female who bats her eyes at good looking guys. Lots of moxie! I like that this is a pretty tame book that I can suggest to younger tweens/teens and those who don’t want a lot of “trash” in what they read. Not many like it! Write more!