Thornwood is a completely different take on the Sleeping Beauty story. At first, this felt a lot like E.D. Baker's The Wide-Awake Princess, focusing on the younger, not cursed, sister of sleeping Beauty. But Leah Cypess takes the reader on a very different journey with warring fairies and a curse that hasn't fully run its course. Younger sister, Briony, is set on figuring out why the Thornwood continues to attack the castle in this unusual middle grade novel.

While an interesting story, the characters were not as developed as I would have liked and something fell flat for me.

Good for fans of fairy tales who like the stories to be darker than we are used to.

A Sleeping Beauty story told from a perspective none of us have had before. I really enjoyed the writing and description. For me it opened well and I didn't have to force myself to keep reading. Briony, the overlooked, uncared about sibling. Two sister princesses.

While I did like it there are some issues with characterizations for me. Sometimes they were flat. And the younger sister had to fight for her agency. I understand that with her being the ignored party that's going to be a theme but for her to be treated the way she was, it was a bit tiring to read. Some things weren't adequately explained for me but all in all, it's a solid book for a little bit of escapism if you don't mind the flaws.

Thank you Netgalley and publisher for the ARC

Thornwood by Leah Cypress was a new spin on Sleeping Beauty. While I love a re-imagined fairy tale, I haven't read many focused on this one. Briony is the lesser known sister of Rosalin. As the story goes, Rosalin is put to sleep as part of a curse. When the kingdom wakes up, Briony wants to get to the bottom of what's really happening. She wants to help save her family's kingdom. This is one that had some twists and turns, including a solid one at the end I didn't see coming that added some depth and thrills to the story which made it much more captivating. It wasn't just about some girl falling asleep and needing a prince, but it was about what that process and the curse on the kingdom really meant and did. Thanks to NetGalley for the early look at this April 2021 release.

This is such a fun retelling. I meant to just read a few chapters to start it out and ended up reading it all in one sitting. The story has some great twists and I loved the setting. The two sisters Rosalin and Briony are well written and I enjoyed their relationship. They don’t always agree but their fierce protectiveness of each other was wonderful. The book also has a great message and overall is just a wonderful book.

Thornwood is a book full of adventure and mystery. The story begins with the introduction of two princesses m, Rosalin, who is perfect in every way and her younger sister Briony, Everyone of course knows Rosalin, she is the one that needs to be protected from the curse an evil fairy placed on her. The curse being that she will prick her finger on a spinning wheel and fall into a deep sleep until a prince awakens her with a kiss. Of course with all the fuss surrounding Rosalin, Briony is left feeling unimportant and overlooked by everyone in the castle including her parents. The adventure and mystery really begins when Rosilin is supposedly awaken by Prince Varian on Glenall , but something is terribly wrong. The thornwood that was part of the curse, which should have disappeared after the curse was broken by the kiss, is over taking the castle, The thornwood vines are preventing everyone from leaving and are starting to invade the castle and causing injury and havoc. How will the princesses and the rest of the people trapped by the fairy queen, escape her clutches and defeat her once and for all? I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a fairy tale with a twist and a few surprises,

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
This book is a treasure! This book did a stunning job on worldbuilding and writing, but I felt like some of the characters were annoyingly bratty and almost unlikeable. Other than that, the author did a marvelous job with this book, and I definitely recommend this book if you enjoy fantasy/fairytale retellings or books about siblings.

I thought this was such a great retelling of the classic Sleeping Beauty fairytale. I love the twist that the story is from the sister's preceptive. Briony is the younger sister that everyone forgets about. All everyone cares about is her older sister Rosalin. The one who is cursed. On the eve of Rosalin's sixteenth birthday she pricks her finger on a spinning wheel she and anyone else in the castle will sleep for 100 years. When Briony wakes up she feels that something is a miss. When everyone else wakes and the prince is in the castle they must find a way to fight the Thronwood outside the castle and try to defeat the Fairy Queen. I loved how the story went and the ending of it.

Thornwood is a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty Fairytale from the point of view of the younger sister. It is a very average book. I gave it three stars. The older sister is supposed to 16, which is not delt with at all as still being very young, and any attempt to give the younger sister agency is undermined by the treatment of the older one. She is also rather unbearable. Everyone reads a bit flat, and the ending feels rushed. The epilogue is stuck on and feels really, really rushed. It is hard to comment more without spoilers but there would be a lot more adjustment in reality. The main character is spunky and there is adventure and fairies so there will be middle schoolers who enjoy this book but I personally would not recommend it with so many other better fairytale retellings out there.

I received an advance copy of, Thornwood, by Leah Cypress. I did not enjoy this book or the characters. Others might.

Teenager Briony has always lived in the shadow of her beautiful but cursed older sister, Rosalin. The rest of the world knows Rosalin as Sleeping Beauty, but they don’t know the rest of the story. What happens when Prince Charming turns out to be, well, not what was expected. It’s up to Briony and a newfound friend to uncover the truth and save everyone in the castle from being doomed forever. Is she up to the task? Find out in this story of Sleeping Beauty like you’ve never read before.

I really enjoyed this version of Sleeping Beauty. The twists and turns that it took were perfect to make it an original story.

Semi-gothic Sleeping Beauty retelling for the upper elementary or middle school set told by Sleeping Beauty's poorly regarded little sister, Briony. It's an interesting take and a tight little fantasy novel, but the frankly unbelievable dismissal of Briony by every courtier and servant beggars belief (she's still a princess, after all, in a feudal world where such things mattered). The introduction of Edwin, a serf reviled by his community but later revealed to be atypically brilliant, was intended to mirror Briony's experience but was never explained fully or developed in any way. I urge readers to push beyond the initial chapters that overly focus on personal hurts and grudges as they eventually give way to a solid adventure story.

I'm not really sure how to feel about this book. I'm a huge fan of fairy tale retellings. There are some retellings that make the main character of the original tales sympathetic. There are other retellings where the fairy tale hero was secretly bad, or unpleasant and the hero is actually someone else. This books seems to try to go for both with Rosalin (Sleeping Beauty). At times Briony implies that Rosalin cares a lot about her. At other times it seems like Rosalin is just bullying her for no reason. I get that sibling relationships have moments of friendship and moments of fighting, but Rosalin's inconsistency just made me dislike her. On the other hand, I didn't like Briony that much either. She just seems perpetually annoyed with everyone.