Author: Katie Hamstead
Series: Fairytale Galaxy Chronicles #1
Genre: Retelling/YA/Sci-Fi
Publisher: Curiosity Quills Press
Publication Date: March 31st, 2016
Edition: Kindle Edition, 263 pages
Source: Received from Publisher for review
Purchase: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | BAM
Synopsis:
Apolline is happy hunting magical creatures on her pirate-infested outer-perimeter planet. She is a fantastic shot, and doesn’t flinch at the blood and guts of her kills. Never once did she consider she could be the missing Princess of Tyrone.
All her life, she has heard the story of the Princess, cursed to sleep for eternity, unless her betrothed, the Prince of Oran, gave her true love’s kiss. Although Apolline knows she is betrothed, she thinks her fairy guardians arranged it out of ignorance of human ways. The thought she could be a princess is inconceivable.
Then Allard appears. Handsome, charming—but he’s not hers to have. He’s betrothed, too. Her guardians warn her against her new found friendship, but she and Allard meet in secret anyway. Despite her rough exterior, he sees beyond her gun-slinging bravado, and their love blossoms.
But the deadline for the sleeping curse is approaching. If Apolline falls in love with the wrong person, she could end up sleeping forever.
Review:
Fairy-tale retelling, sign me up!
I really, really liked this book. It was a nice take on fairy tales, it wove them together in a very entertaining way. I loved all the characters, and I really love this world. I have also discovered that this seems to be the only way I can read Sci-fi; as Fairy-tale re-tellings. This and The Lunar Chronicles have a similar vibe, but this series already seems to have a more vast world. The Lunar Chronicles only takes place on Earth and the Moon, and this series takes place on a number of planets.
This is a retelling/re-imagining of Sleeping Beauty, and it seems that her parents are based on Cinderella and the Prince from that story. Snow White is mentioned as being a friend of the family, unclear who Allard's parents are in terms of Fairytales. I might have to re-read it to figure that out. Sleeping Beauty is often overlooked as a fairytale to reimagine, this is only the second one I have read.
There are a lot of non-romantic relationships in this book, Allard has lots of friends and a good relationship with his father. Apolline has a relatively good relationship with her "Aunts", things do get strained near the middle of the book when she keeps asking questions that go unanswered. Admittedly, I was starting to get frustrated with them not figuring out who each other was until near the end of the book. We, as readers knew, but they didn't and I really wanted them to figure it out sooner.
Apolline is a really capable character, I like that she's a huntress, I really like that she knows how to take care of herself and defend herself, how she's a better shot than the Prince. She was anything but a damsel in distress.
* I forgot to mention this, but there is a delightful lacking of "girl hate" in this book, sure all the girls in her town on Mish don't like Apolline, but that's explained away because of fairy magic. But the aristocrate she meets when Allard takes her to his planet she doesn't like Apolline because she thinks she's distracting the prince from his duty. But once she finds out who she is, she apologizes and they become friendly, possibly friends.
I hope to see these characters again in future books, but it looks like they won't make an appearance in the second book, which is kind of a bummer. But I am still looking forward to continuing this series.
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