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Wednesday, August 18, 2010

The Wide-Awake Princess

After Sleeping Beauty is cursed at her christening, her parents are taking no chances with her little sister. They consult a fairy with a good reputation before Annabelle is very old at all and she is given a strange gift: magic cannot touch her, for good or for bad.

Of course, this has interesting consequences when Gwen's curse comes true, putting everyone (except Annie) in a deep sleep for 100 years. Annie sets off to find Gwen's true love and happens to find her own as well.

This was a very fun book -- just what I needed when I picked it up. It has an easy humor and likeable lead characters. Some of the other characters were a bit two-dimensional, but the book was very much plot-driven, so that doesn't stand in the way of a good time. In general I prefer character-driven fiction, so in the midst of all the action I occasionally wondered "but what does she think of that?" Still, a fast paced and fun read.

There's a scene near the beginning that I think is my favorite: Annie's first encounter with a witch in the woods, who ends up chucking Annie's lunch into a bush. Cracked me up.

Recommended to fans of fairy tale retellings -- the book touches on more than just the sleeping beauty story.