Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Review: Sleeping Beauty: Vampire Slayer by Maureen McGowan

Sleeping Beauty: Vampire Slayer (Twisted Tales) by Maureen McGowan

NetGalley - ebook - ARC

Amazon Product Description:
In this thrilling story full of adventure and romance, Sleeping Beauty is more than just a lonely princess waiting for her prince—she's a brave, tenacious girl who never backs down from a challenge. With vampire-slaying talents that she practices in secret, Sleeping Beauty puts her courage to the test in the dark of night, fighting evil as she searches for a way to break the spell that has cut her off from her family. In a special twist, readers have the opportunity to make key decisions for Sleeping Beauty and decide where she goes next—but no matter the choice; the result is a story unlike any fairy tale you've ever read!
Sleeping Beauty: Vampire Slayer is an entirely new type of fairy tale–one that will keep today's kids guessing and offer them hours of magical fun.


My thoughts:  
I loved the idea of being able to choose the path that the story would take.  I was really excited about the fact that each time the story was read it could change!  The downfall to reading this ARC on the Kindle is that there are no page numbers and so I was unable to actually do any choosing.  I did get the entire story cover to cover encompassing all the choices in one reading.  I completely enjoyed the book!


I was intrigued by the different take on both humans and vampires that we are given in this tale.  I love the twist to the traditional fairy tale!  I have seen many and read few of the fairy tale spin offs, this was creatively and cleverly done.


The world that has been created is believable (considering we are talking about paranormal fairy tale fantasy) and I never found myself saying - - - "No way could that happen there!"


Maureen McGowan built interesting characters.  I can't say that I loved them all, because truly Queen Catia has some issues.  She seems completely sane and somewhat unconcerned with the curse when compared to King Stefan who is completely out of control with fear for his only child! Even though they are both hoping to save Lucette from the curse - they can never seem to agree on the best way to keep her safe.  The Vampire Queen Natasha is awful, evil, hateful, and cruel - as a good villain should be.  Alex is fantastic from the first meeting and of course Tristan is .... well Tristan.  Lucette is an incredible character!  


All the characters seem to be well thought out and carefully created!  Lucette's grandparents are a great addition and add to the twisting plot of the story.  The author is great with subtle hints along the way - such as the description of the grandfather... (no spoilers).


This was my first Maureen McGowan read and enjoyed every page!  I plan to read Cinderella: Ninja Warrior as soon as I have cleared up a few of my review stacks.  I can't wait to see how that one plays out too!!!

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