Briarheart

Briarheart

Mercedes Lackey — 2021
"When Miriam's younger sister, Princess Aurora, is born, she must learn to harness her new magical powers to protect her sister and the kingdom"--
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Reviews

Photo of Samantha Bass
Samantha Bass@wewriteatdawn
1 star
Oct 20, 2021

I received a copy from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a review. This is a spoiler free, honest review and all thoughts and feelings are my own. DNFed @ 29% I love retellings and this Sleeping Beauty retelling seemed really cool when I read the synopsis! I don't think I've read a version with the main character being different from Aurora/Sleeping Beauty and instead her protector. I was curious how this would have played out and unfortunately, this was not the book for me. For starters, the chapters were ridiculously long. For a book that's longer than 350 pages, the chapters were about 10% of the total length of the book. Each. So these chapters were between 25-35 or so pages long, if not longer, and it was really hard to push through. I'm pretty sure I DNFed at like chapter 4 or 5 because I could not keep my focus long enough to read what was happening. I'm not a fan of long, drawn out chapters so I struggled to keep track of what was happening with no breaks. And second off, the writing style was not my favorite. I don't mind authors that offer explanations for what's going on, especially in the beginning, but repeating it several times in the same scene is so choppy to read. And repeating the same definition/explanation over and over again in one scene does not help me remember what it is later on. Though the plot seemed really interesting, the writing is what killed it for me. I was having a very hard time getting through the book and was losing interest fast. Unfortunately, this just wasn't a book for me and I DNFed it.

Photo of Macy Johnson
Macy Johnson@lunalovegoodreads
3 stars
Dec 4, 2023
Photo of Lillian Nogalski
Lillian Nogalski@lilabelle824
2 stars
Feb 15, 2022