Rebecca Langham

Finding Aurora

Lucia Correa

4 Stars for this Sleeping Beauty (Aurora Rose) retelling.

The prince in this case is Prince Amir from the kingdom of Grimvein. He is accompanied by a powerful spellcaster, the Leading Caster of Grimvein, Talia. Amir's parents task him to awake and marry Aurora who has been asleep for 100 years. Many have tried but none had succeeded to getting to her. The two of them are hopeful that by working together they can reach Aurora. Of course there is that little detail of True Love's Kiss...

I really enjoyed this story. Both of the characters are heroic and likable. I liked that Amir is a "Prince" of a guy, a warrior, loyal, and brave. The author could've easily made him arrogant. Talia is smart, and powerful and together they have a chance.

If you enjoy fairy tale retellings or perhaps never read one, give this novella a try.

**I must include a link to one of my favorite fairy tale retellings Maleficent Beauty by Creme Brulee. Check it out.

Alice

I will forever and ever be grateful to short books because they're an escape from reality that doesn't require too much energy from the reader.

I found Finding Aurora in a rec list for fairytale retellings. One of the reasons I didn't enjoy it more than I did is probably because it reads like a Middle Grade to Young Adult book (or younger YA, whichever gets my point across).

I put it in the same category as 
  Fairest Son
: short and easy.

Likes:
- It's a retelling *squeals*
- LGBTQIA+ rep, and not just for show? The author doesn't really delve into it, granted, but it still feels genuine. The confusion is good, speaking from experience.
- The true love kiss. The execution wasn't exactly smooth, and it was quite predictable, but I loved it so much.
- It's a quick read, good to take your mind off life's problems.

Middle ground:
- I didn't particularly like the characters, especially the main one, she feels a bit like a pick-me girl. But they're meant to be sweet and they don't cross into annoying territory (too often) so we're cool. The prince is cute.
- The world building is not the strongest, but what can you really do with 70 pages in that aspect. Let's not be too demanding.
- The pacing was slow, and the plot kinda weak.

Dislikes:
- The writing wasn't my cup of tea. The big words with the young-ish tone make it feel clumsy.
- The ending. It's quite childish, and rushed, and open ended, my checklist for endings I don't like.
- The lack of substance, of depth, in the whole story and mood. The scenes that were meant to be tragic felt cartoonishly so because there was a lot of telling and not much showing.

Finding Aurora

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