Jana Oliver is a marvelous storyteller of the world of adults and young adults. This novel fits firmly into the latter category but it took a while for the YA label to really sink in. The teenagers text each other and have their own shorthand for dealing with the world, but never at any point does Oliver's language or descriptions fall into the preachy or talk down to her audience. No, this author lets the characters make their own mistakes! What is that sound? Where is it coming from? Oh wait, how do I run in this skirt? How do I fight with this sword?
This is, as the title suggests, a modern re-telling of the Briar Rose/Sleeping Beauty story, with teenagers in the starring roles and their parents rushing around and making a mess of things. Briar has been cursed (there is a strong vein of Hoo-doo running through this town, with herbs and curses and wise women) after an accident at a young age, and is forbidden from staying friends with her then best friend, Joshua. The details of the curse are hints, the bits of the story of the curse come out after some time in the story, and the whole details of the curse are saved for the very end. Ditto the sleep of Briar Rose: the world she enters is due to magic, but her ability to work through the elements come from within her and involve her having to decide between the handsome prince of her story, and the handsome prince that is waiting for her all her life.
There are unexpected twists and turns, bits of magic and magical creatures, the evil of twisted hearts and metal, and lots of growth for all the characters. A definite good read for adults and young adults alike. ( )

I loved the Demon Trappers series by Oliver and was super excited to read this fairy tale retelling by Oliver. I have had this book for quite some time and was so excited to finally have time to read it. Honestly I was a bit disappointed.

Briar Rose is sick of the small town in Georgia that she is growing up in. On her sixteenth birthday her ex is spreading false rumors about what they did in the car one night and the guy of her dreams tries to take advantage of her too. To put it lightly, Briar is having a bad sixteenth birthday. Things only get worse when Briar’s parents tell her that she is cursed and doomed to die on her sixteenth birthday. However, Briar doesn’t die...she goes to sleep and wakes up in the middle of the most twisted and dark fairy tale ever. Now she has to figure out how to break the curse before she is stuck there forever...or dies.

There are some really cool ideas in here, it's kind of a fairy tale within a fairy tale. While I loved the idea behind the story I just felt like parts were really awkward. The dialogue between characters felt forced and I had a lot of trouble staying engaged with the story.

I just felt like this was such a neat idea and it could have been so much more with more descriptive writing, more natural sounding dialogue, and characters that weren't so hard to engage with.

I also disliked the whole "pairing" off of all of the characters. While two of our leads (Briar and Joshua) do have a good foundation for a relationship, the other two couples do not. They both have a serious case of insta-love and in both cases it's a very unlikely insta-love. The whole thing just felt so forced.

So, enough complaining...onto what I loved. I loved the idea of a evil queen who infects a kingdom with vicious metal beasts, I loved some of the fight scenes. I loved how metal was used as both a talisman to ward off evil and as something evil that infected people. I also enjoyed the story behind the dark queen and why she was infecting the realm with metal. I enjoyed the idea of a fairy tale curse that sends a girl into a sort of cursed fairy tale.

The story wraps up well but overall I was a bit disappointed in the quality of the writing.

Overall an okay fairy tale retelling that had some interesting elements but was overall somewhat disappointing. The dialogue was awkward and the characters hard to engage with. I liked the idea behind the fairy tale within a fairy tale and loved the evil queen, but wasn’t really all that engaged in the overall story. I wouldn’t recommend this as a good fairytale retelling of Sleeping Beauty...instead check out Jane Yolen’s Briar Rose which is a Holocaust retelling of Sleeping Beauty that is much more well done. ( )

I love, love, love this author! I think she did a fantastic job in bringing a whole new twist to a classic tale.

Plot: This is about a girl who is cursed to sleep when a spell goes horribly wrong. Briar must fight this spell not only on her body but in her mind. I think that the way this story moved from the vagueness to knowing what is happening really help me enjoy the story more. The story is introduced with not much to go on but it leads a trail of crumbs to follow and you can’t help but eat every single one.

Friendship/Love: Because of this curse it has cause a feud between two families. In turn, both kids are suffering at the hands of the parents. I felt like this part of the story really gives the reader that rush. Two kids who grew up so closely to only be torn apart without any knowledge of what really happened. The parents kept the kids in the dark and made their lives…well miserable. When they finally came to know, they fought for each other. And I adore it. I loved them getting to know each other and forgetting everything else around them. It’s like, they didn’t care what their parents thought. They were saving each other no matter what.

Ending: Despite them fighting the curse, both Briar and her boyfriend must fight others as well…like their parents and themselves. They have been told not to talk to each other, not to do this or that, that they are constantly fighting a battle for their hearts and trust. In the end, despite all the went down, both set aside everything for love…and WON!

I adore this book. It simple swept me off my feet!! I just knew the minute I read the first chapter that I stepped into something different. Briar Rose carries a unique tale that plays out deep in the mind. One that is satisfying and awesome. Briar Rose rocks! ( )