"She woke up with a kiss.
Not a bird-singing, heart-stopping, world-ending sort of kiss. A light spot of pressure on her lips.
Aurora opened her eyes.
A stranger loomed above her. A boy. He stared at her. "I did it," he said. "I actually did it."
Aurora screamed."
--
"Aurora tried to picture them, countless strangers, coming into her tower and kissing her while she slept. Princes and nobles, people she had never spoken to, men now old or dead, all bowing before her, pressing their lips to hers, expecting her to gasp in delight and open her eyes again. An itch crawled under her skin, like something foreign, something unwanted, had nestled inside her."
--
"What had happened to make people obsess over a fairy tale? To make a prince believe a single kiss meant true love, and that a girl who knew so little could mean so much?"
A Wicked Thing has turned out to be a much better read that I thought it would be. I know that sounds bad, but lately I have just have had no luck with fairy tale retellings. Specially when the authors try to modernize them and they just fall short. So it is a nice surprise that A Wicked Thing seems (so far) to be nailing it. While Aurora is a little more timid than I usually prefer in my lead females, her character and behavior is one that we can understand. She has been sheltered her whole life, raised to behave a certain way and follow rules of etiquette that are way old fashioned. Through A Wicked Lovely you get to see her break out of her shell and try to adjust to a world that is seemingly both like and unlike her old world. She is disoriented but she is quickly learning the rules of the game they play at court. It is a retelling of the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale that doesn't shy away from the ugly truths. Romance is not perfect, the future will not turn out like you think it might, and not all princesses get a fairy tale ending.
I am liking this retelling so far. Halfway through, I hope our princess learns to stand up for herself, and her people, by the end.
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