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Waking the Prince
Living a quiet life in a remote village, Roland does not expect the arrival of the powerful warrior, Magnus, who speaks of fates and prophecies. But surely Roland can't be the lost royal prince who is destined to slay the evil sorcerer, Veronious, with a legendary sword. Indeed, Roland doesn't even know how to wield a sword.
But when Roland's identity is confirmed and danger nears, he flees with Magnus, who trains him for battle by day and teaches him passion by night.
Just as Roland finds the legendary sword, Veronious learns Roland is the lost prince and casts a curse on him. The beautiful prince falls into a deep sleep, not to stir for a hundred years...unless he is awakened by a true love's kiss.
Gay / Fantasy / Fairy Tale / Witchcraft / Magic
100 pages, Kindle Edition
First published November 18, 2012
About the author
Shawn Lane
133 books310 followersShawn Lane writes erotic gay romances and believes love and passion know no boundaries. Happily Ever After is for everyone.
In the past she has written heterosexual romances (see her backlist) but is now concentrating on gay romances.
Shawn lives in California and holds down a boring day job in a legal department of a giant corporation dreaming of the nights and weekends when she can create new stories.
Shawn loves to hear from readers, is happy to answer any questions, and has been known to send free books to fans just because.
In the past she has written heterosexual romances (see her backlist) but is now concentrating on gay romances.
Shawn lives in California and holds down a boring day job in a legal department of a giant corporation dreaming of the nights and weekends when she can create new stories.
Shawn loves to hear from readers, is happy to answer any questions, and has been known to send free books to fans just because.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 17, 2016
3.5 Stars
A cute Cinderella story with a slight twist there is a Cinderfella. This is the kind of story I haven’t read in a long time, a story with a Prince, a warrior, a castle, a dragon, magic and a sorcerer out to get rid of the royal family. It’s nothing really new and the beginning of the book was a bit slow and hard for me to get into but as I read on I started to like it. Roland was sweet and innocent and with the guidance of his warrior Magnus who is Roland’s protector and teacher he sets out to fulfill his destiny. It’s a short simple read with a sweet love story and an HEA. But how else could a “fairytale” end?
March 9, 2018
A Joyfully Jay review.
1.5 stars
There are a lot of problems with this story. There isn’t much of a plot beyond good prince must kill evil mage — who we know is evil because he sleeps around. Oh, and because everyone calls him evil. — and that’s it. The story is very, very loosely based on Sleeping Beauty, with a prince spirited away for his protection, a wall of thorns and a dragon thrown in, a sword instead of a spindle, and then it’s a chapter to the end and all’s well that ends well. The pacing in this story is all over the place with weeks passing between paragraphs with neither warning or explanation. It’s as if the author just wanted to move on to the next scene and the reader has to try to keep up.
This feels very much like a first attempt at a book, or a rough draft of a story. There are holes in the plot, a distinct lack of personality in the characters, no romance — just a sex scene — no world building, no motivations beyond the most cartoonish. Personally, I don’t think this book was ready to be published. There’s a lot of telling rather than showing, and yet at the same time, not enough telling. There is so much clumsy phrasing and confusing paragraphs that I kept having to go back to figure out what the author was saying, wondering if I’d missed something. This is a hard pass from me, and I cannot recommend it to anyone.
Read Elizabeth’s review in its entirety here.
1.5 stars
There are a lot of problems with this story. There isn’t much of a plot beyond good prince must kill evil mage — who we know is evil because he sleeps around. Oh, and because everyone calls him evil. — and that’s it. The story is very, very loosely based on Sleeping Beauty, with a prince spirited away for his protection, a wall of thorns and a dragon thrown in, a sword instead of a spindle, and then it’s a chapter to the end and all’s well that ends well. The pacing in this story is all over the place with weeks passing between paragraphs with neither warning or explanation. It’s as if the author just wanted to move on to the next scene and the reader has to try to keep up.
This feels very much like a first attempt at a book, or a rough draft of a story. There are holes in the plot, a distinct lack of personality in the characters, no romance — just a sex scene — no world building, no motivations beyond the most cartoonish. Personally, I don’t think this book was ready to be published. There’s a lot of telling rather than showing, and yet at the same time, not enough telling. There is so much clumsy phrasing and confusing paragraphs that I kept having to go back to figure out what the author was saying, wondering if I’d missed something. This is a hard pass from me, and I cannot recommend it to anyone.
Read Elizabeth’s review in its entirety here.
January 7, 2018
A very cute reinterpretation of ‘Sleeping Beauty’, this version of the fairy tale involves two hot men, an evil sorcerer, a tough quest with several pesky obstacles, and some tender loving. All the elements of the original story are there, but the author subtly reshaped them into a slightly different tale. The biggest difference was the crucial role Roland, the prince, himself plays in achieving victory, with Magnus, the warrior who is supposed to protect him, becoming an equal partner. And the sense of humor adds a nice touch to make it an even more fun read.
Please find my full review on Rainbow Book Reviews.
Please find my full review on Rainbow Book Reviews.
January 1, 2013
While not without its issues, after some of the duds I’ve had lately, this was a treat, without any of the annoying errors that plagued the last few books. It’s basically a take on sleeping beauty, with the young prince spirited away as a baby, supposed to be taught by Magnus’ father. When Magnus returns to fetch Roland, he finds out his father died when Roland was young so he has no clue he’s the prince, is not trained and knows nothing about the curse. However he soon leaves with Magnus ahead of the bad guys and they begin his training so that he can enter the castle and find the sword that will slay the wizard.
It’s not an exact play on the fairy tale. He pricks his finger on the sword but the castle where everyone is sleeping was well before his arrival, but of course, the kiss of his one true love brings him back to live in weeks rather than decades to an epic battle with the wizard.
I liked Roland. He’s pretty easy-going and once he accepts that he is the prince, he goes with the flow, although has a penchant for being pouty in the morning. Also, once he discovers gay sex he’s all ready to ensure he doesn’t die a virgin. I like it sometimes when the guy doesn’t angst over the whole issue of liking other guys and takes to it like a duck to water. :-) It can be a change of pace. And this is a fairy tale. Sure parts of it are unrealistic and coincidental, but seriously what fairy tale isn’t. The chance that Belle’s father would get in trouble with the Beast and she’d be captured? Right. Like that would happen. So you have to read this as a fairy tale, where magical convenient things happen to make the story and adventure.
So on the whole, if you are looking for something purely for fun and are prepared to just enjoy the ride rather than expect rational plot points that you would in a serious book you’ll enjoy it. If those kind of liberties make you crazy, maybe not. I also like this author’s style, which even with a bit more formal “medieval” speech came through well. It was fun for me.
It’s not an exact play on the fairy tale. He pricks his finger on the sword but the castle where everyone is sleeping was well before his arrival, but of course, the kiss of his one true love brings him back to live in weeks rather than decades to an epic battle with the wizard.
I liked Roland. He’s pretty easy-going and once he accepts that he is the prince, he goes with the flow, although has a penchant for being pouty in the morning. Also, once he discovers gay sex he’s all ready to ensure he doesn’t die a virgin. I like it sometimes when the guy doesn’t angst over the whole issue of liking other guys and takes to it like a duck to water. :-) It can be a change of pace. And this is a fairy tale. Sure parts of it are unrealistic and coincidental, but seriously what fairy tale isn’t. The chance that Belle’s father would get in trouble with the Beast and she’d be captured? Right. Like that would happen. So you have to read this as a fairy tale, where magical convenient things happen to make the story and adventure.
So on the whole, if you are looking for something purely for fun and are prepared to just enjoy the ride rather than expect rational plot points that you would in a serious book you’ll enjoy it. If those kind of liberties make you crazy, maybe not. I also like this author’s style, which even with a bit more formal “medieval” speech came through well. It was fun for me.
January 24, 2018
A Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words Review An Alisa Review:
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
So, I obviously went into this story knowing what the ending would probably be but I wanted to see how they got there. Roland has spent his life in a tiny village without much interaction with the outside world. Magnus doesn’t expect to find the beautiful man who has never been trained as was expected.
Roland wants to not die a virgin and tests Magnus’s patience at times. They both play off each other well though I didn’t like Magnus’s insistence at pushing Roland away and not showing him how he felt. It was a little suspect at how they found out about the curse to me, I would have liked a little more story there. I liked seeing Roland grow a back bone as the story went on and gained faith in himself to do what was needed.
The cover art by Written Ink Designs is nice and gives a visual of our sleeping prince.
Rating: 3 stars out of 5
So, I obviously went into this story knowing what the ending would probably be but I wanted to see how they got there. Roland has spent his life in a tiny village without much interaction with the outside world. Magnus doesn’t expect to find the beautiful man who has never been trained as was expected.
Roland wants to not die a virgin and tests Magnus’s patience at times. They both play off each other well though I didn’t like Magnus’s insistence at pushing Roland away and not showing him how he felt. It was a little suspect at how they found out about the curse to me, I would have liked a little more story there. I liked seeing Roland grow a back bone as the story went on and gained faith in himself to do what was needed.
The cover art by Written Ink Designs is nice and gives a visual of our sleeping prince.
January 7, 2018
A very cute reinterpretation of ‘Sleeping Beauty’, this version of the fairy tale involves two hot men, an evil sorcerer, a tough quest with several pesky obstacles, and some tender loving. All the elements of the original story are there, but the author subtly reshaped them into a slightly different tale. The biggest difference was the crucial role Roland, the prince, himself plays in achieving victory, with Magnus, the warrior who is supposed to protect him, becoming an equal partner. And the sense of humor adds a nice touch to make it an even more fun read.
Please find my full review of the second edition on Rainbow Book Reviews.
Please find my full review of the second edition on Rainbow Book Reviews.
June 11, 2015
Nice take on the sleeping beauty fairy tale. The language was a little awkward at time and my copy had editing errors, but over all entertaining.
September 27, 2017
This was a sweet little story to see back in print again! It's of course a bit of a spin on Sleeping Beauty, along with some sword and sorcery thrown in. It's a short, quick read perfect for a mood lifter or as a book to "cleanse the palate" (as E. Davies says) between heavier titles. While things are rushed along, more sketched out than anything, there was a nice sense of the growing relationship between the two. It was a perfect read on Kindle Unlimited but not, I think, priced right (at $3.99) for such a short piece.
September 4, 2013
It's not bad but not much to read either. It seems like a small sample of a bigger story. I think it was interesting enough though. Romantic even.
January 22, 2013
2.5 stars
December 31, 2012
A m/m take on Sleeping Beauty. OK read for me.
March 4, 2013
3.5 stars
February 16, 2013
A sweet, though rather benign little piece.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews