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Briar Rose
There once was a beautiful princess afflicted with a terrible curse. There once was a handsome prince, destined to break the curse.
Hey wait, this sounds familiar..
When the beautiful Princess Aurora was a baby, her parents brought the whole kingdom together to celebrate. Three gracious fairies attended, giving her wonderful gifts, as did the evil Maleficent.
No seriously, I’ve heard this story.
But the fairy godmothers didn’t care about the princess; all they wanted was to impress the king. The final gift they granted was crippling obedience. Maleficent twisted their gift, changing it so that if Aurora pricked herself on a briar rose the obedience curse would be lifted.
Oh. Wait, what? That’s not how this goes.
Aurora lived the first 11 years of her life as the perfect obedient princess until one day the teenage Prince Phillip gave her a mangy briar rose.
Freed from her obedience Aurora ran wild, sneaking into the woods and going by the name Rose. On day she met a very handsome hunter, named Hawk, who has a secret of his own. They fall in to bed, and then in love, but keep their secrets, and when Aurora returns to her father’s castle to tell him about Hawk and to renounce her royal status, things go terribly wrong.
Hey wait, this sounds familiar..
When the beautiful Princess Aurora was a baby, her parents brought the whole kingdom together to celebrate. Three gracious fairies attended, giving her wonderful gifts, as did the evil Maleficent.
No seriously, I’ve heard this story.
But the fairy godmothers didn’t care about the princess; all they wanted was to impress the king. The final gift they granted was crippling obedience. Maleficent twisted their gift, changing it so that if Aurora pricked herself on a briar rose the obedience curse would be lifted.
Oh. Wait, what? That’s not how this goes.
Aurora lived the first 11 years of her life as the perfect obedient princess until one day the teenage Prince Phillip gave her a mangy briar rose.
Freed from her obedience Aurora ran wild, sneaking into the woods and going by the name Rose. On day she met a very handsome hunter, named Hawk, who has a secret of his own. They fall in to bed, and then in love, but keep their secrets, and when Aurora returns to her father’s castle to tell him about Hawk and to renounce her royal status, things go terribly wrong.
103 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2010
About the author
Lila Dubois
96 books589 followersLila is a multi-published, bestselling author of erotic, paranormal and fantasy romance. Having spent extensive time in France, Egypt, Turkey, Ireland and England, Lila speaks five languages, none of them--including English--fluently.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
March 10, 2018
First, I'm very glad I didn't buy this; I only went through an online reading library. Second, I thought the concept was interesting, as I enjoy a fairy-tale retold.
That said - this was quite dismal.
I understand the urge to make Sleeping Beauty more spicy, but honestly, didn't Anne Rice do that quite adequately already? And if I wanted to read more creative and interesting re-tellings, without the sexual overkill, I would just pick up Five Magic Spindles, which is sooooo much better (yes, I know it's a collection, but every single one of them is better written and more interesting than this one).
Where to begin?
Sloppy writing - or sloppy editing, but seriously, if you're solely relying on your editor to make you sound intelligent, you're doing it wrong.
The sexy bits - ok, it's cute that
As for the denouement - it was disjointed, hurried, unsatisfying, and in no way a great conclusion to the story, such as it was.
Yeah, an interesting concept, but poorly executed. Don't know that I'll pick up another Dubois book after this one.
That said - this was quite dismal.
I understand the urge to make Sleeping Beauty more spicy, but honestly, didn't Anne Rice do that quite adequately already? And if I wanted to read more creative and interesting re-tellings, without the sexual overkill, I would just pick up Five Magic Spindles, which is sooooo much better (yes, I know it's a collection, but every single one of them is better written and more interesting than this one).
Where to begin?
Sloppy writing - or sloppy editing, but seriously, if you're solely relying on your editor to make you sound intelligent, you're doing it wrong.
The sexy bits - ok, it's cute that
As for the denouement - it was disjointed, hurried, unsatisfying, and in no way a great conclusion to the story, such as it was.
Yeah, an interesting concept, but poorly executed. Don't know that I'll pick up another Dubois book after this one.
April 22, 2020
Why do I always seem to end up reading crap on Hoopla?
I thought this was going to be a standard-fare fairy tale retelling, maybe something a little cheesy and stupid but readable, you know. Clearly I'm dumb. I had no warning.
Rant ahead:
Anyway, this book needs proper content warnings. And I'm gonna flip a table right now.
(╯°益°)╯彡┻━┻
I thought this was going to be a standard-fare fairy tale retelling, maybe something a little cheesy and stupid but readable, you know. Clearly I'm dumb. I had no warning.
Rant ahead:
Anyway, this book needs proper content warnings. And I'm gonna flip a table right now.
(╯°益°)╯彡┻━┻
June 2, 2017
Awful!
I read the blurb thinking this would be an interesting twist on a traditional fairytale, boy was I wrong. By the time chapter two came along I thought I was reading a pornographic book. The story line was lost among all the graphic sex. I am not a prude and have read plenty of steamy books but, this was just ridiculous. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS BOOK AT ALL!!!
I read the blurb thinking this would be an interesting twist on a traditional fairytale, boy was I wrong. By the time chapter two came along I thought I was reading a pornographic book. The story line was lost among all the graphic sex. I am not a prude and have read plenty of steamy books but, this was just ridiculous. I DO NOT RECOMMEND THIS BOOK AT ALL!!!
January 30, 2018
This was just not good..... I didn't like any of the characters, and nothing really made sense and jumped all over the place
July 2, 2019
Sexy retelling. sort of, of Sleeping Beauty, mindless way to spend a gray stormy day.
April 28, 2011
One of these days, I’ll learn that breaking my own rules is never a good idea. See, I love the cover on this book. I’d heard good things about the author. I trust Liquid Silver. So I bought it without actually reading the excerpt. If I had, I would never, ever have handed over money for it.
If it sounds like a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, it is. It very closely resembles the Disney cartoon, except with a lot more sex. Prince Phillip even talks to his horse like he did in the movie. It’s kind of pointless for me to summarize. It doesn’t veer off the story everybody knows very much. There’s a princess, yadda yadda, she’s off in the woods and meets a boy and falls instantly in love, yadda yadda, neither know the other is royalty, and so on. Some of the variations come in her relationship with Maleficent, who is pretty much her only friend (and occasional lover if the open-mouthed kisses and groping is anything to go by), and the details of the sleeping curse, but that’s pretty much it. Otherwise, it’s Sleeping Beauty with a lot of pointless sex.
So what’s my problem with this novella? It starts on the first page with silly editorial errors. If I’d read the excerpt (which for LSB is always chapter one), I would’ve seen them and passed on buying. I only continued reading because I kept hoping it would get better. It didn’t. And they really are silly errors. We must got tell Millie, and It took then a week, and The gelding let out a surprised whiny, and…well, I have a very long list that I bothered to take a note of. You don’t need to see them all. One of the fairies gets described as “titan-haired” but I’m pretty sure it’s meant to be “titian-haired.” What color is titan-haired supposed to be? At one point, Phillip calls her Aurora when he doesn’t know her true identity and only knows her as Rose. Even Maleficent’s name changes spelling at the end of the story.
If I sound frustrated, I am. I don’t expect this level of mistakes from this publisher. And I’m annoyed with myself for not reading the excerpt and saving myself both the time and money I spent on this. If the story itself had been original enough to distract me from the errors, it might not have been so bad, but it just isn’t. It’s told in fairy tale style, with an omniscient POV (which wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been, thankfully), and I kept picturing the movie every time they were in the forest. If one of them had burst into song, I wouldn’t have been surprised. The story does try to add a darker element at the end as Aurora’s frustrated father tries to control her, but honestly, the violence of those scenes and the suggestion that she’s going to be raped as well as whipped never gels with the rest of the novella.
I’m going to stick more closely to my rules from now on. And wish fervently that this is a blip in LSB’s usual reliability.
If it sounds like a retelling of Sleeping Beauty, it is. It very closely resembles the Disney cartoon, except with a lot more sex. Prince Phillip even talks to his horse like he did in the movie. It’s kind of pointless for me to summarize. It doesn’t veer off the story everybody knows very much. There’s a princess, yadda yadda, she’s off in the woods and meets a boy and falls instantly in love, yadda yadda, neither know the other is royalty, and so on. Some of the variations come in her relationship with Maleficent, who is pretty much her only friend (and occasional lover if the open-mouthed kisses and groping is anything to go by), and the details of the sleeping curse, but that’s pretty much it. Otherwise, it’s Sleeping Beauty with a lot of pointless sex.
So what’s my problem with this novella? It starts on the first page with silly editorial errors. If I’d read the excerpt (which for LSB is always chapter one), I would’ve seen them and passed on buying. I only continued reading because I kept hoping it would get better. It didn’t. And they really are silly errors. We must got tell Millie, and It took then a week, and The gelding let out a surprised whiny, and…well, I have a very long list that I bothered to take a note of. You don’t need to see them all. One of the fairies gets described as “titan-haired” but I’m pretty sure it’s meant to be “titian-haired.” What color is titan-haired supposed to be? At one point, Phillip calls her Aurora when he doesn’t know her true identity and only knows her as Rose. Even Maleficent’s name changes spelling at the end of the story.
If I sound frustrated, I am. I don’t expect this level of mistakes from this publisher. And I’m annoyed with myself for not reading the excerpt and saving myself both the time and money I spent on this. If the story itself had been original enough to distract me from the errors, it might not have been so bad, but it just isn’t. It’s told in fairy tale style, with an omniscient POV (which wasn’t as bad as it could’ve been, thankfully), and I kept picturing the movie every time they were in the forest. If one of them had burst into song, I wouldn’t have been surprised. The story does try to add a darker element at the end as Aurora’s frustrated father tries to control her, but honestly, the violence of those scenes and the suggestion that she’s going to be raped as well as whipped never gels with the rest of the novella.
I’m going to stick more closely to my rules from now on. And wish fervently that this is a blip in LSB’s usual reliability.
April 18, 2014
It was the story's blurb that caught me the most. It hinted at the fact that the novella would play fast and loose with a fairy tale (in this case Sleeping Beauty) while also being entertaining and steamy. I wasn't let down one jot. Who Hawk turned out to be is easily predicted (and actually revealed quite early on in the story itself), but really the true enjoyment was watching Hawk and Rose dance around the inevitable.
Some of the story was oddly touching, such as when Maleficent is regarding the 'gifts' the other witches are bestowing upon Aurora and how cruel they are being, or later when Aurora is desperately trying to understand what was going on. The intimate scenes between Aurora (as Rose) and Hawk start out as simple sex me up baby scenes, but when they're feelings quickly become engaged everything changes. A sense of bitter urgency flows through Aurora's veins as she tries to hold on to Hawk against pretty much the entire world's disapproval and expectations.
Some of the threads seemed abrupt--such as when her father is recalling his impetuous brother's similar behavior or the suddenly very cruel treatment Aurora receives at home. While the former was definitely a shot out of nowhere, the latter was hinted at, but not to the degree it suddenly became.
Dubois' writing was solid and filled with wit, humor and cheekiness. A warning though--there is crude language used and mild hinting at a more than friendly relationship between two of the female characters.
Some of the story was oddly touching, such as when Maleficent is regarding the 'gifts' the other witches are bestowing upon Aurora and how cruel they are being, or later when Aurora is desperately trying to understand what was going on. The intimate scenes between Aurora (as Rose) and Hawk start out as simple sex me up baby scenes, but when they're feelings quickly become engaged everything changes. A sense of bitter urgency flows through Aurora's veins as she tries to hold on to Hawk against pretty much the entire world's disapproval and expectations.
Some of the threads seemed abrupt--such as when her father is recalling his impetuous brother's similar behavior or the suddenly very cruel treatment Aurora receives at home. While the former was definitely a shot out of nowhere, the latter was hinted at, but not to the degree it suddenly became.
Dubois' writing was solid and filled with wit, humor and cheekiness. A warning though--there is crude language used and mild hinting at a more than friendly relationship between two of the female characters.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews