Once upon a dream a twisted tale hardcover

I was disappointed by the first book in this series, but Aurora is my favorite princess and Sleeping Beauty is my favorite story, so I was willing to try this one. Yet, I don't even know what to say about it.

First off, I loved the premise. The fact that it wasn't a traditional sort of retelling was exciting. I liked the fact that it was all a dream and that Aurora needed to figure out how to wake herself up. To me, that means learning things and getting stronger and maybe magic. Sadly, it was filled with childish brattiness, odd interactions with Phillip {who was fairly adorable}, and STRANGE YELLING FOR EMPHASIS.

I kept waiting for some sort of amazing spark to happen that would make me fall in love with the story, because I REALLY wanted to love it. I tried so hard to love it. Overall, it was a clever idea, but not the best execution.

**Huge thanks to Disney Hyperion for the NetGalley invite to read**

Beware spoilers ahead!

I received this E-ARC via Disney Hyperion and Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

DNF

I have read one of the authors books The Nine Lives of Chloe King. This was before I started reviewing and blogging. I ended up DNFing that book. You can imagine my surprise when I found that the author was writing dark fairy tale retellings for Disney. I saw this book on Netgalley and read the synopsis. It sounded interesting so I requested it. But unfortunately I did not enjoy it.

The book begins with a prologue in Phillips point of view. He has just defeated Maleficent. He has no idea where the dragon's body is but assumes that someone must have double checked for it. He makes his way to Aurora's tower. He begins to explain that for the most part he has no idea what's happened. Phillip was in a cell when the 3 fairies saved him. They told him to kill the dragon and wake up Aurora. He's reached the tower and kisses Aurora. Then he starts to get dizzy and realizes that no one checked on the body.

A few years before Aurora's birth her parents got married. Together they ruled the land. But they were greedy and terrible people. They spent a significant time of their ruling eliminating good witches and fairies.

Once Aurora was born they invited everyone who was evil and the whole kingdom. When the guests started arriving the Queen immediately requested Aurora's presents. The three evil fairies arrive. Two of them give Aurora a gift (singing and a good heart) and third fairy promises the King and Queen an army of monsters. They also mention that once Aurora turns 16 they would take her. Maleficent arrives and is shocked that the King and Queen have made a deal with the evil fairies. Maleficent's a good fairy. Before she leaves she promises to save Aurora.

For the next 16 years the King and Queen neglect Aurora. They instead chose to focus on conquering their fellow neighbors. At this point the King and Queen have messed up epically. Their land is dying and so are their people. When the fairies arrive to take Aurora they demand their help. The fairies deny helping them mentioning it was the King and Queen's fault for making a deal with them. Before Aurora is taken away Maleficent arrives. She now has enough power to save Aurora and the land. She saves the people and becomes queen.

I'm starting to realize that I don't enjoy fairy tale retelling's. I was amazed at the amount of changes that were done from the Disney movie. I couldn't imagine the King and Queen being awful and the fairies being evil. I loved those fairies! I also couldn't imagine Maleficent being 'good'.

Aside from that I really didn't like the writing style. It felt choppy and misplaced. And there were more words than necessary to describe something. When I read the authors previous book it was written in first person. Whereas this book is written in third person. I think had this book been written in first person it would've sounded better. If it had just been because it was different I would've written it of as 'It's not you but me'. But that's not the case.

Overall I did not enjoy this book. But I still recommend it. It would definitely be interesting to read about Maleficent being a Queen and that for being a 'good' fairy she still puts the sleeping curse. And how with all these changes Aurora meets Phillip. I would recommend it to fans of dark fairy tale retelling's and fans of the author.

I was immediately more invested in this, than the first book, from the very first line of, "A dragon was dead." The prologue set the story up nicely but I did not, however, appreciate all of the character traits and found the main character, Aurora, to be a little vapid, shallow, and ungrateful, which had me struggling to empathise with her plight.

This had such an intriguing premise and had such potential to be a completely bad-ass book. Whilst there was nothing inherently wrong with it, it just didn't fill me with any feelings. The story-line was, in theory, a compelling one but I found the pacing too slow for me to care overly much. I adore slower-paced reads with slow building, suspense, intense character studies, or evocative depictions of the landscape. This did none of that. I can't point out what prolonged this story, at all. There was just a repetition of already known events and inconsequential filler scenes without which this would have been a brilliant read and only half its current length.

I did like how this padded the two-dimensional Disney characters and how it gave Aurora more awareness, over the course of the novel, and Phillip more flaws. It was also a really unique device to use the dream within a dream concept, which was cleverly executed and had me second-guessing much of the action. Everything in between, however? Not for me.

After Reading

Nope.

DNF @ 13%

I think it's time I gave up trying to read Liz Braswell, I just don't like her style at all.

This promised to be amazing, the premise was just so wonderful and intriguing, but I don't think this author is the best one to exercise this amazing idea. I found the prose to be stilted, so much that I couldn't settle into the story. It lacked maturity, was overly simple to read, and the descriptions were bland.

I wanted to like this (I love Sleeping Beauty, OK?) but I couldn't. I couldn't even finish it.

I received a copy of this for free via NetGalley for review purposes.

So, Merina, why not a 1 star rather than a 2? You ask.
Becauseeee the idea of it, is great.
Even the writing Wasn’t so much “bad” as it was mediocre.
I could’ve read this and been content rather than repulsed IF.....
The characters weren’t so unlikeably (not a word) BORING!!!! 😫😫😴
Y’all, they put me to sleep!
The concept, good.
The writing, okay.
The plot, not horrible.
The characters, absolutely the most unlikeable portrayal of a Disney princess I have ever encountered in my life.

She was petty, she was annoying, boring, and a damsel in distress til basically the last 3 chapters of the book... where then they tried to portray her as a hero and frankly it was just unbelievable.
I couldn’t even like Prince Phillip.🤭 I found Maleficent to be ten times more interesting than any of the other characters.
Sigh.

Once Upon a Dream is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty. The beginning of this book definitely had potential. I liked how the there was this whole mystery as to why the prince fell asleep in the after kissing Aurora. Then the whole dream-like world was another interesting point. However, it definitely fell flat and was kind of dragging on and on.

Aurora, or Rose, was just meh in my eyes. She was completely boring in my eyes and at one point I just didn't care if they came out of this world. I was kind of rooting for Maleficent to win towards the end. Then besides Aurora's petty ass.. there was the prince. Honestly.. I liked the cartoon character way better. I would rather watch the movie on repeat for the rest of my life than read this book ever again.

Overall, I heard that the third book is way better and a favorite for a lot of people. So in other words, I can't wait to dive into it.

A death toll is always high.

It's the realistic side of fairytales.

But I don't always love it.

Aurora could be a bit mopey sometimes, but it's understandable--you see her life's perspective like never before, cringey as a few of her actions may be. Four stars because I really liked it, even if the characters could have had better reactive moments. But they're incredibly well-developed.

The plot arrives just on time and in startling ways. I was sucked in from the beginning.

Perhaps the reason why I like this book is because I didn't like Disney's Sleeping Beauty. (I mean, the girl had like eighteen lines in the entire movie) THIS story takes THAT one to a whole new level. Whereas with the first book, A Whole New World, I actually liked Disney's Aladdin and didn't want the original story to be messed up.

Here's the secret to this series I've found, personally: The idea for this series is clever, and can be excellently executed, but we don't always want to read the twisted version of our favorite fairytales.

We want to keep our favorites! It's understandable... Aladdin was a classic masterpiece and I didn't like the twisted version. I wasn't thrilled with Sleeping Beauty, so this book's twisting just made it more interesting for me. I didn't gripe about losing my favorite story's integrity...because it wasn't my favorite story to begin with.

My advice to anyone starting this series: Choose the stories you weren't especially fond of and start with those. (It's true, you can read these books in ANY order you want)

If you liked Aladdin, don't read that. If you didn't like Sleeping Beauty, read this. I think it'll change the whole series for you. That way, you can see the tales you weren't fond of in a new light--one that might make them better, instead of making your favorites worse.

Read full review HERE

I hate to DNF books, and it’s something I very rarely do. And honestly, I did try, but ultimately I just couldn’t put myself through the rest of this story. I had a huge problem with the first book of the series, the spin on the Aladdin story, but because that story had a little more action, I felt it was more bearable.

Once again I had a big problem with the writing of this book. It has long descriptions, short and nonsensical dialogue and it sometimes tries to hard, and other times it’s just too much “in your face”. It did nothing for me.

My other huge, ginormous problem was Aurora… I’m not a fan of Sleeping Beauty, but this girl… OMG!!! I understand that her pleasant personality is a condition of her situation, but this girl can’t count, likes to be ordered around, and her favorite thing is to sleep or watch the dust…. I mean, seriously?!

  “Actions are tiring. She mostly found it better to lie on her bed and think about actions. Just the thought of getting up these days seemed exhausting and unreasonable."

This was slow and frustrating and nothing was actually happening. But I convinced myself to wait a bit, see if things got interesting when she and Phillip met, and then there was this pearl:

  “Maybe… Maybe let’s get back to the part where we were in love.”
“I met you in a clearing deep in the wood,” Phillip said eagerly. “We fell in love. Instantly.”
“That sounds nice.”

I can’t, sorry, just no. I love Disney, I really do, but these twisted tales are not for me at all. Some things might work on the animated movies, but for me they don’t work on the page.

So, sadly, I DNFed this book at 32%. Did you read this book? What did you thought of it?

This was a huge disappointment for me I was very eager to read a twisted retelling of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty and what I got instead was a snoozefest. I usually never DNF books and I feel terrible for having to do it to an ARC but honestly no one should have to force their way through this book.

I should have known better than to attempt reading through this when the first in this series of Twisted Tales got less than stellar reviews from reviewers I trust. Alas, the Disney lover in me could not grasp the idea that a twisted version of a Disney movie could be bad. “Once Upon A Dream” definitely proved me wrong on that.

My main problem with this book was the narrative and writing style it was dull and overly simplistic. There were far too many long descriptions of everything that went on longer than they should have. Dialogue between characters was few and far between and what dialogue there was, was very short and immature.

The plot was excruciatingly slow and boring, there was almost no story to even speak of within the 35% I read. Now if absolutely nothing is happening for 35% of a book then there’s no way I’m finishing it.

Everything about “Once Upon A Dream” (the plot, the characters, and the writing) were one-dimensional and flat. Nothing was developed and nothing was explained. You’re basically expected to have knowledge of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty before starting, which for the most part I’m sure isn’t a problem since why would you be reading a twisted version of it if you haven’t seen it, right? The only problem with that is if you haven’t seen Sleeping Beauty then you’d have zero idea of why or what is going on in this story. Even I was wondering what the heck was happening and why and I’ve seen the movie!

The most disappointing part of this book were the characters. Aurora was such a wasted character, she was way too boring and naive. Not to mention her favorite thing to do was sleep, I mean really? Sleeping is her favorite? Because she’s “Sleeping Beauty”? How original……

Maleficent was not nearly as wickedly evil as she could have been and Prince Phillip was foolish and a little spineless. Any other secondary characters were bland and expendable.

Overall I really liked the general idea of this boo, I mean twisted version of our beloved Disney movies? Come on, who wouldn’t get excited? Alas, it was executed very poorly and feel extremely short. “Once Upon A Dream” is a big disappointment and I won’t be reading any other books in this series unfortunately.

Nope, even if you’re a Disney fan I can’t recommend you this book. It doesn’t do Disney’s Sleeping Beauty any sort of justice. In fact, instead of reading this book just go watch the movie, you’re much better off.

After the disaster that was A Whole New World, I knew this was going to have issues. Once again, we have what sounds like an amazing idea but the execution was just not there. The writing was not up to par and the characters were bland.

What would have happened if Aurora never woke up when Phillip kissed her? Apparently, just a bunch of nonsense in Aurora's head. This book dragged while Aurora just twirled through hallways having balls thrown by her "aunt" Maleficent. But then weird things start to happen and suddenly Aurora realizes she must defeat Maleficent to get her life back! It was all very jumbled and not too well thought out for me.

The backbone of any story should be its characters, right? Let's start with Aurora. Now yes, in the movie she doesn't really give you a lot to work with personality wise which means that this should leave interpretations wide open. Yet the author just went with the easiest characteristics ever that just made the character bland and completely unbelievable. And don't get me started on how she ruined everything about Phillip and made him this dumb annoying puppy dog with no personality of his own.

But the worst was probably the author's interpretation of Maleficent and her evilness. Again, so much could have been done here. But instead of giving her substance, the author again just went with the easiest explanation: she's petty. It was so dumb.

I'm just at a loss so far with this series. And yes, I keep reading this because I love Disney and the ideas intrigue me and I just keep hoping one will be well written and what I'm looking for.

Growing up, Sleeping Beauty was one of my most favorite fairy tales. When I heard and saw that Liz Braswell was creating alternate versions of how the fairy tales could have happened, I was beyond excited and I want to read all of them.
I definitely did not expect this book to be one of my favorites but it is and I'm very happy that I picked this book up a few years ago. I bought this book a few years ago and only got to around page 90 before DNF-ing the book. Little did I know that the proper action started like 20 or 30 pages after that. I deeply regret that and it's completely my fault.
The beginning of the book was a little slow but it turned around and smacked me in the face. Literally. I dropped the book on my face once, maybe twice...
The creativity behind this is amazing and I wish I could write like this. This isn't the only book with an amazing world but it's definitely one of them.
The idea behind the book and how Liz Braswell 'twisted' the fairy tale is amazing. I probably would never have come up with something like this.
I love the book and I can't wait to read Liz Braswell's other books.

Maleficent is the queen.
Auroras parents evil as they were are sentenced to live the rest of their pitiful lives in prison.
Aurora is still the princess still treated wonderfully but everything is different.

Mal is well the ruler and her magic brought the kingdom to their knees only to build the kingdom back up. Mal isnt evil per say but she is a different ruler.

Maleficent though isnt all nice and rainbows now. She traps Aurora in a sleep and sucked prince Phillip in with her. Maleficent wants to rule unquestioned and Aurora was getting in the way. Aurora was the rightful ruler. Maleficent gets Aurora stuck in her slumber trapped by her ‘gifts’ that the fairies gave her.
It is up to Aurora and Phillip to save the world from Maleficents wrath.

This was really cute and a new take on sleeping beauty

The way Aurora Rose was written was great and it was lovely watching her character grow, work through her flaws and grow into an amazingly strong and sweet princess! And the romance between her and her Prince was a lovely read too.

I really enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I might and was hooked right until the ending. It was great!

~It’s a well-known Disney fact that Aurora is the most muted princess, with only eighteen spoken lines in Sleeping Beauty. Using a third person narrative centered around the princess, Braswell gives Aurora/Rose/Aurora Rose a voice and personality which she isn’t allowed in the movie. Here, our protagonist is very flawed and this is hugely endearing, primarily because she just doesn’t have a clue what on Earth she’s doing for half the novel. To be honest, with a premise this complicated we wouldn’t either

~our supporting lead Philip fits the fairytale prince cliché to perfection, charm and all. But in a twist I’m very appreciative of, Aurora just isn’t as smitten with the boy as she was once upon a dream. Yet together, they find themselves battling against evil fog, doppelgängers, scary fairies, vines… it’s not an easy path for them.

So overall , i enjoyed this book mostly becouse i really don't like the typical fairy tale of sleeping beauty with a girl in need of rescuing with a kiss. And this book was a fresh twist of her story that i appriciated.

Once Upon A Dream by Liz Braswell

Off the bat, let me just say this may be someone’s favorite book, and that’s perfectly ok. This is just my opinion and I fully support others who love it 🤍

✨That being said, I did have a big problem with this book for several reasons and going forward these are my opinions so please leave them at that✨

I almost DNF several times. I unfortunately couldn’t get into this one and when I was reading it, the disrespect for women was too much.

At one point the prince compares Aurora to a mans toy that stopped working properly and when he learns her name, asks to call her Rose instead because Aurora makes her seem too unattainable. 🙄

Young girls have enough problems with self esteem and this did nothing to help. The men in this book were not written great. Way too degrading for me and I lost all hope for the plot about halfway in. I did finish it, but it was not my cup of tea. ☕️

One star from me 😕

And I'm so glad I bought it! This was such an amazing and thrilling read from start to finish. Let me start with the fact that the story of the book is woven perfectly into the original Disney Tale. The whole mythology and world building makes incredibly much sense and fits really well. But, the writer didn't shy away from the consequences, something I really loved, because that way the book avoided the "and then it was as if nothing ever happened"-trope that I actually really hate.

On top of that this story adds all those things that are missing from the original tale (which was written in another time and NOT something we can blame the tale for). It gives Philip and Aurora Rose some time to interact, get to know each other, get to see each other's ugly side and therefore gives them the chance to really choose each other, instead of it being true love at first glance. It also makes Aurora more than "just" graceful and beautiful and blessed with a beautiful voice. It makes her intelligent, compassionate, brave and lets her take part in her own rescue and her own happy ending. And not very surprisingly it also ads a little humanity to one of the biggest villains in Disney history.

All in all I really enjoyed this twist on the original tale from start to finish. Philip and Aurora Rose still felt like themselves, but then even better, and the tale kept its original Disney feel, but combined with the darker edge that actually is so important in fairytales.

I was not that interested in the other tales so far, but maybe...maybe they're worth a read too!

Ms. Braswell's idea to not have Aurora be in love with Phillip as soon as she meets him in the dream world was brilliant. I have grown less fond of insta-love the more I age. It was fine when I was a kid but now that I'm older the less I believe in that. I didn't like that in the dream world her parents were supposed to be evil but that like everything else was a fabrication by Maleficent. And Phillip was so cute in this tale. I saw him as a adorable little puppy when he reunites with Aurora but he does turn into this badass determined to save his love.

I wish that people would give this series a chance and not judge it up against the movies that the books are based upon. The Disney movies are made to be kid-friendly and are loosely based off the actual tales. As with the last book I am looking forward to the next in the series. I hope it's Beauty and the Beast as it's my favorite fairytale.

Rating: 4½ stars out of 5

This was somewhere between 2 and 2.5 stars. A marked improvement over A Whole New World, the first book in the A Twisted Tale series, but still lacking in several places - most notably the dialogue, which is at turns amateur and childish, and which is randomly inconsistent in emphasis - in one second WE'RE YELLING and then we're not EVEN THOUGH WE'RE STILL YELLING. I don't know, it just read oddly.

This book had a fascinating premise which was disappointing in its execution.

Full review:

My first full review of 2021 is a book I read during 2020, likely the first in a series of "Retro Reviews" that I'm penning in an attempt to catch up from what was a long reviewing hiatus. I think I started reading "Once Upon A Dream" in October of 2020, looking for a somewhat creepy read with a reintroduction to the "Twisted Tale" series. I tried "A Whole New World", the first book in the series by Liz Braswell, a much longer time ago than I intended to. Despite how much I love the Aladdin franchise and liked parts of that book, it mostly didn't work for me. I don't have the same attachment to "Sleeping Beauty" as I do other Disney films, but I still appreciate the film and was interested to see where this book would take diverting the story from its original take. (Also, regarding the dress...make it Blue. Always. ;) )

I liked so many pieces of this story in its concept - the idea that those that died in Aurora's dream world would die in real life, the fact Aurora never woke up and the prince joined her in her dream after expecting to wake her up from a kiss. Aurora is trapped under the influence of Maleficent, who may be dead in the real world but is very much alive and influencing Aurora's consciousness. It's left up to Aurora to work her way out of Maleficent's hold, and the first step to that is discovering that she's in a dream to begin with. It takes her some time to realize that her friends in this alternate reality aren't that, that the Maleficent she knows in the dream world isn't kind with just a firm hand, and that her true history isn't the fabrication she's living under. Escaping and meeting the Prince was just one part of that, but the story is so slow getting to those plot points and the characters aren't really fully developed or realized to keep the story from dragging its heels.

I definitely liked some of the action scenes in here - same commentary that I had with "A Whole New World" - the concept is good, and certain moments of action and tension are great, but the story feels weighed down by overexposition and only scratching the surface of the characters. The good thing about this novel is that it doesn't use the first 25% of the story to retell as much of what we already know. It recaptures events, but not in a way that's line-by-line. (That's an improvement from the first book in this series.) I wanted to appreciate more moments between Aurora and the prince in their bit interactions, but while I realized both of them were flawed characters whose circumstances had them with a certain naivete, I still only found my connection to them to be barely scratching the surface. Same with the supporting characters (i.e. the fairies - they're not even referred to here as Flora, Fauna and Merryweather, just the red, green, and blue fairies). Maleficent though, is as fantastic as a villain as she could be in this type of story, menacing, manipulative, and desperate to hold on to her dwindling power.

Aurora fighting against the darkness of her mind and dreams and weighing the balance of wanting to return to reality and discover her true identity were such a great points of conflict for her in this overarching story. That's what kept me coming back even when I had to put the story down a few times. In the end, after turning the final page on this story, I liked pieces of it, but not enough to have a connection to it in full. At least I appreciated what it offered, and I'm curious to continue reading through this series of retellings for what they offer.

Overall score: 2.5/5 stars.

Note: I received this as an ARC from NetGalley, from the publisher Disney Book Group.

This is my opinion now. But unless we are talking about the first sight of our child or other just born family member. There just isn't any such thing as love at first sight. There is lust at first sight, there is an extreme attraction at first sight, but otherwise, love, at first sight, is just an older term for insta-love.

And there is the ridiculous gift given to her at birth, beauty, grace and song. It said it perfectly in the book. What use are these for a princess? Nothing, just stupid things added to the story for some stupid reason way back when. I get that the story is a product of its time, but it did not age well into our society. And this book really touches on all that, and I love that about this book.

I'm really loving the transformation of the heroines in the books, and I hope that this continues through the series. Making the heroines more empowered and less distressed damsels.