Review: Sleeping Beauty Vampire Slayer

Sleeping Beauty Vampire Slayer (Twisted Tales - Book 2) by Maureen McGowan

Publication Date: April 2011
Publisher: Silver Dolphin Books
Genre: YA, Choose Your Own Adventure
Pages: Paperback, 320pp
ISBN-13: 9781607102564
ISBN: 1607102560

(Received for review from Premier Virtual Book Tours)

Purchase: Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, IndieBound

Maureen McGowan on the WEB: website, blog, facebook, twitter

Synopsis (Barnes & Noble):

In this thrilling story full of adventure and romance, Sleeping Beauty is more than just a lonely princess waiting for her prince—she's a brave, tenacious girl who never backs down from a challenge. With vampire-slaying talents that she practices in secret, Sleeping Beauty puts her courage to the test in the dark of night, fighting evil as she searches for a way to break the spell that has cut her off from her family. In a special twist, readers have the opportunity to make key decisions for Sleeping Beauty and decide where she goes next—but no matter the choice; the result is a story unlike any fairy tale you've ever read! Sleeping Beauty: Vampire Slayer is an entirely new type of fairy tale–one that will keep today's kids guessing and offer them hours of magical fun.

Thoughts:

In the second book in the Twisted Tales series, author Maureen McGowan gives readers a twist on the classic, Sleeping Beauty. McGowan once again has taken a great fairy-tale and made it exciting and different. Though Sleeping Beauty is still the lovable girl who is cursed to sleep, this time she sleeps during the day and her kingdom sleeps at night. With magical creatures galore, werewolves, vampires and even a few fairies, this tale is definitely not your childhood fantasy. The princess has become a vampire slayer!

In a kingdom far, far away a princess is born. But this isn't your typical fairy-tale kingdom. The courtiers live in a world that is populated with werewolves, vampires and fairies, and the king and queen decide not to invite the Vampire queen to the celebration of the birth of princess Lucette. The angry Vampire Queen crashes the party anyway and curses the princess to sleep during the day while her family is awake and when they sleep at night she will wake. The royal wizard isn't able to take the curse away but he changes it a little. If princess Lucette can find true love the spell will be broken. The Vampire Queen's wrath is strong and she unleashes her vampire hoards on the kingdom. Cinderella trains with a force of vampire slayers knowing that one day she may be the only one awake to fight against them. Will she find her Prince Charming and save the kingdom? You decide... It's up to the reader!

I know I said I loved Cinderella as a child, but Sleeping Beauty was totally my favorite. Maureen McGowan's updated version of this fairy-tale may seem a little far fetched, but isn't that what fairy-tales are all about? McGowan gives the reader some of the things that make the original great, while also adding some twisted touches that will make it appeal to a totally different audience. With the surge of books on the market involving vampires and werewolves in the wake of the Twilight Saga, I think Sleeping Beauty Vampire Slayer has a current theme and will appeal to YA and Adult readers.

I was a little skeptical when I first started reading the Twisted Tales series about the ability to develop strong three dimensional characters in a choose your own adventure type of book. I was pleasantly surprised to find that McGowan gave us a Sleeping Beauty that I didn't expect. I thought she would get lost in all the supernatural aspects of the book and in the changes in her path, but I was wrong. She is a vibrant character that leaps off the pages. She is witty and smart and full of determination. She realizes that if the curse comes to pass she could possibly be left to fight the vampires on her own. That's a lot of responsibility for a young girl, but she takes on that challenge with confidence and zeal. I loved her character and thought the author did an amazing job of bringing her to life.

The only thing I would have liked more in this book, was even more control over the path of Sleeping Beauty. Readers have some great choices to make for Sleeping Beauty and they will love going back and changing their decisions and seeing how that changed the book, but I wanted more... LOL! I guess I'll have to wait for the next one to come out. I thought McGowan's expertise at creating the changes in the Sleeping Beauty myth was unparalleled. She gave us enough of the original to whet the readers appetites and them changed it up enough to keep them reading.

This is an excellent addition to the twisted tales series. Both books were well paced and the reader will not feel rushed. The ability to guide Sleeping Beauty on her path is very well done and readers will enjoy going back and reading all the variations on the story. This book will appeal to book YA and adult readers as well as an even younger set. My eleven year old daughter loved it just as much as my teenager!

Check out my review of Cinderella Ninja Warrior earlier today and tomorrow I will have a guest post and giveaway with author!

Sleeping Beauty Vampire Slayer is available NOW from your favorite bookseller.

I'm giving this one 5 out of 5 apples. I liked it even better than the first one, but I'm a super paranormal fan!!!




Maureen McGowan: Maureen McGowan has long been making up stories. She has twice been a finalist in the prestigious Golden Heart Competition, and in 2008 was a finalist in the Amazon Breakout Novel Awards. Before becoming an author, Maureen held various jobs, including auditor, software development manager, and hedge fund CFO. Born and raised in various Canadian cities, Maureen lived and worked in Northern California and Philadelphia for a number of years. She now lives and writes in Toronto, Canada.