The Wide-Awake Princess -- E.D. Baker

Book 1 of The Wide-Awake Princess

 

**This book is based on Sleeping Beauty. 

 

 

Hmm…

This was really a simple, cute little princess story with a cornucopia of fairy tale tangents strung together as part of our Princess Annabelle’s adventure. It wasn’t exactly the most exciting adventure, and I’d even say that it was just a little scattered, but there was a story, a good progression, a nice little fairy tale history, some inspirational ideals, a unique twist for the conclusion, and a strong princess who saves the day.


The Story:
Annie is the younger sister to Gwendolyn. Gwendolyn is the resident “Sleeping Beauty” of this fairy tale story, and despite everyone’s resilience in keeping spinning wheels out of Gwennie’s reach, the elder princess still manages to prick her finger and cast the hundred year sleep upon the entire castle.

But Annie had been given the gift of being unaffected by magic--no magic can ever harm nor hurt her--and so she is the only one still standing. Knowing that she cannot leave her family in this vulnerable sleep for the next hundred years, she sets off on a journey to find a prince to kiss her sister awake and break the sleeping curse.

Along the way, she is partnered with a young guard named Liam who appoints himself her protector and travels with her to find Gwendolyn’s true love.... But just to be certain, Annie decides to collect several princes from different areas and even hunts down the fairies who had been responsible for Gwennie’s curse so she can get some insight on Curse Loopholes 101, a la, “Does Gwennie really have to sleep for a hundred years before the curse can be broken, or can we get around that and just satisfy the Prince as True Love detail?”

With a determination worthy of a great princess, Annie swears to find a way to wake her sister and her family and keep them awake.


Some Thoughts:
I’d say that The Wide-Awake Princess is a good read for young girls, in a way. Despite the looming need for girls to find their true loves and get married, I guess, at least our heroine was strong and resourceful and smart and able to take care of herself and save the day, time and time again. Her little gift of not being affected by magic in anyway has its perks, especially when it also comes with sapping away the magic from other people when they are around her: beautiful princesses lose their enchanted beauty and handsome princes start to show their physical flaws; curses on princes turned into bears are temporarily lifted; and even fairies lose their powers when she touches them for too long.

It’s an interesting way to turn the “Sleeping Beauty” story around.

As a middle grade novel, however, it did blur by in a way that had me blinking twice and missing the whole book altogether. I mean, sure, it was a short book, but it really DID just kind of end as abruptly as it started. I figure it’s because I’ve never really been able to get into middle grade books very well, so it’s not the book’s fault.

Really, The Wide-Awake Princess is a very cute and enjoyable story.

The emphasis on physical beauty DID get old pretty quickly though. And the way everything just conveniently fell into place for Annie made it kind of hard to take the book as more than just a child’s hero tale of a princess who saves the day and defeats all evil.

Like I said, a very cute book. A good one for the kiddies.

***

2016 Reading Challenges:
• Goodreads Reading Challenge
• BookLikes Reading Challenge
• Reading Assignment Challenge
• Bookish Resolutions Challenge
• Mount TBR Challenge

 

First things first: I've read the revised edition - so I can't complain about the same grammatical and/or word choice issues like other readers did.


And I have to say, I can't complain a lot about the other stuff, either. Tyler, successful lawyer and by this time on his way to the big 3-0, had always had a crush on his best friend's father. Mark Riley on the other hand, struggled most of his life - with his path, with his decisions, with his career - basically with everything. But he was a devoted parent, a faithful husband (even without any love in the marriage), and a responsible adult. All of that changed one night, when these two meet each other in Mark's family home. Because Tyler, even as young as he was, was the first one in a long time to actually see Mark's loneliness and heartbreak.

Five years later, and Tyler has grown, is successful, still has his family and best friend. All he misses is a man. A real man he can go out with, fall for and enjoy his life with. The only one he really wants for that, though, is the only one he really shouldn't have. Because Mark, now divorced, out and a coffee shop owner, is still persona non grata in the family and circle of friends. There is literally no worse choice than for these two to hook up with each other. And guess what? The story starts with their very own morning after.

I really liked the premises for this story. May-September, adult males with some family-baggage, hooking up and falling lust/love. I was a little irritated with the telling of the backround at times. I really don't have to know all of the past happenings in both their lifes, told to me piece by piece. But, I guess, if you throw a reader in the middle of such a laden hook-up, you don't have a lot of choices.

Other than that, I enjoyed the developments and the conflicts quite a bit. The only other niggle? These guys could not take a break. Granted, they weren't really THAT careful, but every time they so much as breathed on each other, somebody who should definitely NOT be there, showed up. A little exhausting, and a little too soap-opera for me. But that's just me and my nit-picks tendencies.

All in all, I really enjoyed this story. Not Kade Boehme's best work, but still good. 3.5 stars all around.

Why isn't this novel published and a best seller? It is my favourite read for a while. Twilight character names, a vaguely Twilight plot, and other minor Twilight details, but as another reviewer has said, if you changed the names you wouldn't know that. Twilight lovers will love this though. It is long, and could have been a bit shorter for perfection, but I loved it, and when you are loving something, a couple of hundred unnecessary pages are a good thing. It is unusual for me to read until 4am on two nights running as I did with this, but I really didn't want to stop. Edward and Bella are messed up by awful events in the past, are terrified to sleep, antisocial, and miserable. They meet, realise that they have things in common, and that they can help each other. The story follows them over a few years as they struggle with their psychological/sexual problems and family relationships. If you don't like bad language and explicit descriptions of sex then you might want to give it a miss, but I would suggest skim-reading the sex scenes instead if you must, as the book is so good. All of the characters are very real, and the 'Twilight' ones do have a lot in common with the originals. It is funny, sad and really gripping. Give it a go, you won't regret it.

Originally posted at The Filipina Booknote

It's funny how the mind chooses what it wants to remember.

A girl who woke up from a coma only to discover that she can't remember anything. Who she was, her family, friends, where she lived and that she's not a virgin anymore. Her parents, friends and people around her pressuring/expecting her to go back to somebody she doesn't recognize. And a therapist she had seemed to latch on because of an unknown connection she can't explain.

If you're looking for a book that has complex characters and story, then this is not what you're looking for.

This had a lot of potential, unfortunately it only lasted half of the book. At first, I thought this deserved at least a 4-point rating because it was really good at the beginning. The conflicts were slowly unfolding and it showed promise of a good story. The romance wasn't made hastily and it was written beautifully. The back story of her accident and why she's drawn to her therapist made me anticipate what really happened, and of course, the suspense of waiting to see if her memories will come back and what will happen then.

These were what made me excited to finish the book. How amazing it would have been if all these were answered right? Well. This is where things went a bit awry. I was expecting too much from this book after it laid down all these issues that it disappointed me a lot when I realized I already reached the ending. BAM! It just ended. It felt like it had no distinction whether it will be a light fluffy read or a heavy deep book. It felt in between and I was confused.

Don't get me wrong, all these were resolved towards the ending and every question was answered. However, it felt so abrupt that I'm not even sure if that was really the ending. It did end on a happy note because she ended up with the person she wanted to be with and the pressure of who she's going to be is gone, but in a way, it didn't felt like a happily-ever-after to me. The characters may have resolved everything, but I haven't. The book presented issues that could have been a deal breaker if only it was thoroughly settled.

I mentioned that the romance was really good in this book, but even this went amiss after a while. Both of them fell in love with each other despite having conflicting opinion on where their relationship's going to be. See, even this started a whole new conflict for the story! I wish this had a sequel. (I saw on Goodreads that it has a sequel but it features a different story.)

Where the story went might have disappointed me but there's one thing that I liked from start to end, Mason. His character was very like-able despite some discoveries that might make you think of him otherwise. He was older than Emma and he acted his age. He was matured and acted like it. I had a lot of negative theories regarding his relationship with the main character and what happened to her and I was glad that none of it came true. Shelly Crane created a character that's dreamy not just for his looks but also because of his values that never wavered even in the middle of a very tempting kiss. He's every mother's wish for a son-in-law, I swear. He's considerate about others and his needs will always come last. I fell in love with him too.

Wide Awake wasn't a bad read overall. Yes it was disappointing for me but it doesn't mean others won't enjoy this. I still enjoyed reading this despite all these issues, it was just a let down to see a good story go askew. If you're looking for a light read with no deep story and over-complicated past then this is for you, but if you're looking for a mind blowing twist then maybe schedule this for another day.

I want to commend the author  because she finished writing this book despite her own health issues. 

A fourth-generation insomniac, Patricia Morrisroe decided that the only way she’d ever conquer her lifelong sleep disorder was by becoming an expert on the subject. So, armed with half a century of personal experience and a journalist’s curiosity, she set off to explore one of life’s greatest mysteries: sleep. Wide Awake is the eye-opening account of Morrisroe’s quest—a compelling memoir that blends science, culture, and business to tell the story of why she—and forty million other Americans—can’t sleep at night. 

Amazon.com

 

 

 

A little disappointing. I myself have DSPD (Delayed Sleep Phase Disorder), have had sleeping issues my entire life, so I enjoy reading about other people's experiences with sleeplessness. Here though, I often found myself a little bored with Morrisoe's story. Morrisoe writes well, and it is humorous at points, I just wasn't super riveted throughout. I personally cannot feel oneness with tales of jetting off to Lapland, Finland to try to find sleep in a swanky ice hotel or swooning over a house that boasts Ralph Lauren and Martha Stewart as neighbors, but some of what she talks about did echo a few of my own experiences. I did pull quite the insomnia-inspired TBR from this one though! Didn't keep me "wide awake" but I did glean a bit from it.