Alive in Her Thoughts and Dreams

~Once Upon A Dream~
Twisted Tales
Book 2
By Liz Braswell
Amazon ~ Powell's

It should be simple—a dragon defeated, a slumbering maiden, a prince poised to wake her. But when said prince falls asleep as soon as his lips meet the princess's, it is clear that this fairy tale is far from over.

With a desperate fairy's last curse infiltrating her mind, Princess Aurora will have to navigate a dangerous and magical landscape deep in the depths of her dreams. Soon she stumbles upon Phillip, a charming prince eager to join her quest. But with Maleficent's agents following her every move, Aurora struggles to discover who her true allies are, and moreover, who she truly is. Time is running out. Will the sleeping beauty be able to wake herself up?

Though these books are part of a series, they don't actually share any continuity from one to the next, so there's no risk of spoiling one with another. Likewise, there's really no need to read them in any particular order—I'm simply choosing to do so for simplicity's sake. So coming to the tale of Sleeping Beauty, which features one of my least favorite heroines but one of my most favorite villains, I had mixed feelings. Would the heroine be elevated by having more time and depth added? Would the villain be re-imagined with a(nother) sympathetic backstory? Would this story reside in my dreams, or haunt my nightmares?

We All Live Happily Ever After in My New World, Agrabah Ascendant

~A Whole New World~
Twisted Tales
Book 1
By Liz Braswell
Amazon ~ Powell's

When Jafar steals the Genie’s lamp, he uses his first two wishes to become sultan and the most powerful sorcerer in the world. Agrabah lives in fear, waiting for his third and final wish. To stop the power-mad ruler, Aladdin and the deposed Princess Jasmine must unite the people of Agrabah in rebellion. But soon their fight for freedom threatens to tear the kingdom apart in a costly civil war.

What happens next? A Street Rat becomes a leader. A princess becomes a revolutionary. And readers will never look at the story of Aladdin in the same way again.

Partly inspired by a certain internet movie reviewer, and partly because I am a bit of a fangirl, I decided I wanted to dedicate the month of December to all that is Disney! This series of reviews will focus on Disney-inspired media, obviously, and will hopefully expand over the years. This year I wanted to get the ball rolling on their Twisted Tales series, books that promise to reimagine the Disney stories we know and love as new, darker takes. Will they be successful, or will the originals' magic still hold?