The Bibliophile's Bookshelf

Title: The Princess Game: A Reimagining of Sleeping Beauty

Series: The Four Kingdoms #4

Author: Melanie Cellier

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retelling, Clean Romance

Rating: 4.5 stars

Review:

They call her the Sleeping Princess, but Celeste is far from asleep…

Celeste has been cursed since her sixteenth birthday–just not in the way the rest of the kingdom thinks. All they see is her breath-taking beauty, marred by her foolishness. Only she knows that she retains her brilliant mind. And it’s a secret she must keep at all costs.

Over the years she’s grown accustomed to the necessary deception. After all, her life depends on it. And she’s even found a way to protect her kingdom, working from the shadows. But now a dangerous new threat has emerged, one that Celeste can’t defeat alone. She needs the help of a newly-arrived prince. One who’s altogether too handsome and too charming. Somehow she needs to keep her secret, save her kingdom and find a way to free herself from the curse. The last thing she has time to do is sleep.

In this reimagining of the classic fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty, it’s only the princess’ mind that is asleep. And sometimes appearances can be deceiving. – summary from Goodreads

The Princess Game is the most unique Sleeping Beauty retelling I have ever read, and I loved it so much!

This book follows Celeste, the younger sister of Rafe from The Princess Pact and the older sister of Cordelia from A Midwinter’s Wedding.

This story has baby Celeste getting a Christening gift and unlike her siblings, she gets three instead of one. The first one is beauty, and the second one is intelligence (which I love so, so much). However, then she is cursed to die on her sixteenth birthday. The third godmother then says she can fall asleep until waken up instead, but the family protests. So instead the godmother makes it so her mind will go to sleep on her sixteenth birthday because that’s a kind of death.

Unbeknownst to her family, Celeste makes a deal with her godmother before her sixteenth birthday that lets her keep her intelligence, but nobody can know. With this she is able to start a spy ring!

I thought this twist was really unique! I have never seen a Sleeping Beauty retelling like this before, and I have to say I really, really enjoyed it!

I actually really related to Celeste. Celeste was kind of looked down upon by her family because she came of as really ditzy. Now I am painfully shy and don’t like steeping on toes, so sometimes I can come off as unknowing. Thankfully, I am surrounded by amazing people who don’t look down on me, but the few times people have kind of pushed me to the side, it drove me nuts. I applaud Celeste for not losing her mind. In a way her curse was a benefit because she was able to help her country and family countless times and was even able to stop a rebellion! I also just really like spies, so I love that she used her skills to start a spy ring. Celeste also had an alter ego- when she was a spymaster, she was Aurora!

One of the things that I really liked about Celeste was she felt more real than traditional Sleeping Beauty characters. She was angry, intelligent, and formidable. She was a force unto herself, and I really liked that! I also liked that she was angry with her circumstances. Typically, I read Sleeping Beauty retellings, and the parents are overprotective, so the frustration is directed more so the parents’ way. I liked that Celeste was angry with the person who actually did it, and part of her growth was learning that holding on to that anger wasn’t helping anyone, least of all her.

William, Rafe, and Maire made a reappearance in this book, which I enjoyed. Rafe and Maire were really side notes in this book, which I didn’t love. I wish they had more of a part to play. And I was kind of disappointed in Rafe, and the rest of the family. They pushed Celeste to the side and didn’t really listen to her. I wish there was more of an apology from them at the end of the book, as well as more explanations from Celeste about everything she went through.

I loved William! He had been growing on me the past two books, and he really shined this book. He was fun, while also serious, and, best of all, he saw Celeste! I loved when they were training together, I just thought that was so perfect. William knew Celeste as both Celeste and Aurora, and I liked the fact that both acknowledged that he shouldn’t feel something for both of them. But what I really loved was that he knew both parts of her and loved both of them. William also made sure it was known that he could only love someone that could have fun but could be serious too. I think that is so amazing to have in books!

The Maleficent character in this book I thoroughly enjoyed. They made her an actual person, and someone you could relate with. She was also repentant of what she did and was willing to take punishment for it. Also, the parents acknowledged the part they played in it, which was neat to see.

I have to applaud the romance in this book. There was some instant attraction between William and Celeste, but they took the time to get to know each other! The relationship was a little rushed, but I was satisfied. It took me a while to find the words, but one of the things that I love so much about Melanie Cellier’s couples is that it is not superficial, and is built on something real!

Celine was a new character, who was so much fun, and I can’t wait to see her in future installments. She was kind of rude to Celeste at times, but it was kind of endearing- her just saying what’s on her mind. She was very spunky and determined to have an adventure!

The epilogue was from Celeste’s oldest brother’s perspective, and I am so excited for his book!

The Princess Game is a unique retelling of Sleeping Beauty, where instead of falling asleep, the princess is forced to keep her intelligence to herself. With a strong main character, spies, rebellion, romance, and curses, this is a retelling you don’t want to miss!