Fairytale Meets Ridiculously Ever After Review of Elle Lothlorien’s “Sleeping Beauty”

Before getting into my review I would like to point out that Sleeping Beauty is the first/original version of Lothlorien’s Sleeping Beauty Wakes Up.  According to reviews and the author herself, this book was changed in Sleeping Beauty Wakes Up from chapter 11 on after several negative reviews and feedback.  As this, the original book, has not been unpublished or the price reduced (at the time of review) I can only assume that means the author still believes this book is as good as her second version, therefore I will be reviewing it as is without taking into consideration any changes made in her other book.  So keep this in mind when deciding which version to purchase.

Claire suffers from KLS, otherwise known as Sleeping Beauty Syndrome.  She falls asleep in random places and can sometimes stay asleep for days.  Dr. Charmant is assigned to her case and after their loathing and first sight the two start to fall in love.  But when sleeping beauty can’t remember what happens during her black out episodes how does she know prince charming is the gentleman he claims to be?  It all leads to a story of allegations, a court case, a love triangle, and a sleeping beauty who’ll need a lot more than a kiss to get her out of this mess.

Lothlorien’s writing style is enjoyable and she shows some great promise as a writer through her descriptions of Claire’s surfer world California and the research done about KLS. 

Unfortunately all the characters, with the exception of Davin, come across as flat.  I wasn’t able to sympathize with Claire as a heroine and while she spends most of the book complaining people hide information from her she never really takes control of her own life.  While we’re told Dr. Charmant is handsome and charming he never does anything remarkable that causes the reader to fall for him, making the end of the book a let down because there’s no real side to root for.
The first half of the book is much stronger than the second, and based on that half of the book I would have probably given this book a higher rating, unfortunately everything starts to fall apart once the trial hits.  The surfer-lingo goes from unique and charming to plain obnoxious and the court case itself is filled with a lot of unnecessary dialogue and no tension.  Lothlorien does a lot of telling but not showing in this half of the book.  We’re told who to like and who to hate, but there’s never any real interaction that helps the reader form their own opinions.  Then the ending is stretched out much longer than necessary, and the final chapter feels like it’s been ripped right out of “50 First Dates.”  Throughout the book the emphasis has been on Claire’s KLS and its symptoms, with memory loss being just a small part of that, then the memory loss is pushed to the forefront as though it’s Claire’s main issue as though Lothlorien couldn’t decide where she wanted the story to go and when she figured it out didn’t want to make it a strong theme in the beginning.

The premise of this story is fantastic and the first half of the book was well written (not perfect, but enjoyable).  However, the story really falls apart from there.  Changes may have been made in Sleeping Beauty Wakes Up, but this book did not deliver. If the revised version of this book is as decent as the other reviews claim, this draft should have been pulled from sale.  Read at your own risk.   I don’t normally end my reviews with a strong recommendation unless I loved a book, but unless you have weekend where you desperately need something to do…don’t read this book.  There are plenty of other indie-fish-books in the sea, keep fishing.