While Beauty Slept

November 18, 2013
This retelling of “Sleeping Beauty” by debut novelist Blackwell is faithful to the original while offering a fresh interpretation. Though set amid the pomp and pestilence of a fictionalized medieval kingdom, the novel’s characters—a couple dogged by infertility, a young girl resisting overprotection, a family torn apart by jealousy—have a contemporary resonance. Its narrator, Elise Dalriss, is raised on a farm, but feels most at home in the royal castle. Rising quickly through the ranks there, she becomes handmaiden to the queen, allowing her to witness the royal family’s troubles firsthand. Unable to produce an heir, Queen Lenore turns to the king’s aunt, Millicent, who is reputed to have magical powers. The queen bears a healthy girl with Millicent’s help, but not before King Ranolf grows resentful of his aunt’s imperiousness. Millicent is banished from the kingdom, becoming one of many dangers beyond its walls, while Princess Rose grows up sheltered against her aunt’s parting threats. When her parents’ elaborate defenses fail to protect their daughter, it is Elise, her confidante, who must keep Rose alive. Elise’s own tale grounds the novel, and the twists that resolve the women’s stories are both convincing and moving.

January 15, 2014
In her first novel, Blackwell keeps her retelling of "Sleeping Beauty" in the once-upon-a-time past but makes the standard version's reliance on magic subservient to a more psychological/sociological interpretation. When aged Elise overhears her granddaughter telling the popular legend about a sleeping princess brought back to life by a kiss, she feels compelled to tell the real events she witnessed 50 years earlier while a beloved servant of King Ranolf and Queen Lenore: Aware she was the bastard offspring of an unnamed father connected to the castle where her mother once worked as a seamstress, Elise arrived at court as a teenager. Although her quick rise to becoming personal attendant to Queen Lenore made her unpopular with other servants, Elise adored her work and the gentle queen. But all was not as copacetic as it at first seemed. Lenore's inability to bear an heir was creating a political as well as a marital crisis. Ranolf was about to buckle to pressure to name his brutal brother Bowen as successor, when Lenore returned from a journey with Ranolf's great-aunt Millicent and announced her pregnancy. Soon, Millicent and Ranolf were locked in a power struggle over influencing Lenore, and Elise found her own allegiance to the queen compromised. And after Princess Rose was born, stubborn Ranolf banished Millicent, who vowed to destroy Ranolf's kingdom. Whether she possessed any special power was less important than the "distrust and fear" that gradually overtook Ranolf's rule as Rose grew up. Equally devoted to Rose as to her mother, Elise also lived her own life, complete with an early love and a complicated marriage. By the time Rose was 17, Ranolf had won a pyrrhic victory in his war against his enemies, including his brother, and Lenore had drifted under the spell of a religious fanatic. Then the kingdom faced an even greater crisis and Elise was assigned to protect Rose at all costs, including complete isolation. Intelligent escapism that should please Brothers Grimm lovers more than Disney fans.

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Starred review from December 1, 2013

In this retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story as seen through the eyes of Elise, a loyal servant and confidante to the royal family, readers follow Elise as she strives to learn how to be a servant while rising quickly through the ranks, balancing her new life as a friend to the queen with her downstairs friendships with maids and servants. Royal intrigue mingles with fairy tale lore and when the curse falls, as readers know it will, it is unexpected and heartrending. Even if at times the story appears to be following a predictable route, the surprises keep coming, and events dance around one another to form a new path to the climax. VERDICT Blackwell, previously a reporter and romance writer, makes her historical fiction debut with a gripping tale full of romance, secrets, and promises made and broken. This beautiful, original reinterpretation of a classic story is engrossing and often surprising. Recommended for fans of fairy tale retellings or gothic historical fiction.--Katie Lawrence, Chicago

Copyright 2013 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 15, 2013
In this magical reimagining of the fifteenth-century fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty's story is told from the perspective of Elise Darliss, a poor farm girl who finds a place in the castle as a maid. Thanks to a strong work ethic and her rare ability to read and write, she eventually earns the position of private maid to the queen herself. The queen is kind, and Elise comes to know her well, and when the legendary princess is born, she befriends her, too. The rest of the tale is famously well-known, but Blackwell treats readers to a retelling that makes historical fiction of the fantasy. And, while she relates what really happened at the castle, we also get to see Elise bloom as she grows from farm girl to respectable lady. The story is dark and enchanting, if a little contrived at times, and Blackwell's rendering of the medieval setting is rich and detailed. Following in the inspired footsteps of Gregory Maguire's fairy-tale twists, this debut novel puts a spellbinding new spin on a classic yarn.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2013, American Library Association.)