A Wicked Thing by Rhiannon Thomas

A Wicked Thing by Rhiannon Thomas
Series: A Wicked Thing #1
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publication Date: February 24th 2015
Source: HarperTeen [Edelweiss]

One hundred years after falling asleep, Princess Aurora wakes up to the kiss of a handsome prince and a broken kingdom that has been dreaming of her return. All the books say that she should be living happily ever after. But as Aurora understands all too well, the truth is nothing like the fairy tale.

Her family is long dead. Her "true love" is a kind stranger. And her whole life has been planned out by political foes while she slept.

As Aurora struggles to make sense of her new world, she begins to fear that the curse has left its mark on her, a fiery and dangerous thing that might be as wicked as the witch who once ensnared her. With her wedding day drawing near, Aurora must make the ultimate decision on how to save her kingdom: marry the prince or run.

A Wicked Thing is set 100 years after Princess Aurora fell asleep. She is awoken by the kiss of Prince Rodric and is expected to follow the plan laid out for her in the tale of Sleeping Beauty. Aurora is expected to marry Prince Rodric and fall in love with him (even though she doesn't know him), and live happily ever after. But Aurora doesn't want that. Sure she wants to save her kingdom, but at the expense of marrying a man she doesn't know or love, Aurora isn't sure whether she can do it or not.

Aurora was an ok character. The main thing that annoyed me about her was that her personality constantly waivers. Sometimes she's awesome and stands up for herself and other times she allows people to dictate what she can and can't do and walk all over her. But then again, she is in an unfortunate situation and is basically being locked away like Rapunzel, so I could forgive it most of the time. Aurora is freaked that her whole life has been planned for her while she's asleep - she doesn't want to marry the Prince and just be an accessory on his arm. Aurora wants to do something, be a big part in saving her kingdom. She's just a naive, sweet girl with good intentions that she can't put into motion.

Aurora had three love interests: Rodric (the prince who awoke her); Finnegan (the flirty visiting prince) and Tristan (the mysterious stranger who shows her freedom). Honestly, the only guy out of the three that I actually like Aurora with was Finnegan. Their banter together was fantastic. He's so flirty and charming, and it really riles Aurora, but I just think they'd be fantastic together. They're so passionate and fiery when they're together. Also, I did like Tristan at the beginning when he was showing Aurora around and helping her be free (if only for a couple of hours), but then he just kind of... disappeared and wasn't around as much. Oh well. Rodric is... nice. That's really the only word I have for him. There's nothing there. He wants to make his father proud of him, so he does things he doesn't want to do. I wasn't much of a fan of his until the very end when he really helped Aurora.

Aurora is awakened and is told she must marry Prince Rodric to bring magic back to the kingdom. Aurora has no idea what that means, and then she hears the story of Sleeping Beauty and thinks it's completely ridiculous. Why should she fall in love with someone she's just met and get married? Go Aurora! Aurora doesn't want to be locked up so she finds a way to escape her prison and then meets Tristan. Aurora starts to learn of the struggles her kingdom is going through - and has been going through since she fell asleep - and she is determined to do whatever she can to stop it. All the while, Aurora is struggling to come to terms with the fact that her whole family is dead. Only Aurora was put to sleep in this re-telling so all of her family died years and years ago - which is hard for her to process. There was also a slight twist with Aurora, which I found extremely intriguing! Hopefully it'll be explored further in the next book.

The ending was really good, but nearly everything is left unresolved and in ruins. I'm sure that the next book is going to be even better than this one because there's so much to be explored and explained now.

Overall, A Wicked Thing was an enjoyable re-telling of Sleeping Beauty. I loved all the twists on the story and Thomas definitely made it her own. I can't wait for book 2.