Review--Prince of Thorns & Nightmares by Linsey Miller

 

For fans of Disney Twisted Tales and Serena Valentino's Villains comes the next book of the Disney Prince Young Adult series.

Prince Phillip tells his side of Disney's Sleeping Beauty where once upon a dream was just the beginning...

Prince Phillip’s known from a young age that his destiny has already been decided for him by his father, King Hubert. His job is to smile and wave for the crowd and ride off into the sunset with his predetermined fiancé, Princess Aurora, after her curse is lifted on her sixteenth birthday. But just days before Aurora’s birthday party, Phillip experiences a strange burst of magic, and three fairies tell him that he is part of a prophecy set to defeat Maleficent, the Mistress of All Evil. Suddenly Phillip feels as if he has a choice—maybe magic can be the freedom he has been looking for.

Although, having magic and working with fairies to retrieve powerful ancient artifacts would be much more enjoyable if he didn’t have to deal with her every night, a girl named Briar Rose who appears in his dreams on the other side of a mystical thorn maze. Phillip doesn’t know how he can be so annoyed by a person he can’t even see but having to hear the mysterious maiden’s laughs and jabs at him every time he goes to sleep is worse than any nightmare. But Phillip is starting to realize that Briar Rose isn’t so different from himself, and maybe they can change both of their fates one dream at a time.

I finally picked up Linsey Miller's Prince of Thorns & Nightmares and was totally blown away by this story! I am huge Disney nerd. Love it and all the classics. What I love about this Disney Prince series is how we have the princes that we didn't really get much of from the movies, I'll admit, Eric had more of a presence in The Little Mermaid, but Phillip in Sleeping Beauty? Yeah, I was definitely ready for this story! I would absolutely love one for Snow White's prince but I have a feeling this series might be done.

We begin at the beginning, we see the movie play out with the birth of Aurora and then her sudden shuttle off to safety with the three good fairies and then we jump forward nearly 16 years years later. It's just a few weeks shy and Phillip is off having his freedom before he's set to wed the princess he only ever met once as an infant. He's known all his life practically that he will have to protect Aurora and defeat Maleficent at some point, but what he wants most of all is a life of his own choosing. Yes, he's a prince and he can't escape that, but being able to live his life his own way is important to him.

It's then that he and his friend Johanna--who is just strictly his friend, who is a squire in training--run into three fairies--not the ones we all know--who say they are there to help Phillip. They want to help him find the magical shield and sword that will help him defeat Maleficent and in order to do that, he will have to learn how to use his magic. Yes, his magic! According to these fairies, he has magic and he only has a handful of days to learn how to wield it, find the sword and shield, and be ready to rescue Aurora should it be necessary.

Meanwhile, for the past several years Phillip has been having odd dreams. He's had them nearly all his life. In them there's a wall of thorns and on the other side of it, he can hear the voice of a girl. He's tried talking to her over the years, but they are never able to communicate...until today! Suddenly he's talking to the girl of his literal dreams and learns her name is Briar Rose! He learns he has quite a lot in common with this peasant girl and a sort of frienemyship forms

I truly love the take Miller gets to do with these stories! I've read 2/3 so far and have loved them! It's so refreshing to see what the prince was thinking as I feel like in the movies we always focused more on the princess and the prince is just the one who saves them. This book largely acts as an alternate point of view to the movie we all know and love. We get to see what Phillip was doing up until the day he meets Briar Rose in the forest! I positively love how Miller incorporated parts of the movie and gave them another spin! The whole song number "Once Upon a Dream" takes on a whole new meaning and with Phillip's insight we realize the little things we missed in the movie! Lol.

Truly these Disney Prince books are a work of art! I mean the details that Miller includes shows how much she knows her source material! And giving a fresh breath of life to the princes we all crushed on as children is the icing on the cake! I love a good twist on a Disney movie, be it new point of view or a Twisted Tale! It's always exciting to learn about the things we didn't "catch" in the movies. This is definitely a series all Disney fans should read because it's simply fantastic!

Overall Rating 5/5 stars