Review: Spindle Fire by Lexa Hillyer

Spindle Fire by Lexa Hillyer
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

This is a very unique retelling of Sleeping Beauty. It has alot more action than the tale that most of us know and the fae have a much larger albeit darker part in the story. Aurora is the princess, who as expected falls asleep by a prick of a spinning wheel when she turns 16, this is all part of the story we know. Much of the rest of the story diverges from the beginning, Aurora cannot speak or feel, as the fae took her speech and ability to feel when she was a baby. The fae all have tithes that they take from humans to maintain and increase their magic. Aurora has a half-sister Isabelle who is blind, but her blindness doesn't keep her from being adventurous. The sisters are best of friends, yet Isabelle or Isbe for short, has always been made to feel inadequate and unworthy. When it comes time for Aurora's 16th birthday and impending wedding, Isbe is to be sent away to a convent. Ever the rebel, Isbe runs away and finds her own adventure. Aurora tries to go after her sister to make amends but finds the spinning wheel instead, and upon pricker her finger she finds herself in another world created by a faerie that everyone has long thought to be dead. Trapt in this dream world, Aurora must decipher the puzzle to not only find her way out but help the other people trapped in the Night Faerie's dream world. Back in the real world, Isbe finds that her sister and everyone in their kingdom has fallen ill with a sleeping sickness. She turns to a neighboring nation to find an ally and hopefully Aurora's true love to break the spell and wake her sister. Of course both sisters find a handsome boy to accompany them on their adventures.

The pacing of the story was a bit slow for my liking. I attribute part of that to the fact that the story jumps around through multiple perspectives. We get several different faerie perspectives and both Aurora and Isabelle's perspectives. The timeline doesn't feel cohesive either, sometimes we are in the past and we are in the present. I wish the backstory of the faerie sisters Malfluer and Belcour was a bit more cohesive. We get some of the information, but I felt like there was so much left out and I'm left wanting more of an explanation of their magic, their broken bond, and a hint at what needs to happen next. I'm just left kind of confused.

Overall, I think this was a decent first installment, and definitely a unique take on Sleeping Beauty. There is alot going on, and there is alot of unfinished business at the end. I'm anxious to see where the next installment takes us.  I have an ARC of Winter Glass which comes out in April, so look for that review to be posted soon.

View all my reviews