Woken by a Kiss

A Long Long Sleep by Anna Sheehan
This is meant to be a YA/dystopian/Sci-Fi retelling of Sleeping Beauty. That point is made clear several times throughout the story (for example calling Rose by Aurora instead of her actual name), but I think it's much better cataloged as a retelling of Rip Van Winkle. Rose is woken from her statis slumber after 60 years to find that the world she knew, along with all her friends and family, is gone. It's a bit of a mystery at first trying to discover why she was asleep for so long and what exactly happened, but things get a little more complicated when Rose realizes everyone else isn't so happy to see her back.

I wound up being really pleasantly surprised by this, and fell a little bit in love with Rose's worlds, both the one she woke up in and the one she left behind. Once I started reading I really didn't want to put it down, and now am a little disappointed it's all over.

I love the boys throughout, Otto the part-human/part-alien that can't quite communicate as one should, Bren the boy who woke her up from her sleep with a kiss, and especially Xavier the one Rose left behind. And yes, there are a few plot twists that seem obvious after the fact, but even so I didn't see it coming.

The books ends in such a way that I only hope there's a sequel coming. I'm not going to go so far to say there's a cliffhanger, but there's definitely a direction the author could take this story, and if she does decide to take that journey I've be right there with her.

5/5

Disclosure: I was provided this book through a Goodreads First Reads giveaway. All opinions expressed are my own.