The Sleeping Soldier

by Aster Glenn Gray

After a century-long sleep, a Union soldier wakes up in 1965.

Cavalry lieutenant Russell Krause is all at sea in this strange new century of electric lights and automobiles. But he soon acquires a guide: Caleb O’Connor, a kind-hearted, history-loving college student with secrets he’s desperate to hide. Caleb is gay, and he’s completely smitten with this lively, warm-hearted soldier, who has swiftly become his best friend.

But Russell’s nineteenth century understanding of friendship is far more affectionate than any 1960s friendship is allowed to be. In between telling Russell about escalators, record players, and the Civil Rights movement, Caleb has to explain that men in 1965 are no longer allowed to hold hands or share beds or kiss… which is tough, because Caleb would love to be kissing Russell.

Despite these chilling changes in social customs, Caleb and Russell’s loving friendship grows ever closer. But the cultural divide may prove wider than even love can bridge. Content warnings: period-typical attitudes in general, but especially toward homosexuality.

Genres: Romance, Historical, Queer, Historical Fiction, M M Romance, Fantasy, Time Travel

302 pages, Kindle Edition

First published August 6, 2023

About the author

Aster Glenn Gray writes fantasies with a romantic twist, or romances with a fantastic twist. (And maybe other things too. She is still a work in progress.) When she is not writing, she spends much of her time haunting libraries, taking long walks, and doing battle with the weeds that seek to topple her tomato plants.

Reviews

[Drache.... (Angelika) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is special.
The author was able to find a beautiful balance between a well researched historical context, slow relationship development and character development, complex feelings, and different kinds of friendship and love.

The background for the story is a sleeping-beauty-like setting that is never questioned by anyone involved (that's part of the curse a fairy put on Russell).
Because the curse wasn't questioned, the author could concentrate on the main characters Caleb and Russell, their college years, friends and history.

Caleb and Russell's story was heartbreaking but also heartwarming.
The months Russell felt lost and was grieving were painful to read, but necessary.
I loved that Caleb had Michael. As friend and more, Michael was there for Caleb and the one person Caleb felt comfortable sharing his feelings for Russell with.
Along the way I learned about male friendships in the 19. century, the changes in socially acceptable behaviour between same sex friends, and how much the English language changed in 100 years.

I'd recommend to read the author's historical notes at the end of the book before starting this one-of-a-kind romance.

"The past is another country; they speak a different language there".

[ancientreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'll get the imperfections out of the way first: 1. the terms of the fairy's curse are narratively convenient, in that as soon as anyone meets Russell they know that he really was a Union soldier, so AGG doesn't have to deal with scenes of incredulity over and over and over again; 2. occasionally I was surprised by how long Russell had been awake without happening on some phenomenon that takes him aback; 3. although "abolitionist" often, maybe usually, /= "nonracist," Russell has to be 100% nonracist, or he'd be considerably less sympathetic to most present-day readers, and this is maybe not perfectly credible. (Though I'm not exactly complaining about that -- the problem, if it is one, is baked into the story AGG wants to tell. It's funny, isn't it, how you can accept a fantastic premise, to wit Sleeping Beauty, but what follows from the premise can seem realistic or otherwise.)

Why is it so easy to call attention to faults and so difficult to articulate praise? (Is this a case of happy and unhappy families?) Because I loved this book, all the different kinds of love in it, the way sex is a part of some kinds of love (Caleb and Michael; Caleb and, eventually, Russell); what counts as "homosexual" and what acts are covered by "sodomy"; the nature of friendship (Caleb and Dan; Russell and Dan; Russell and Martha), passionate friendship (Russell and Owen), and passionate friendship/romantic love that includes sexual desire ... None of that feels abstract because it's all grounded in the characters' relationships to one another.

But the most moving aspect of the book, for me, was its account of Russell's loneliness and grief, of how devastating it is to have lost everyone you ever knew and to be unmoored in a changed world. The great missed opportunity of the Captain America movies was their almost complete failure to explore grief and disorientation in the lives of Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes; thankfully, there is a lot of good fanfic taking up the slack. In reading The Sleeping Soldier I was often reminded of a fic in which Sam Wilson remarks that Steve's situation is most comparable to that of a refugee, abruptly and traumatically separated from everything and everyone they have ever known and loved, and then expected to be overjoyed and grateful about being alive. In Russell's character AGG gives full weight to how that sundering might play out, as Russell's early determined optimism and good cheer give way to desperate sorrow and anger.

So the list at the beginning of this review amounts to almost nothing. A heads-up, I guess, about what to brush aside on the way to The Sleeping Soldier's heart.

[Kathleen in Oslo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Utterly splendid. Have been saving this for the proverbial rainy day, and it was absolutely worth the wait.

I loved how part of the curse was that everyone believed the curse. Which, narratively, means that we get to skip the disbelief and skepticism, repeated ad infinitum, every time Russell meets someone new. But also: the fact that people accept Russell for who he is means that his true character -- his curiosity, his joy, his steadfastness, his honesty, and his pain -- comes through in every encounter, without the complications or compromises of having to hide his (fantastical) background or his genuine self.

We thus avoid the furtiveness and deception that characterize most time-travel stories; or more accurately, the furtiveness and deception is located, not in our Rip van Winkle, but in our closeted, guarded, fearful Caleb, a true man of his time, who has imbibed all the era's repressive notions of sexuality, masculinity, respectability, and acceptability and is, accordingly, miserable and justifiably paranoid. It's a clever inversion of the normal time-travel trope. Russell needs Caleb, his Virgil, his faithful guide and friend. But Caleb also needs Russell, whose very way of being denaturalizes the norms, behavior, and expectations that Caleb had assumed were, well, natural: permament, implacable, and unavoidably shadowing the lives of even those outsiders who flaunt their dictates. (Here Caleb's summers in Chicago, where he explores his queerness more openly -- if still in protected, private spaces -- is as much of a different world as Russell's childhood in the 19th century; both feel equally remote from the small-town setting where Caleb's "real" life unfolds.)

But really, focusing on this book's cleverness and precision does it a disservice. What made this a delicious read is its gorgeous, fluent writing; its emotional acuity and resonance; its flashes of humor and vulnerability; its wonderful friendships (Michael!!!); and the connection between two unforgettable MCs whose devotion and love -- both platonic and romantic -- are beautifully, compassionately rendered. A triumph.

[Eli · Rating 5 out of 5]

You know when an author reads your mind and is like “yeah, I’m gonna write this book for him and only him.” Well that was The Sleeping Soldier for me. I think I’ve discovered another true 5 star read for me. Not 4.75 but 5/5⭐️ baby. This book was just catered to all of my reading tastes and historical interests that I was just nerding out and swooning the entire time. Do I think it will be for everyone? Maybe not. But keep reading to see why I loved it 😉

What I loved about this book:

✨It is a love letter to history—queer history—and it is everything I could have asked for.
✨It is the thesis to an idea that’s been rolling around in my head for the last year about queer history and the cultural shift between the 19th and 20th centuries.
✨It doesn’t take itself too seriously.
✨Russell.
✨It mentions The Charioteer by Mary Renault. (Go read The Charioteer.)
✨It has filled the hole left by me finishing all of Cat Sebastian’s 20th century historicals.
✨Russell calls Caleb “Freckles”
✨There’s ROMANTIC LETTERS. And UNSENT ROMANTIC LETTERS. And so much that is UNWRITABLE.
✨There is a magical fairy curse that is purely a plot device to make the story a better vehicle for the historical themes that the author was trying to get across and I respect the fuck out of that and even—dare I say—enjoyed it.
✨Oh my god the HISTORY (again).
✨I just taught the civil war to my juniors a few months ago and we had such similar conversations to the ones they had in this book and now I’m mad I didn’t read this sooner.
✨I read it in one day.
✨It made me enjoy a fairy tale retelling (mostly unheard of).
✨It made me both immeasurably happy and immeasurably sad at different points for different reasons but always in a good way.
✨Again, Russell.

What I didn’t like about this book:

✨basically nothing.


Aster Glenn Gray you have outdone yourself and I will now have to go back and read everything you’ve ever written.

[Kirsten · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rich, complicated,
thoroughly researched account
of the truest loves.

Challenge re-read: AGG writes the most complicated love stories, full of compromise and doubt but so much hope. I love her writing so hard.

[Bizzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved everything about this, and it’s probably my favorite romance of the year—definitely the best I’ve read in a long time. Fairytale retellings aren’t normally my thing, but this felt more like using the premise of a fairytale as inspiration rather than a straight-up retelling.

I loved how Gray subverted the fish-out-of-water trope to explore how social progress isn’t the straight line we often perceive it to be. Stories about the past often treat the past as an objectively worse place to be, but Gray rejected that in favor of showing how Russell’s time was different in ways that can’t neatly be categorized as good or bad. In particular, I thought it was so clever to use a friendship between a man from 1865 and one from 1965 to show how social norms for male friendship, affection, and vulnerability changed over time, and how our modern norms of masculinity aren’t inevitable, or even part of a linear progression from the past.

I also liked how Gray used the presence of someone from a different time to highlight how meeting new people at college so often causes us to reflect on our own identities and question why we believe what we do. Caleb was already questioning what it meant to transition into adulthood as a gay man, but meeting someone with a totally different conception of masculinity forced him to stop taking certain social norms for granted and examine whether he really wanted to live his life by them. Both Caleb’s individual growth and the changes in Caleb and Russell’s relationship over time felt so true to what life and friendship look like in your early 20s, when things feel like they’re constantly in flux.

There are so many poignant observations in this book—and I love how the book started out very light-hearted and charming, then slowly turned into something more bittersweet. That felt very true to life in your early 20s, too.

Gray is so good at writing a book that makes you feel melancholy and self-reflective, but that still has a happy ending befitting a romance.

[Caz]

I've given this a B+ at AAR, 4.5 stars

Aster Glenn Gray is, in my humble opinion, a very underrated writer. I’ve only read a handful of her books, but they’ve all been well written and innovative, both thoughtful and thought-provoking, and the author is clearly not afraid to take risks in order to tell the story she wants to tell – even if sometimes, those risks don’t quite pay off. All of that is true of her latest novel, The Sleeping Soldier, which uses the Sleeping Beauty tale as a springboard for a story that explores the change in social attitudes to sexuality and same sex friendships that occurred between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries through the romance between a closeted college student and his ‘sleeping beauty’, a young Civil War soldier who wakes from a hundred year cursed sleep in 1965. I’m not normally the biggest fan of fairy tale retellings, but this is one of the few I’ve enjoyed (another is Briarley by the same author), even though the premise does require a strong dose of narrative convenience for it to work.

The story opens with the Sleeping Beauty-esque set up; a disgruntled fairy appears at the christening party for the baby boy born to the Krauses and curses him to sleep for one hundred years when he is pricked by a bayonet. Russell grows to adulthood and fights for the Union in the Civil War – and manages to avoid any bayonets until 1865 when, on his way home to Indiana for Christmas, he breaks up a fight, is raked by a bayonet and falls down as if dead. His parents take him back to their home – the Schloss – in Aurora, and lay him in his childhood bedroom.

Around a hundred years later, Caleb O’Connor, a student at Hawkins College (a liberal arts college) discovers the existence of the Schloss from a library book about Victorian mourning art, and is immediately fascinated by the photograph of a “life-sized waxwork: the Union soldier Russell Krause, so perfectly sculpted that he looked, at least in that black-and-white photograph, like a man asleep.” The caption to the photo explains the legend that the waxwork is not a waxwork at all, but a youth condemned to sleep for a hundred years until awakened by the kiss of true love. Months pass and it’s almost Christmas when, not sure what he’s looking for or expecting, Caleb decides to enter the house. It’s musty and dark, but beautiful, with high ceilings and a richly carved grand staircase – which creaks suddenly under the weight of boots. Caleb is frozen to the spot and can’t believe what he’s seeing – a handsome young man in uniform with a revolver at his hip, a riding crop in his hand and a kepi perched on his dark curls. It can’t possibly be – but it is. Russell Krause.

After the initial shock of such an unlikely encounter wears off, Caleb is surprised to realise he absolutely believes Russell’s tale of his cursed sleep, and that he has only recently woken up. Russell excitedly takes Caleb on a tour of the house – during which Caleb tries to give him a very potted account of some of the century’s important events – and Russell then explains he’s going to be a student at Hawkins (his mother appointed a lawyer to look after him shortly before she died, and that gentleman has enrolled him.) Caleb suggests a tour of the campus, and Russell readily agrees.

Russell follows Caleb to campus, where he makes friends straight away and becomes very popular among the student body. Everyone accepts his story (the narrative convenience I mentioned, which does, at least, do away with the need for constant repetition) and most of the teasing he gets is good-natured – he’s able to laugh at himself when he gets things wrong and he’s the life and soul of whatever group of people he’s in. His joy at discovering so many new things – television, escalators, department stores, the Beatles – is infectious, and his vivacity just leaps off the page.

Caleb becomes Russell’s guide to this unfamiliar world full of so many strange new innovations – and so many new and strange customs – and a deep and enduring friendship quickly develops between them. But the heart of the novel is the love story between these two men whose lived experience and social ‘conditioning’ is so very different; Caleb – who has only recently admitted to himself that he’s queer and is deeply closeted – and Russell, for whom having devoted, lover-like, friendships with other men is completely normal. Caleb is terrified that allowing Russell to be affectionate towards him in public will out him as homosexual to everyone else, but Russell doesn’t even understand the concept (which was only just emerging in the 1860s, I believe) and is upset when Caleb rejects even the smallest intimate gesture. It’s a brilliant idea – to use a close friendship between two men of different eras to show how the ‘rules’ for male friendships changed over time, how, in 1865, it was perfectly acceptable for men to share a bed or to take each other’s hands or arms and how, by 1965, the concept of masculinity has become so rigid that it doesn’t allow for men to show affection or vulnerability. The author’s research here is impeccable (and she talks about it at length in her author’s note, which is well worth reading) and it’s one of the things I liked most about the book, the way she rejects talking down the past as being necessarily a worse place to be in favour of showing that Russell’s time was simply different in a way that can’t be neatly categorised as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. I also liked the way Russell debunks various myths about people of his time; for example, there’s an expectation that he’s prudish simply because he’s a ‘Victorian’ and that’s what people in 1965 have been led to believe Victorians were like, but when someone dumps a copy of Playboy in his lap, he’s completely unfazed, pointing out that in his day, women were completely naked in “dirty pictures”, and is disappointed in the modern style of “décolleté”, which doesn’t show very much skin at all!

One of the most moving aspects of the story is the portrayal of Russell’s loneliness and grief when it finally hits him that he’s lost everything and everyone he’s ever known and is completely adrift in a world that has changed almost beyond recognition in so many ways. His desperate sorrow and anger is a powerful contrast with his determinedly optimistic ‘energizer bunny’ personality from the earlier part of the book when he’s been so busy soaking up all the newness as a way of avoiding thinking about exactly what it all means for him.

Caleb is a solid, likeable character, and because the story is told entirely from his perspective, we’re privy to the fears that keep him in a state of inaction, and his struggle to work out how he can live honestly and be true to himself in a society that is still largely hostile towards homosexuality. Meeting Russell and learning of his very different views of masculinity and love and friendship makes Caleb start questioning the norms he accepts and lives by, but he has to break himself free of his inertia if he’s going to be able to move forward and reach for happiness with the man he loves.

For all its exploration of changing social mores, and what it means to live an authentic life in the face of bigotry, The Sleeping Soldier isn’t some kind of dry history lesson or polemic. There are some weaknesses – the set up, the convenience of the curse to explain who Russell is, the mysterious lawyer, for instance – but overall, this is a clever, funny and charming romance featuring two very different people finding their way to each other in the face of fears and prejudice and misunderstandings. I really enjoyed it and would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for an historical romance with a difference.

This review originally appeared at All About Romance.

[X · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don’t think this one quite came together - I think it probably needed another couple drafts, to streamline. It’s a bit repetitive in places, or at least that’s how it read to me, and there are also some plotlines that could/should be dropped and the book would be better for it - Thomas Audobon, for example, really either needed to be in there less or more, but not in the first 40% and then dropped entirely. (Idk, that character read a little bit like the author thought “I need at least one black character on-page if I’m going to have this civil war soldier character,” and - honestly no!) It’s not that everything needs to be wrapped up perfectly, but there should be intention behind how the various side characters and plot points are incorporated.

This was very funny! It’s basically a full-on comedy for long stretches, especially in the first half as our Civil War alum heads back to college in the 1960s. When it works, it really really works (but when it doesn’t… it’s mostly because of the repetition).

The romance plot - look, I think this book is somewhat a victim of the zeitgeist in the sense that a sincere & wholesome m/m romance set in the 1960s with a quirky bi MC and a cynical gay MC (and a throughline involving Mary Renault’s The Charioteer) already came out this year - and I never thought I would be saying this but Cat Sebastian did it better (!). I don’t think this book is bad, exactly - I just don’t think it’s in the top 50% of Aster Glenn Gray historical/fairy tale retelling romance novels, whereas We Could Be So Good is really (in my personal and very subjective opinion, from what I’ve read of hers,) Cat Sebastian’s best work so far.

I do feel kind of bad about this rating lol… my bad to the author, love your style, keep on keeping on etc. (And write another f/f! Or at least another m/m/f!)

[Agla · Rating 3 out of 5]

I see how this book is loved, it is very well researched and provides very important insight into the evolution of male/male relationships, whether it be platonic friendships or love. However it didn't fully work for me. I'll still rate it 3* and would recommend it because it contains thought provoking and important messages.

What I liked The historical perspective of m/m relationships and the differences between the 19th century and the 20th. I appreciated that we saw how toxic masculinity was born (basically) and how it is enforced even by those who suffer the most from it. I liked that the way the past was presented (19th century in that case): it's not all bad and not all good. The premise is good: a union soldier wakes up after a century sleep. I liked how he discovers the evolution of the world and is a bit lost but very eager. His take on the debates of the 1960s were sometimes insightful (he was maybe a bit too progressive but it wasn't over the top).

What I didn't like I love single POV books but here I really needed Russell (the union soldier POV). Knowing his thoughts process when he is lost because of new cultural phenomenon would have been really fun. But my main problem was Caleb and his characterization. His whole personality is being gay and in the closet. That's it. We don't really know why he is at uni, is it just to avoid the draft? He doesn't strike as a draft dodger since he doesn't really have any strong feelings on the War in Vietnam. When it starts he doesn't have a major and doesn't really seem eager to learn about any topics. He doesn't have a job in mind. He also doesn't seem to have any money problems and that was a bit odd. Granted we don't know much about his family which is on the one hand understandable (he is distancing himself from them for fear of being discovered as gay) but on the other shouldn't we seen him discuss his family with Russell. That's my other problem: what does Russell see in Caleb? I'm not sure I know. Yes, Caleb is very nice to him and helpful but beyond that Russell doesn't really get to know Caleb and what he likes to do (we don't really either). At first, Caleb seemed to be absent from scenes he was in. He was introducing Russell to people but not participating the conversation even when it would have been helpful to Russell. I got why but still it felt odd. Most of the secondary characters were not fleshed out enough for me either, with the exception of Dan and Michael maybe.

Finally, I didn't like the last 15% that made Caleb seem childish (word used in the book to describe his behavior and I wholeheartedly agree) and was rather abrupt. I wanted a bit more.

[Ditte · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Sleeping Soldier's a book about feeling out of place in the world and how to navigate life when you feel like you don't belong.

Russell, a Union soldier, is cursed to sleep for 100 years when injured unless true love's kiss wakes him. Unfortunately for Russell, he falls into an enchanted sleep in 1865 and wakes up a century later in 1965, out of time and out of sorts. He meets Caleb, a student at the nearby college, who vows to help Russell with life in modern times, and the two form a fast friendship. Only, so many things have changed while Russell's been asleep, and adjusting to the 20th century isn't always easy. For Caleb, finding a best friend in Russell is both a blessing and a curse; he's never had such a close friendship but he's also struggling with his sexuality, his fear of anyone finding out, and possible feelings developing for his new best friend.

The book had a slow start and the Sleeping Beauty premise had me a little sceptical, but I ended up loving it! Initially, it's very silly and fairytale-like but once Russell goes from purely fascinated about the future to experiencing more complex feelings, the book starts to get really good.

Russell and Caleb's experiences are different but they're also mirrored in that both feel like they don't fit in the world, that they're struggling to belong while feeling a sense of frustration and bone-deep unfairness about their situations.

Their friendship is really lovely, and they both learn so much from each other. I also loved that they made bigger networks of friends, both separate and together, and that they built connections to both each other and the world.

The book seemed like it based a lot of historical facts on research and it was very interesting to see the differences in friendships and how affection within those kinds of relationships was expressed in 1865 vs 1965.

The Sleeping Soldier's a great book about finding connections, accepting who you are, and taking a leap and trusting someone will be there to catch you when you fall.

[PaperMoon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Blending Aurora and Rip Van Winkle's stories with a Back to the Future type premise, this delightful romantic fantasy set in second half of the 20th century truly charmed the socks off me; and really - I expect no less from an autobuy author (for me). My biggest quibble was why every man and his dog fully accepted Russell's introductions of being from 100 years earlier without a raising of an eyebrow ... until things were explained somewhere in the second half of the book. Thankfully, the romantic roadblocks and misunderstandings thrown into Caleb and Russell's path were not too unrealistic nor insurmountable (suspension of belief wise). I also appreciated the complexities regarding historical (civil war era) vs modern (1960s) norms of what constitutes acceptable PDAs amongst American men and how this impacted our MCs interactions. 4.5 stars for a magical few hours of escapism.

[Janine Ballard · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.75 stars

I liked this better than Aster Glenn Gray’s last couple of books but not as much as much of her earlier work. The biggest issue I had was that Russell’s character rang false to me. His “gee whiz!” enthusiasm for everything just didn’t fit with his backstory. A solider fresh from the killing fields of the Civil War should have been more weary and less of an innocent. Because I couldn’t buy Russell, it was also hard to buy the rest of the story and to feel excited about the relationship. With that said I really liked Caleb and was interested in just about everything else in his life.

I thought the portrayal of the 1960s was good. Grey does her research and it was interesting to think about the change in historical attitudes toward the intimacies of friendship and also the way same sex relationships between men were viewed. The piece I was most interested in was how and why this changed, but there wasn’t much about that.

Another big problem with the book is that there was so much emphasis on Caleb telling Russell not to do anything that might be perceived as queer because if he was caught he could be expelled that it read like foreshadowing. I kept expecting (and dreading) that Russell and Caleb would be caught and that got in the way of my enjoyment. I was relieved that it didn’t happen.

Lastly I also feel that Russell’s speech affectations (to distinguish the speech patterns of someone from the 1860s midwest from those of someone from the 1960s or from modern America) were too exaggerated (I had this problem with The Larks Still Bravely Singing as well.

There were things I really liked though — Caleb, his friend/lover/mentor Michael, the portrayal of the queer community in the 1960s, and the school Russell and Caleb attended. My likes and dislikes come to about a B-. This was almost a return to form for AGG and I hope she gets back into the groove I enjoyed most.

[✨Meli the bookworm✨ · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Caleb, you say platonically like you think it doesn’t count. He loves you. He loves you more than most of the people you’ll ever sleep with will. My God, I like you fine, and I guess I’d die for you if I had to, but I wouldn’t be happy about it. Russell would jump in front of a bullet to prevent it from grazing your hair, and he’d consider himself well repaid if he died in your arms.”


Sometimes you are doomscrolling in the app formerly known as twitter, and you serendipitously come across a post by Freya Marske raving about a new m/m Sleeping Beauty retelling by an author you have not read(I know, shame on me!), and you mention it to your bestie. Your bestie says "oh, cool, I loved this author's previous works", decides to jump to it right away, and, despite the fact that you just started a book that is freaking amazing, you are nothing but a slave to the whims of your adhd and you jump into it too because worse case scenario at least you can have fun in a buddy read, right?

AND IT TURNS OUT TO BE THE BEST DECISION YOU HAVE MADE IN MONTHS!!!!

The Sleeping Soldier is a witty, funny, beautifully crafted exploration of intimacy through time. It is an astoundingly well researched (as it is evident by the extremely thorough historical notes at the end of the book) look of those moments in time where the displays of friendship, affection, blurred into something queer, into something that was no longer normal in society.


What had it been like for those boys, that transitional generation? Lying in bed, whispering secrets with a best friend, holding hands, kissing cheeks, age-old patterns of friendship that no longer seemed quite so innocent… ​Why hadn’t they fought harder to keep it? ​Why had it been taken away at all?


It is a beautiful love story between two men from two different centuries, with one of the most creatives use of a curse to suspend your disbelief and allow the plot and romance to continue without the characters (or the reader) question it every 5 minutes.

It also shows exquisitely laid out parallels to what it means to mourn everything that you have lost (the people, what you stood for and being confronted by 100 years of technological advances, changes of the political landscape, changes, changes, so many changes!) and coming to terms with your queerness, what queerness means to you and what it means to accept such queerness and leave behind the person that perhaps you would've wanted to be if you could have denied your own core and chosen the easier path in a world that is so incredibly bigoted.


“I have a regiment,” Caleb pointed out. “The only thing that ever gave me the courage to admit all this to myself was meeting other queer men.” ​“Well, thank God. It’d be a little inhuman otherwise. We’re made to need each other.”


A wonderfully written historical fiction book, a tender love story, and an incredibly self-reflective and absolutely brilliant fairy tale retelling that has easily become one of my best reads of the year. Do yourself a favor and PLEASE READ IT!!


[Buddy read with Kari]

[Victoria (Eve's Alexandria) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of those times when a perfect book isn’t actually perfect. There are some technical narrative flaws here - the kitschy 1960s family show vibe lasts too long at the beginning; the fairytale conceit is highly convenient - but who cares, honestly, when the heart of the story is so glorious and lovely? Aster Glenn Gray’s historical fiction is criminally underrated, not least because of the amount of research that underpins it. More than that, she explores queer pasts in super interesting ways - and in this book, two pasts: the 1860s, through Russell’s experience, and the 1960s, through Caleb’s. She takes the culturally mediated experience of same sex love and intimacy very seriously, and that becomes part of what drives the narrative tension in the romance.

The romance itself is slooooow burn and gorgeous, giving lots of space for both MCs to establish themselves in the story. AAG does a great job of navigating their feelings while also painting a lively picture of being young and in college - I love a good party scene and there are several here. Russell and Caleb’s friendships are also nicely done, although I would have liked to hear a little more from the women.

All told, another keeper from this author, who is quickly becoming one of my most trusted one-clicks.

[Arta reads at night · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,8 ⭐️
I really REALLY liked this story.
The writing is excellent, relationship development and character building strong and deep and believable.
The story has a lightness to it, a hopefulness. It’s based on a sleeping beauty fairytale and it doesn’t lean into drama or angst. At the same time, it touches serious and important themes in a way that was a joy to read.
The ending felt a little bit abrupt, so it’s not a full 5⭐️ read for me. But I truly loved this book.

[Papie · Rating 5 out of 5]

A retelling of sleeping beauty? That didn’t excite me much. I only picked this up because I had read and loved another book by this author.

The sleeping beauty is an American civil war soldier who was cursed and fell asleep in 1865. And Caleb finds him in 1965, and helps him adapt to a century of changes.

Friendship. Discoveries. Wonderful secondary characters. Discovering the 1960s and the 1860s through Russel’s tales. Caleb falling desperately in love with the seemingly very straight Russel. Homophobia. Fear. Friendship. Love.

If you’re a romance reader like me, you’ll have to be patient. But I promise it’s worth it. Truly a delightful book.

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[Chris Zable · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.5 stars rounded up.

One of the things I love about Gray's books (I've read 3 now) is her attention to how queer men thought of themselves in different periods of history. She continues this here, as Russell's 19th-century ideal and experience of same-sex romantic friendship comes up against Caleb's anxiety about being spotted as homosexual. There are plenty of other places where Caleb explains the 20th century to Russell as well as some downright humorous moments. All in all a wonderful read.

[juli✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Maybe that is why the songs change,” Russell said. “Each generation needs its own songs, because each generation has a different heart.”

[Cleo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Happy sigh. I loved this m/m reimagining of Sleeping Beauty. It's the story of a Civil War soldier who wakes up in 1965, from a 100 year cursed sleep, and is befriended by a closeted college student.

This is a lovely, compelling story of two young men who become fast friends (and eventually more) while navigating everyday life while studying at a small liberal arts college in Indiana. It's also a social history of the changes between mid-19th C and mid-20th C American attitudes, particularly towards same-sex friendships and also race and politics.

I really enjoyed this. It's a relief - I love this author but wasn't wowed by her last two releases. There were some pacing issues - especially at the end. I thought the end was abrupt - I was happy with the HFN ending but I wanted a little bit more.

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Alert, alert! Aster Glenn Gray has a new queer fairytale retelling coming out. I'm not a big Sleeping Beauty fan, but if anyone can pull off an interesting m/m Sleeping Beauty retelling, it's AGG.

[Jordan Fischer | julietfoxreads · Rating 5 out of 5]

OMG! Ok, I’m spreading the word, The Sleeping Soldier is a MUST READ. My friends April and Christie begged me to give it a shot, and they were NOT wrong. SO freaking sweet, SO interesting, and just the most unique historical romance I have read in a long time. If you love friends to lovers, mid century romance, tons of banter, and ALL the lining - give this one a shot!

Russell is a Civil War soldier cursed to sleep for 100 years, and when he finally wakes up in 1965, the first person he befriends is Caleb. Caleb is completely enamored with his interesting new friend, and while he agrees to show him the ropes of mid century life, he also falls for him HARD. It turns out that men were MUCH more affectionate in the 1860s, which makes things difficult for closeted Caleb. Russell is totally oblivious to everything and it’s kind of funny - while Caleb is desperately pining over him, he’s also constantly pushing him away, worried that people will judge him.

Caleb and Russell’s heartfelt discussions about male friendship and how men can show affection were so interesting to me. In graduate school I spent some time researching nineteenth century female friendships in much the same way that Caleb goes about his research on men, so that was a real blast from the past.

I basically read this entire book on a flight, literally couldn’t put it down. Definitely a book that needs more hype, especially if you are on the hunt for more mid century queer romance like I am!

[Zofia · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a lovely, unexpected story. It's a fairytale, a romantic comedy, historical fiction, all wrapped into one, brilliant, cosy, slow burn romance. Russel was so adorable that I couldn't help but fall in love with him, right along Caleb. 💕

[Averly Wilke · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really really couldn’t get into it because no one seemed to bat an eye or have a problem with the abnormality of things encountered even though the world is set up as our normal everyday world.

Like how on earth is there a random fairy? And she’s mad about not being invited?? When no one knows fairies are a thing????

How is this house being kept and Russell’s finances by someone who doesn’t question it when his mother dies? Russell says the dude comes in to tell him things but Russell is supposed to be asleep? I guess he just hangs around the dirty old house and didn’t leave?

Also Caleb’s reaction is lackluster and unbelievable for someone that just met a guy from the past/the spooky rumor he heard about. I pretty much set the book down when after their hello and ‘oh yeah I’m from the past’ ‘oh that’s cool’ moved onto just them discussing and giving Russell a history lesson on what changed. He jumps right into racism and Russell is totally on board with all the progressiveness and it’s just…it reads like a kid explaining to another kid a history lesson.
‘Oh people don’t like integration’
‘Yeah but those are the bad ones’
‘I like being diverse! I’m glad we have international students here’

All of this within the first 4% of the book

[Calen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is incredibly well researched and really comes together in the last third. Like… really comes together. I loved it at that point. But it has quite the awkward beginning. I think the whole fairytale angle is a misstep and would have been better served as something related to time travel. The voices of the main protagonists also don’t feel developed or real enough until much later, which starts things off a bit stiff and sterile. That said, the voices do come through eventually and they are wonderful. I smiled ear to ear and laughed out loud several times. The conclusion is great too and the book references sprinkled throughout are top notch. Gray really knows how to write romance and this is no exception. Definitely stick with it if you don’t love the beginning.

[Gabi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un-put-downable. Utterly compelling. Kept me on tenterhooks throughout, despite being extremely tender and generally low conflict. The slow burn was magnificent torture. I adored this book and everything it had to say about the two historical periods that it spanned, and how platonic and romantic friendship has evolved over time.

After how much I loved Honeytrap, I kept meaning to go back and read this author's full back-catalogue. Maybe this will finally be the impetus I needed!!

[Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very slow burn. Lots of miscommunication. Funny and charming but the romance is one sided for almost 75% of the book.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed the concept and the characters but something was just a bit lacking to rate at 5 stars. Overall, I really had a good time with this.

[Polo · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Sleeping Soldier is a beautifully written, well-researched and thoroughly engrossing historical romance (or should I say fairy tale?) that instantly draws you into it. Aster Glenn Gray writes Caleb and Russell's story while using time travel in a creative and fun way that shows us the beauty of passionate male relationships.

Caleb O’Connor, our lead character, is the cutest young man in all of Hawkins College! I liked him from the start and was happy to follow him through his journey of love, friendship and self-knowledge. He is a shy man, but multi-dimensional throughout the story; he is written in such an honest way while he experiences feelings of love, jealousy, anger, fear, sadness, happiness, and hope... and all the time he remains a solid, likeable character. (I saw myself in Caleb in many ways, which happens quite often when I’m reading AGG—it seems like she’s always writing specifically for me.)

“I hope you know I didn't mean it in a bad way. Some people like to feel naughty.”
“I know.”
“But you don't.” Russell was searching Caleb’s face. “It matters to you that you are good.”
Heat build in Caleb's cheeks. “Yes.”

Russell is a charismatic soldier with lots of love to give—and he's more than happy to give it to Caleb. He just woke up from 100 years of sleep and is trying to learn how to navigate the modern world and how to adapt to its new social codes regarding passionate friendships between men. He is ADORABLE and will you make you fall in love with him.

There is a scene that I just love with Michael and Caleb after Michael meets Russell:

“Caleb, you say platonically like you think it doesn't count. He loves you. He loves you more than most of the people you'll ever sleep with will. My God, I like you fine, and I guess I'd die for you if I had to, but I wouldn't be happy about it. Russell would jump in front of a bullet to prevent it from grazing your hair, and he'd consider himself repaid if he died in your arms.”

It's a sweet, funny love story, and I'm sure I'll come back to read it again in the future.

[Littlerhymes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Civil War soldier Russell wakes up from a hundred-year sleep and finds himself in 1965. His first and best friend is college student Caleb, who becomes his guide to the new world that's full of strange wonders - television! record players! penicillin! - but one in which social mores have really changed. It's no longer acceptable for men to hold hands or declare their love for each other, especially not if they're like Caleb, who is secretly gay and tearing himself up because of it.

This riff on Sleeping Beauty is so good, I was really drawn along from start to end. Gray's books often explore history and sexuality in really interesting ways, questioning the idea that progress is linear, and this one does it quite uniquely through the Sleeping Beauty/fantasy element by contrasting the 1860s and the 1960s. It's such a clever way of using the time travel trope that I haven't quite seen done like this before.

The college students of the 1960s try to shock Russell by showing him Playboy and are nervous when they tell him the college is both mixed gender and integrated - but those things don't phase him at all.

However the way that masculinity is so bound by strict mores that don't allow for physical affection except in the most prescribed bro-like ways does shock him. What do you mean he can't kiss Caleb as a friend? What the hell?! And it's not as though the 1960s conception of homosexuality maps neatly onto the 1860s either which causes its own misunderstandings between the lovers.

Despite all their differences and the difficulties - Russell's discovery of the 20th century (knickerbocker glories! escalators!) is pretty delightful at times, but also one he finds really overwhelming - they love each other. It's very tender and it's just the sweetest love story too, ending like the best fairytales with a happily ever after.

[Susan Scribner · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars rounded up because Aster Glenn Gray deserves more recognition for her fascinating body of work, including Honeytrap, Tramps and Vagabonds, and my favorite, Briarley. In each of those books, Gray skillfully portrays love stories that feel rooted to their setting - for example, you wouldn't expect passionate declarations of love between two young hoboes who are focused on finding food, shelter, and safety in the Great Depression - yet somehow deeply romantic.

With The Sleeping Soldier, the author is intent on contrasting the affectionate, demonstrative love between close male friends of the mid 19th century with the rigid sexual stereotypes and homophobia a century later that considered almost any physical contact (besides sports) as "homo." The vehicle she uses to do so is a queered version of "Sleeping Beauty" that asks a lot from the reader without providing a completely comparable reward. I know this is fantasy/time travel story, but I couldn't wrap my head around the fact that Russell's "curse" includes a convenient stipulation that anyone who hears his story to will immediately believe it. Also, before she died, his mother made arrangements with a young lawyer to be there for Russell when he awoke from his 100 year sleep, enrolling him in college and providing him with a seemingly unlimited amount of money.

This significant plot contrivance means we don't have to worry about Russell being the target of rogue scientists who want to study him, or his being a stranger in a strange land with no identity papers. The sole focus is on the relationship between Caleb, a closet homosexual, and Russell, who wants to kiss and hug Caleb while also attending every dance with a different pretty girl.

There are interesting discussions to be had as Russell struggles to understand the boundaries of his new life.

"I would have thought feelings were feelings and always the same, and it turns out they are as changeable as popular songs," Russell said.
"I don't think our hearts have changed," Caleb said, suddenly fierce. "Just the way we express what we're feeling."

Although Russell at first comes across as a charming rascal, he does eventually grieve for the people he lost while sleeping, and the familiar world to which he can never return. Meanwhile Caleb, who spent the previous summer in Chicago where he finally met other queer men, is mourning the "normal" life he will never have. It's all very poignant, but without any of the other major issues needing to be addressed it feels insular. Plus it strains credulity that Russell easily accepts the integration of Blacks, Jews, and Asians at his Indiana college, even if he did fight for the Union army. His political sensibility seems much more modern than it should be (although he can't comprehend that the Democrats are the "civil rights party" now).

I did enjoy The Sleeping Soldier, but it didn't enthrall me like my favorite Gray novels. Still, she is one of those authors like Tamara Allen who publish too infrequently and fly too far under the radar. If this is the book that brings Gray more widespread attention I'll be truly happy for her.

[Ella Bishop · Rating 4 out of 5]

Conceptually this is a tremendously (delightfully?) silly book in some ways, there is something about it that seems like it shouldn’t work. And yet, this is a delightful read with fab characters and an annotated bibliography at the book that really highlights how carefully the author was writing and thinking about the two periods at play.