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Reversed Retellings #3
The Cursed Prince
Can a disabled mage save a prince from a terrible fate?
When she was fourteen, Gabi promised she’d do anything to protect Prince Alrik of Arksar. Including falling in love with him, in case true love’s kiss is needed to break the curse. But six years later, Alrik hasn’t expressed interest in any woman. He is content to flirt, but never showed a strong attachment for anyone. And now the witch who cursed him has returned after years in exile...
Time is also running out in Savony, where trolls have broken out from underground, terrorizing the castle. More help is needed to defeat the trolls, but with half the mages tasked to protect Alrik, how will Alix, Sybil, and the princes band together and save their kingdom from an unprecedented crisis?
This is the third and final installment in the Reversed Retelling trilogy. It is highly recommended that Book 1, Till Midnight, and Book 2, The Beast and the Beauty, are read prior to starting on this book.
When she was fourteen, Gabi promised she’d do anything to protect Prince Alrik of Arksar. Including falling in love with him, in case true love’s kiss is needed to break the curse. But six years later, Alrik hasn’t expressed interest in any woman. He is content to flirt, but never showed a strong attachment for anyone. And now the witch who cursed him has returned after years in exile...
Time is also running out in Savony, where trolls have broken out from underground, terrorizing the castle. More help is needed to defeat the trolls, but with half the mages tasked to protect Alrik, how will Alix, Sybil, and the princes band together and save their kingdom from an unprecedented crisis?
This is the third and final installment in the Reversed Retelling trilogy. It is highly recommended that Book 1, Till Midnight, and Book 2, The Beast and the Beauty, are read prior to starting on this book.
310 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 1, 2019
126 people are currently reading
245 people want to read
About the author
Arisa May
20 books15 followersArisa writes stories with a touch of magic, and is especially interested in portal fantasies (isekai) and the villainess trope. She has written over fifteen novels; several have been translated into French and Italian. She hails from Taiwan, where she can’t survive without air-conditioning, and when she’s not reading or writing, she enjoys baking desserts and dancing to Kpop.
*formerly published under the name of Aya Ling.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
*formerly published under the name of Aya Ling.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show...
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
October 26, 2020
I've read it twice now and enjoyed the experience both times. One of the best Sleeping Beauty retelling that I have ever come across. The gender swap is a great attraction and has been very well implemented remaining true to the original tale while adding several new moments, plot twist and great character building. So quite highly recommended !!
December 8, 2019
Aya Ling recently released The Cursed Prince, the third and final book in her Reversed Retellings series. Of the three fairy tales that she covered, I think the "Sleeping Beauty" fairy tale lends itself to gender-reversal the best without changing the themes of the original story because the roles of the protagonists have are not affected by their physical strength or conventional beauty stereotypes. Till Midnight, the first book in the Reversed Retellings series, changed the plot of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" by requiring the princes to battle trolls at night instead of dance at a ball, which made them more conventionally masculine. In The Beast and the Beauty, Lady Sybil attempted to use magic, fashion, and makeup to make herself look more presentable to suitors in spite of her monstrous appearance, which are conventionally feminine things that we never saw the Beast do in "Beauty and the Beast." In contrast, the main character in "Sleeping Beauty" was cursed as a baby, a time when all people are the most vulnerable regardless of their conventional gender, and rescued by true love's kiss, a task that anyone who loves another person can easily perform.
The Cursed Prince tells the story of Gabi, a young woman who lost her parents and the use of her foot in a battle with an evil mage. She was taken in by Freja, a mage who appeared in earlier books from this series, but only on the condition that Gabi could keep her secret. Freja was the caretaker of a young prince named Alrik who everyone else in the kingdom believed was dead. Alrik was cursed as a baby to prick his skin on his 21st birthday and die, but Freja amended the curse so that he would only fall into a deep sleep that he could be awakened from by true love's kiss. Gabi agreed to keep the secret and took on the task of making Alrik fall in love with her in case it would be necessary for her to save him one day. Unfortunately for Gabi, she found herself falling in love with Alrik over the seven years that she lived with him, while he showed no sign of loving her as anything more than a sister. Aya Ling excels at writing love stories, especially in her Unfinished Fairy Tales series, so I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the romance and conflicted feelings between Gabi and Alrik.
The Cursed Prince would have been perfect if it only focused on Gabi and Alrik's relationship and their struggle with the witch Moira who cursed him, but Aya Ling wanted to bring all of the stories in Reversed Retellings to a close, which I think was a detriment to this book in particular. Many of the later chapters focused on Alix and Sybil, characters whose stories were already completed in the first two Reversed Retellings books. I thought that bringing back Alix and Theo's conflict with the trolls felt like old news and something that should have already been resolved in Till Midnight. There were so many characters involved in the final battles that I found it difficult to keep track of who everyone was even though I had read all three books. For that reason, the development of Gabi and Alrik's relationship didn't get the full attention it deserved, which was a shame because that was my favorite aspect of The Cursed Prince.
Personality-wise, I found Gabi easy to relate to. She was insecure about her disability, even though it rarely ever came up in any important scenes. I loved that she was incredibly smart and so good at memorizing books that Freja promoted her from being her student to Alrik's teacher. Alrik was a charming extrovert who hid most of his true feelings from the people around him. I personally thought his reason for hiding his feelings toward Gabi was a bit silly, though. In order to protect Alrik from his curse, Freja convinced him that he had hemophilia and that any prick of his skin could be fatal. Since he was worried that the gene for the disease might pass onto his children, he pretended that he didn't have feelings for anyone. I don't think it's realistic for a lovestruck teenager to plan that far ahead, but I was happy to see that Gabi's feelings toward him were reciprocated because she had such a hard life.
Overall, I absolutely love the idea of a gender-reversed "Sleeping Beauty." In some ways, I think it works even better than the original story because a kiss is an act of gentility, which is something that is more conventionally associated with femininity. The Cursed Prince had a great love story, but it was overshadowed by other characters whose stories should have already been resolved in previous books. I wish that more of the book focused solely on Gabi and Alrik's relationship and their conflict with Moira, who reminded me a great deal of the Snow Queen. It's a shame that Reversed Retellings series is ending after only three books, but I'm looking forward to reading Aya Ling's future books that she stated will take place in the same world.
The Cursed Prince tells the story of Gabi, a young woman who lost her parents and the use of her foot in a battle with an evil mage. She was taken in by Freja, a mage who appeared in earlier books from this series, but only on the condition that Gabi could keep her secret. Freja was the caretaker of a young prince named Alrik who everyone else in the kingdom believed was dead. Alrik was cursed as a baby to prick his skin on his 21st birthday and die, but Freja amended the curse so that he would only fall into a deep sleep that he could be awakened from by true love's kiss. Gabi agreed to keep the secret and took on the task of making Alrik fall in love with her in case it would be necessary for her to save him one day. Unfortunately for Gabi, she found herself falling in love with Alrik over the seven years that she lived with him, while he showed no sign of loving her as anything more than a sister. Aya Ling excels at writing love stories, especially in her Unfinished Fairy Tales series, so I thoroughly enjoyed reading about the romance and conflicted feelings between Gabi and Alrik.
The Cursed Prince would have been perfect if it only focused on Gabi and Alrik's relationship and their struggle with the witch Moira who cursed him, but Aya Ling wanted to bring all of the stories in Reversed Retellings to a close, which I think was a detriment to this book in particular. Many of the later chapters focused on Alix and Sybil, characters whose stories were already completed in the first two Reversed Retellings books. I thought that bringing back Alix and Theo's conflict with the trolls felt like old news and something that should have already been resolved in Till Midnight. There were so many characters involved in the final battles that I found it difficult to keep track of who everyone was even though I had read all three books. For that reason, the development of Gabi and Alrik's relationship didn't get the full attention it deserved, which was a shame because that was my favorite aspect of The Cursed Prince.
Personality-wise, I found Gabi easy to relate to. She was insecure about her disability, even though it rarely ever came up in any important scenes. I loved that she was incredibly smart and so good at memorizing books that Freja promoted her from being her student to Alrik's teacher. Alrik was a charming extrovert who hid most of his true feelings from the people around him. I personally thought his reason for hiding his feelings toward Gabi was a bit silly, though. In order to protect Alrik from his curse, Freja convinced him that he had hemophilia and that any prick of his skin could be fatal. Since he was worried that the gene for the disease might pass onto his children, he pretended that he didn't have feelings for anyone. I don't think it's realistic for a lovestruck teenager to plan that far ahead, but I was happy to see that Gabi's feelings toward him were reciprocated because she had such a hard life.
Overall, I absolutely love the idea of a gender-reversed "Sleeping Beauty." In some ways, I think it works even better than the original story because a kiss is an act of gentility, which is something that is more conventionally associated with femininity. The Cursed Prince had a great love story, but it was overshadowed by other characters whose stories should have already been resolved in previous books. I wish that more of the book focused solely on Gabi and Alrik's relationship and their conflict with Moira, who reminded me a great deal of the Snow Queen. It's a shame that Reversed Retellings series is ending after only three books, but I'm looking forward to reading Aya Ling's future books that she stated will take place in the same world.
April 12, 2022
3.5
I enjoyed this final instalment of this series. It was nice to see everything come together and to catch up with the characters from earlier in the series. I liked the romance and I liked Gabi as a character, I can’t speak to how accurate the rep is for disability, but I thought it was well done and nice to see that it wasn’t ‘magicked’ away. I do feel like I should have read this series back to back rather than waiting a long time between the 1st and 2nd book. I also feel like some aspects of this book was quite repetitive, with Alix and Theo, it was just a repetitious action – the Trolls would break through, they would be worried about each other, defeat the Trolls – rinse and repeat. It also did feel like 2 books in 1 till the end – Gabi and Alrik fight the witches and everyone else fights the Trolls (and a random, inconsequential kidnapping).
However, I did really enjoy this conclusion, it was nice to see all the loose ends tied up neatly and it was quite action packed.
I enjoyed this final instalment of this series. It was nice to see everything come together and to catch up with the characters from earlier in the series. I liked the romance and I liked Gabi as a character, I can’t speak to how accurate the rep is for disability, but I thought it was well done and nice to see that it wasn’t ‘magicked’ away. I do feel like I should have read this series back to back rather than waiting a long time between the 1st and 2nd book. I also feel like some aspects of this book was quite repetitive, with Alix and Theo, it was just a repetitious action – the Trolls would break through, they would be worried about each other, defeat the Trolls – rinse and repeat. It also did feel like 2 books in 1 till the end – Gabi and Alrik fight the witches and everyone else fights the Trolls (and a random, inconsequential kidnapping).
However, I did really enjoy this conclusion, it was nice to see all the loose ends tied up neatly and it was quite action packed.
January 11, 2020
Um, ultimately I liked it. I tried to suspend my irritation with some of the more obvious blunders. So that helped. But I ended up a little disappointed. I think the story was great, I just didn’t love all the ways things came together and I felt a little let down that we didn’t get a better ending with this being the last one. The way that 3 stories intersected was all right, it would have been nice to have a little more distinction at the beginning of each chapter. The ways each problem was dealt with was creative but a little rushed in some cases. The build up to each seemed to take forever. Then not much time for the resolution... Also, the most random things and characters being added but then nothing more of them was kind of weird. I liked the whole series though and thought it was clever.
December 1, 2021
This was a great ending to a great series. I wish we had seen a bit more of Alrik and Gabi. But I loved that their was more action and wrap up with book one and book two. Some of the royal weddings would have also been nice. I didn’t love that Gabi insisted that Alrik had to have three years to make a decision on whether he still wanted her after he found out he was a prince. Obviously Alrik’s love for Gabi was real if Gabi was able to break the curse. And I can see Gabi’s point of view. Especially since she never thought his parents would let him marry Gabi. But to cut herself off from him for three years when they had essentially grown up together for over 7 years just felt wrong. All in all it was a great book with a few inconsistencies throughout the book.
February 22, 2020
Felt Rushed
After reading the other two stories, I felt this one was rushed. Trying to get rid of the witches and trolls.... the love story between Alrik and Gabi felt to easy and simple compared to Alix and Theo and Gerald and Sybil. And the end fight scenes... again felt rushed to me. I feel like it would have been better to spread it out into a 4th book or have the trolls taken care of between book 1 and 2... having only 2 perspectives in the first 2 books, then having 4 all of a sudden threw off the flow for me.
After reading the other two stories, I felt this one was rushed. Trying to get rid of the witches and trolls.... the love story between Alrik and Gabi felt to easy and simple compared to Alix and Theo and Gerald and Sybil. And the end fight scenes... again felt rushed to me. I feel like it would have been better to spread it out into a 4th book or have the trolls taken care of between book 1 and 2... having only 2 perspectives in the first 2 books, then having 4 all of a sudden threw off the flow for me.
December 30, 2019
3.5 Stars
Gabi was an interesting character I enjoyed rooting for. And Aya Ling certainly knows how to build dramatic tension.
While this book shows technical improvement from her first efforts, she could still stand to employ an editor with a firmer grasp of the English language. Her writing moves the plot along decently, but for a Grammar Nazi like myself, the occasionally odd syntax and misused words trip me up and interrupt my enjoyment of the story.
Gabi was an interesting character I enjoyed rooting for. And Aya Ling certainly knows how to build dramatic tension.
While this book shows technical improvement from her first efforts, she could still stand to employ an editor with a firmer grasp of the English language. Her writing moves the plot along decently, but for a Grammar Nazi like myself, the occasionally odd syntax and misused words trip me up and interrupt my enjoyment of the story.
December 5, 2019
Fantasic
I have really enjoyed these reversed fairytale. But this was the cream! I'm not really a fan of the Show White story, but I liked the depth and personality this story give to Alick/Eric, the sleeping beauty prince.
I have really enjoyed these reversed fairytale. But this was the cream! I'm not really a fan of the Show White story, but I liked the depth and personality this story give to Alick/Eric, the sleeping beauty prince.
January 16, 2020
Rushed
It felt very anticlimactic and it didn’t seem to wrap up everything. Multiple characters are mentioned from the first two books and no ending for them was done. It just felt rushed and not complete. Many supporting characters went off with no resolution to anything.
It felt very anticlimactic and it didn’t seem to wrap up everything. Multiple characters are mentioned from the first two books and no ending for them was done. It just felt rushed and not complete. Many supporting characters went off with no resolution to anything.
February 12, 2020
I thought it was a great read. I definitely kept my interest until the end, but I did struggle with the ending a little. I want to know what happened to the other two couples. Did they get married or what? Just my thoughts.
April 26, 2020
Multiple Fronts
Enemies don’t take turns. They don’t care if you are tired. They come at you regardless if you are ready. Fortunately, hope, love and fortitude was ample in the characters. Sweet story of a mage and a prince falling in love and two kingdoms salvation.
Enemies don’t take turns. They don’t care if you are tired. They come at you regardless if you are ready. Fortunately, hope, love and fortitude was ample in the characters. Sweet story of a mage and a prince falling in love and two kingdoms salvation.
July 19, 2020
This time is a reversed sleeping beauty retelling but it also weaves together all the three previous stories. A delicious ending to a delicious series. Although I joticed too many typos and plain right errors that would be made better by another editing session.
December 7, 2019
Excellent
Very good story. Must read previous books in series to understand the stories though. Captivating and a beautiful story of love
Very good story. Must read previous books in series to understand the stories though. Captivating and a beautiful story of love
December 7, 2019
I enjoyed reading this book! This book has wonderful characters and a wonderful plot. I had a hard time putting this book down. I enjoyed reading all of the books in this series.
January 9, 2020
I wasn't ready for it to end. Such a great series.
March 16, 2020
There was a lot going on in this one. It sought to tie up the first two books as well as having it’s own story. Because of this, the main story lacks quite a bit. Contains: violence, kissing
June 12, 2020
Another fun story
I have really liked this series she seems to keep getting better. In her writing and story telling. Sad to see this series and but it had a unexpected endibg.
I have really liked this series she seems to keep getting better. In her writing and story telling. Sad to see this series and but it had a unexpected endibg.
September 21, 2020
The Cursed Prince pulls together a few threads from previous books, as well as introducing us to Gabi and Alrik. It took me a few chapters to root for Gabi and Alrik as a couple, but I liked them as individuals from the beginning. A unique Sleeping Beauty retelling with a couple echoes of The Snow Queen.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews