When Elise’s great-grand-daughter comes skipping home from the marketplace one day with a tale told by a passing minstrel of a princess locked in a tower for a 100-year sleep, Elise is amazed. She was there and she alone knows the truth of the events that have given rise to this legend. She sits the girl down and traces back over her long life.
While Beauty Slept sets the tale of Sleeping Beauty firmly within the confines of our own reality, in a medieval kingdom plagued by war, the pox, political infighting and more. Elise is raised as a poor farm girl with an abusive father and a mother worn down by yearly pregnancies. When Elise, her father and one brother are the only ones to survive a bout of smallpox, Elise takes the opportunity to seek her fortune elsewhere–retracing her mother’s steps as a serving maid in the castle.
To read the rest of my review on this fairy tale retold as historic fiction, click on over to 5 Minutes for Mom where you can also enter to win a copy of your very own.