Awake: A Fairytale by Jessica Grey

Awake: A Fairytale by Jessica Grey

Format: Kindle Edition (Paperback coming soon)

Publisher: Tall House Books (February 4, 2012)

ASIN: B0075WO1Q0

Summary:

Alexandra Martin didn’t believe in fairytales…

Alex has always been more interested in rocks and science than stories about princesses and magic. Now she’s far too busy with her summer internship at the Gem and Mineral Museum to think about children’s stories. Between avoiding her former best friend and high school baseball star, Luke Reed, and trying to hide her unrequited crush on her mentor at the museum, the real world is occupying all of her time.

…Until she walked into one.

It turns out fairytales aren’t all fun and games. A curse has turned her neat and orderly world upside down, and to break it, she bands together with a fellow intern and a recently awakened princess who’s been asleep for 900 years. Can this trio of unlikely heroines put an end to an ominous enchantment, discover true love, and keep an ancient and evil magic from being unleashed on modern-day Los Angeles?

Fairytales have an enduring quality and thanks to Disney every girl can dream of a Happily-Ever-After, but its how you get there that is the true story. The work one has to do for the relationship to succeed is what makes the ending all the more satisfying. In fact, it is the requirement of any good relationship.

Debut author Jessica Grey has created a world suspended just above reality, but with its Los Angeles setting it’s not a stretch. I admit that I have only ever seen the Disney film about Sleeping Beauty and have never read the actual fairy tale, but Grey keeps the basic Disney elements (for people like me perhaps) so that the story is not completely unrecognizable and then Grey twists the elements to make it exciting. In Awake the tale of Sleeping Beauty is tilted on its axis and given a dynamic and captivating new approach.

Alex Martin is a classic heroine because she doesn’t try to be one. Alex doesn’t realize the real power she holds, literally and figuratively.  She is the girl that is beautiful and smart, but does not see it herself, but our hero Luke does. So to progress with Alex throughout the novel and to watch her really come into herself is one of the best parts. Alex still doesn’t really understand how others see her at the end, but she is embraced and held up by the love and affection of Luke which is all that she needs to be successful.

Luke is sexy. I have a quote on my blog which I try to live by when I create the heroes in my novels and I think it represents Luke exceptionally well. Author Umberto Eco said “The real hero is always a hero by mistake; he dreams of being an honest coward like everybody else”.  Luke acts in the manner of a hero, but he does not purposefully try to be the hero. Luke’s feelings for Alex are what compel him to act the way he does and it is because Luke is being true to himself that he is heroic.

When the romance of Luke and Alex finally comes to fruition it is a meeting of equals and because of that we can only imagine what an enduring relationship occurs beyond the pages of Awake. It is relationships like the ones in Awake that keep me reading because it portrays the hope that even the least conspicuous individuals can have a happy ending.

Awake has my endorsement.

Final recommendation: Add a little magic to your life and read Awake.