Oh dear. After reading negative reviews of this book, I was determined to like it. After all, a princess who has been raised from childhood to be above all polite and obedient is likely to be... polite and obedient. Sometimes it just wouldn't make sense for a character to kick ass, rebel, stand her ground. I was going to prove all the reviewers who found her annoying wrong, somehow, by liking Aurora. 
 I didn't dislike Aurora. 
 I did dislike the book. 
 This is definitely a dark retelling, but more than that, it's a depressing retelling. There is no hope in it. The ending... the abrupt, obviously-there-is-a-sequel-planned ending... well, I don't expect all books to have a happy ending, but this book crams all the action into the last 20% of the novel and then just. Stops. Ugh. 
 I can't decide if I'm going to read the sequel. I probably will. I need endings.