In this modern-day retelling of “Sleeping Beauty,” Alice seemed destined to lead a princess’s life-except for the frightening curse that “dreaded” Aunt Violette bestowed at her christening: that she will die at the age of eighteen. And on the night of her birthday, this malediction becomes a frightening possibility when Alice is brutally raped by the loathsome Angus. “Geras has achieved a tremendous narrative hook even though she is telling a familiar story, and she has deftly added just the right modern twists and details to allure older readers back to the story that enchanted them as children.”-VOYA