Briarheart

By: Mercedes Lackey

Narrated by: Polly Lee

From beloved fantasy author Mercedes Lackey comes a fresh and feminist reinterpretation of Sleeping Beauty.

Miriam may be the daughter of Queen Alethia of Tirendell, but she's not a princess. She's the child of Alethia and her previous husband, the King's Champion, who died fighting for the king, and she has no ambitions to rule. When her new baby sister Aurora, heir to the throne, is born, she's ecstatic. She adores the baby, who seems perfect in every way. But on the day of Aurora's christening, an uninvited Dark Fae arrives, prepared to curse her, and Miriam discovers she possesses impossible power.

Soon, Miriam is charged with being trained in both magic and combat to act as chief protector to her sister. But shadowy threats are moving closer and closer to their kingdom, and Miriam's dark power may not be enough to save everyone she loves, let alone herself.

Critic reviews

Praise for the Hunter Series: *"Joyeaux's narration is spellbinding, the prose easily balancing the technology of the future with the tradition of the past. Captivating, dynamic, well-paced, and thrilling."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Spirituality, psychic abilities, propaganda, magic, monsters, and mayhem make this a book with a dozen hooks to snag readers and win Lackey even more fans."—Booklist

"Lackey successfully mixes dystopia and fantasy in this series opener . . . The novel is exciting, entirely entertaining, and sure to please her fans."—Publishers Weekly

Another beautiful tale from Mercedes Lackey

I can ALWAYS count on Mercedes Lackey for a well written , wonderful story. A story that spans listener ages and sensibilities. Polly Lee's performace brings it all to life. I have to say that through the years I've learned much of life and people through Mercedes storytelling. Thank you Ms. Lackey for aiding me in becoming who I am.

cute retelling

loved the narrator with a range of voices. The audio production caught me off guard, but I decided I liked it as well. A cute, very YA (pre-teen and perhaps younger) loose retelling of sleeping beauty. This is not a 500 novel, but has the same general feeling to it. Lots of time spend in MC head and thoughts, and while she was a bit over the top with special abilities, she was not emotioanl and whingeing. Very relatable and reasonable, with some successes and some failures. No romance or love triangles here, and interesting world building with a magic system a bit less explained than her other novels but thats okay. I think the author had fun writing this one and I had fun listening to it!

A nice re-telling of the Sleeping Beauty story!

This had all of the elements of a great Fairytail. There were fairies and knights, trolls and wizards, dragons, unicorns and lots of magic.

Skillfully conceived story and world, enjoyable

I was delighted that Mercedes Lackey dumped the formula writing so many use of a plethora of evil adults, especially step parents. The actual plot was unexpected and very well received. I only got a little impatient with the bawling Dragon and the Goblin adventure, yet enjoyed Lackey's take on the Goblins, and, later, especially the Trolls. I very much enjoyed the details of palace life, the kitchens, the food, training, and the journeys were all interesting. The magic "system" made great reading

This felt like a return to the Five Hundred Kingdoms to me, though it is not, yet just as good, even better. I highly recommend this for all ages as a well-written and conceived fairy tale/fantasy. No flaws. Superb narration!

Coming of age excellence

Solid world building and a teen who has taken on at her own initiative (and agency) the quest of protecting her baby sister.
She suffers, as do all heroines and heros of such stories, from adults who classify her by age. Miriam makes mistakes and finds the right approach to problems that jaded adult eyes and ears cannot see or hear.
This old male delighted in the story and hopesp to read more about Miriam and her quest