Title: RISE & SHINE
Author: Sandie Bricker
Publisher: River North
May 2014
ISBN: 978-0802406309
Genre: Contemporary fairy
tale
Shannon Malone thought
she'd found her happy ending when she married Edmund Ridgeway, but a diving
accident on their honeymoon left her in a coma. Waking up to the news that
she's thirty years old would have been daunting enough . . . but she also
learns that Edmund has lost his interim battle with cancer and the world has
marched on without her.
Her gorgeous doctor, Daniel
Petros, seems to know everything about her and becomes Shannon 's
tour guide into a whole new world of madness where reality television has taken
over the planet and everyone's life appears to revolve around a tiny screen on
their cell phones!
As Shannon
struggles to navigate through the changes-both in the world and in
her-she also must discern real memories from imagined ones. Did she really ever
wear capris pants and entertain in her living room, or was that Laura Petrie
from her favorite classic TV show? And where is her beloved dog, Freeway? Oh,
wait! That was Jonathan and Jennifer Hart's dog, not hers.
As you can tell from the back cover copy, RISE & SHINE is a modern retelling of Sleeping Beauty. And it is beautifully done. I felt sorry for Shannon as she wakes up from her coma thinking everything is as normal--as in, she's on her honeymoon with her husband, Edmund, but instead she discovers that she's been in a coma for ten years and is now a widow. Add a wicked sister-in-law, and a handsome doctor, and you have the setting for a... fairy tale.
The story doesn't have the usual fairy tale type of happy ever after ending, but all things considered, it is perfect. I also loved how Shannon discovers how the world has changed in the ten years she was asleep. Kindles. Tablets. Smart phones... Things that weren't in existence ten years ago. Loved it. Ms. Bricker is the perfect person to modernize a fairy tale. It made me smile. 4.5 stars. $14.99. 288 pages.
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