You really feel what she’s experiencing when it comes to her isolation from the other Graces, being labeled a monster and villain, and then the hope that comes with her budding romance.

I love being in Alyce’s head and she is such a complex character. Who needs a Prince when she has an evil sorceress? After a relationship begins to form between them, she begins to wonder if there is anything she can do with her gifts to end the curse. There is just one more year until Aurora’s curse will come to pass – bestowed upon her by the same dark magic that courses through Alyce’s veins. Cruelly nicknamed Malyce by one of the Graces, she seems to try and embrace the dark character they have made her out to be.

Alyce has the green blood of the Vila, a race that was thought to have been completely eradicated, and she creates hexes and curses for her customers. The Graces are half-fae women born with golden blood that can be added to elixirs and potions to enhance beauty and other desires. It’s always refreshing when retellings blur the stark lines between good and evil that their well-known counterparts create.Īlyce is the only Dark Grace in Briar and the last to have Vila blood. I love Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent, so when I saw this included Princess Aurora and a dark sorceress I knew I needed to pick it up. It’s no secret that I love retellings, plus the darker and more twisted the better.

Malice sleeping beauty retelling