Reviewed by Sally Kruger aka "Readingjunky" for TeensReadToo.com

When Jack escaped for the summer on a trip around Europe, he never dreamed he would be pulled into a real-life fairy tale.

His main goal in agreeing to the numbingly dull tour of European museums was to avoid an even more boring summer working in his father's company. Both his father and mother think he is a lazy slacker without any real interests. What they don't know is that Jack has an interest, but he knows that as the son of a successful business family, they will not approve of his future plans.

After weeks of museum tours, Jack and his friend, Travis, decide to skip out on the tour group and head for the beach. They take a wrong turn and end up sneaking through a thick hedge hoping to find the illusive beach, but instead they end up in a strange place that seems lost in time. As they explore, they stumble across some of the residents of the area, only to find them fast asleep.

When they arrive at the main gates to a huge castle, they begin to wonder exactly what is going on. Inside the castle they find the same situation - everyone is fast asleep. Life seems to have suddenly halted for these people, leaving them in the middle of whatever activity or task that had kept them busy before their sudden slumber.

Jack and Travis find their way to an isolated area of the castle and are surprised to discover a beautiful young girl sleeping peacefully. Travis is more interested in returning to the throne room and snatching the crown jewels, and Jack gladly sends him off. Jack is fascinated by the sleeping girl whose beauty is astonishing. He can't help himself. He bends and gently kisses her soft lips. Suddenly, she's awake!

By now readers will recognize the similarities to Sleeping Beauty, but what they don't know yet is that they are in for some great adventures.

Imagine being awakened by a stranger's kiss and learning you've slept for three-hundred years. The world doesn't even know your country exists, and you don't have a clue that things like cars, buses, airplanes, cell phones, and televisions are now the norm. Princess Talia believes Jack must be her true love, but at seventeen, he's pretty sure she must be wrong.

Alex Flinn, author of YA books like BREATHING UNDERWATER and BEASTLY, has a new treat for her fans. She puts a unique twist on fairy tale retelling - by connecting the past and present as Jack and Talia struggle through problems created by their strange meeting and their own personal family struggles as young teens trying to find their own direction in life. ( )

Princess Talia has spent her life being warned to avoid spindles, all because of a witch's curse. But how is she to avoid one when when she doesn't even know what a spindle looks like? When willful Talia ditches her governess to find the perfect dress for her 16th birthday, she finds out just what a spindle is.... Flash forward 300 hundred years and Jack has spent the last three weeks on a dull tour of Europe. When he and his friend ditch the tour for a trip to the beach, they stumble across Talia's kingdom and the sleeping princess. Jack wakes her, but both quickly realize that this is not true love. However, Talia is desperate to travel and escape a kingdom that will surely be furious with her when they realize 300 years have passed. She leaves with Jack to go to Florida, his home, and plans to make Jack fall for her, because only true love will actually break the witch's curse.

This was an intriguing retelling of the Sleeping Beauty story. While it seemed to start a bit slowly, once Talia and Jack step out into the present time and begin to interact, the story takes off. Both characters evolve, a touch too quickly, as they begin to see themselves through the other's eyes. Jack abandons his "party boy" attitude and finally acknowledges the things he cares about, including his parents' opinions. Talia changes from a stubborn, self-centered princess, and takes joy in helping Jack and his family rebuild their relationships. This all takes place over the course of several days, which is fairly implausible... though is it more so than waking a 316-year-old princess with a kiss? For any fans of retellings or light romances, this is a fun read. ( )

Alex Flinn also wrote Beastly, and this book follows the same format: a modern rewriting of a well known fairy tale. However, where Beastly got it right, A Kiss in Time falls flat. Princess Talia has beauty, intelligence, and other fairy given qualities (no one thought to give her a good personality, though) but she also was given the curse that she would prick her finger and sleep until her true love wakes her with a kiss. Three hundred years after the prick, she is woken by Jack, an American touring Europe who also is unpleasantly self-centered. The convoluted way that the book brings them to real love is a stretch. ( )

It seems that the author couldn't decide if she wanted to rewrite "Sleeping Beauty" or "Taming of the Shrew" or both. I loved her re-imagining of "Beauty and the Beast" ("BEASTLY"), but this...was kind of a disaster. I couldn't stand the main female character and found myself wanting to bitch slap her repeatedly and put her back under her magical sleep.

Ugh, avoid like the plague. If you want a better re-imagining of "Sleeping Beauty", try Francesca Lia Block's "Nymph" or "The Rose and the Beast". Much better result there. ( )

Everyone knows the story of Sleeping Beauty: girl gets pricked by spindle, girl and castle and everyone fall asleep, dashing prince kisses said girl 1000 years later and voila! Happily ever after. But in this retelling, the kiss is only the beginning. The narrative shifts between Jake and Talia, each telling the reader their story. Talia fell asleep when Virginia was a colony and suddenly has to cope with the change of centuries - iPods and airplanes and whatnot. Jake was just a regular guy from Miami until he had this princess tagging along - and who would believe the truth anyways?

I often enjoy fairy tale retellings, but this one fell a little flatter than I expected. Part of it was that the characters didn't really change much, and I felt Jake could have been fleshed out more. Another part was that the modernization struck me as a little too self-conscious. Mostly, though, I think that because loved _Beastly_, another fairy tale retelling by the same author, so much my expectations were extremely high and I was mentally comparing the two stories. A quick and fun read, but probably not a reread. ( )