Waking Rose

Waking Rose is an adventurous romance novel, written by Regina Doman. It is the third book in the Fairy Tale Novels series, based on the story of Sleeping Beauty. The first book, The Shadow of the Bear, is about the Brier sisters, Blanche and Rose; the second book tells of Blanche's marriage to their friend "Bear". In Waking Rose, Rose Brier finds herself in love with Bear's brother "Fish". He tells her that he's not interested, and she decides to get over him. Moving away to college made it a bit easier, especially when she finds herself surrounded by other friends. But then Rose begins to find herself trapped in a mess of her dad's dangerous past, and falls into a coma after a brush with foul play.
Plot summary
In the beginning of the book, Rose Brier finds herself madly in love with Benedict "Fish" Denniston - but he doesn't like her. She tells him how she feels, only to have her heart broken. She decides to move on when she goes to Mercy College, and it definitely becomes easier, as she makes many friends, including several men. Fish and Rose, however, decide to remain friends, so he visits often. She buries herself into her schoolwork, and even gets the lead role in the school production of King Lear; but things become tricky when a girl called Donna, unpredictable and jealous of Rose's part in the production, takes things from a bad look to a dirty trick involving a stage knife. Fortunately, Fish arrives in time to rescue Rose from Donna.
For Rose's bioethics paper, she decides to discuss the topic of people who are abused in their comas. Her father had done the same topic for a paper article shortly before she was born, but never finished it. She and her friend Paul look in her family's nearby old barn in boxes for her dad's notes, but there isn't much of it left.
When she starts giving interviews on the topic, Rose begins to feel as if she is followed. She tries to keep constant contact with Fish, but of no avail. After feeling threatened again by Donna while shopping in a mall, she hurries over to the family's barn to look for more information. But here she eerily feels like she is not alone. She stands up, getting ready to leave, and the next thing she knows, she has lost consciousness.
Later, her friends find her on the floor - someone had pushed her. Rose's family and friends are worried. Blanche had been in a coma before, but only for two days; but Rose remained in a coma for several months. Each night, Rose dreamed that while awake, a snake bit her, causing her to fall back asleep.
Meanwhile, Fish scrambles for the missing pieces of the puzzle to Rose's past. Rose's friends' theory is that when in a coma for a long period of time, the doctors will kill them and sell their organs, which, of course, is illegal. They must work quickly before Rose becomes the next victim. Several doctors are suspects, particularly the ones whom she interviewed, because they knew that both she and her father were prying into their illegal secrets. Fish, having been in trouble with the law himself, falls back into his old pattern of playing someone who is buying illegally to find out if they really are selling organs - only to get arrested by the police. But his theory was right. Fish escapes and hurries over to the hospital that Rose is at, to try to wake her. He finds her strapped to the bed with an odd-looking IV packet that had kept her asleep all these months. He removes it, but while she wakes up, the two guilty doctors walk in. He hides under the bed and overhears one of them scolding the other for her mistake of keeping Rose alive. She injects a fatal dose into Rose's arm, and they leave. Now Fish must work fast - she only has two hours to live. He gives Rose to her other friends to guard her while he gets the antidote, but not before he almost dies. The doctors had burned the barn down, and put him in it to burn with it. But, like his name, he slips out of his bonds and confronts the doctors yet again. Just as Fish is about to die, his brother, Bear, shows up and saves him.
During that time, Fish had given the antidote to Donna (who had a change of heart and became Fish's friend), who rushed to Rose to get it to her.
In the end, although beaten quite badly, Fish and Rose reveal their feelings for each other, and "live happily ever after," according to the end of the book.
Characters
Rose Brier a red haired, high-spirited girl who has lots of energy and a bright and innocent outlook on life.
Benedict Denniston, aka Fish is a troubled young man with a dark past. At the beginning of the book, he doesn't really like Rose, but suddenly realizes his feelings for her during her school play.
Blanche Denniston Rose's older sister, now married to Bear. She is noticeably more quiet and shy than her sister, but the two are very close.
"Bear" Denniston (Arthur) Fish's older brother, married to Blanche.
Paul Fester is one of Rose's college friends, whom she might have feelings for, and a member of the Sacra Cor.
Alex O'Donnell one of Rose's friends at Mercy College, one of the "Cor" guys.
Leroy another of the "Cor" guys who Fish described as "quite a character."
James another of the "Cor" guys.
Donna a unpleasant actress at Mercy College. She is initially bullies Rose, but her character develops and changes over the course of the book, and once given a second chance she proves to be a better person.
Kateri Kovach Rose's best friend, fiery Vietnamese girl who fights for what she believes in and has endless compassion for everyone, especially Donna.
Dr. Murray one of the doctors whom Rose interviews and also "takes care" of Rose when she is in a coma.
Dr. Prosser a suspicious, extreme feminist and pro-choice doctor who hates Kateri for her protests outside of her hospital.
Writing
Regina Doman was in the process of writing this when her son died, and for a time the book was put on hold. However, it was finally released in the summer of 2007.
The trilogy
*The "Snow White and Rose Red" trilogy:
**
**
**

Main Menu

See Also

Main Menu