Author: Heather Dixon
Pages: 480
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Challenge: Debut Author Challenge
Source: Library
Synopsis: Azalea is trapped. Just when she should feel that everything is before her . . . beautiful gowns, dashing suitors, balls filled with dancing . . . it's taken away. All of it.
The Keeper understands. He's trapped, too, held for centuries within the walls of the palace. And so he extends an invitation.
Every night, Azalea and her eleven sisters may step through the enchanted passage in their room to dance in his silver forest.
But there is a cost.
The Keeper likes to keep things.
Azalea may not realize how tangled she is in his web until it is too late.
Buy the Book (Amazon
, The Book Depository)
Pages: 480
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Challenge: Debut Author Challenge
Source: Library
Synopsis: Azalea is trapped. Just when she should feel that everything is before her . . . beautiful gowns, dashing suitors, balls filled with dancing . . . it's taken away. All of it.
The Keeper understands. He's trapped, too, held for centuries within the walls of the palace. And so he extends an invitation.
Every night, Azalea and her eleven sisters may step through the enchanted passage in their room to dance in his silver forest.
But there is a cost.
The Keeper likes to keep things.
Azalea may not realize how tangled she is in his web until it is too late.
Buy the Book (Amazon
, The Book Depository) Entwined is another retelling of the story of the 12 Dancing Princesses. I wasn't too sure how much I'd like it since I've read many retellings lately but I shouldn't have been worried because I did enjoy it.
What I liked was the characters and their relationships. The Royal was dealt a great loss with the death of the Queen leaving Azalea, Princess Royale to care for the household and the younger princesses. Azalea is our main character and she is in pain herself but she still does whatever she can for her sisters. She's a brave character and somewhat impulsive but I felt her sadness when consulting the King, masked with anger. All her emotions made sense and I enjoyed reading about her.
The other thing I liked was that though the original story is about mostly the dignitaries trying to help the princesses, this retelling wasn't just about that. It felt less like something being retold than its own story. There were many more characters and much more action than the original story though some parts were the same.
The villainous Keeper was intelligently entwined to the story. He was genuinely scary. At halfway through when things began to get rough I shivered and from that moment on Entwined reached a whole new level. I love the magic involved, and the dancing which together made for a more sinister story than I was expecting.
I really did like this story and I'm glad I read it. I was never bored as the 12 sisters will keep you reading of their mischievous pranks and escapades. A great, fun read, 4 stars,
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Great review! We agreed on pretty much all points. Wasn't Azalea's relationship with her father wonderfully developed? At first we thought he was just going to be another bad/absentee parent in YA fiction, but Dixon really turned him into something more, and a strong part of the story.
ReplyDeleteWe too found the Keeper creepy -- should we call him the Creeper? ;P -- and we enjoyed the action injected into this fairytale. (Bradford!)
I can't get sick of this tale. I just read another retelling (The Princess Curse) that was fantastic. I think it's because it can be told in so many different ways.
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