Entwined by Heather Dixon

Entwined by Heather Dixon (Greenwillow, 2011)



Summary from publisher:
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.

I am a bit of a sucker for retold fairy tales.  I love them.  I devour them.  No fairy tale has been retold too many times for me.  I'm not sure WHY I love these stories so much; I just do!  Perhaps it's all of those descriptions of balls and fancy gowns....

Anyway... Heather Dixon hits a home run in this retelling of the tale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses (which happened to be play I was in during my freshman year of high school).  The book starts out on Christmas Eve at a ball (of course) and ends a year later.  Over the course of this year, the princesses lose their mother, discover the secret passage to the magical world of Keeper, fall under his spell, and then try to break it.  Along the way, many suitors come to woo Azalea and win her hand, but none of them seems to capture her heart.

I enjoyed the unexpected playfulness I found in the story.  The humor is welcome in what could be a dark and depressing tale.  Dixon gives the various suitors and each of the princesses unique personalities, which increases the fun factor!

Girls who love a good historical fiction or fantasy are sure to enjoy Entwined!