Author: Jessica Day George
Publication: January 20th, 2009
Series: Princess #1
Source: Local Library
Read: Jan 28-Feb 5, 2015
Summary (from Goodreads):
A tale of twelve princesses doomed to dance until dawn…
Galen is a young soldier returning from war; Rose is one of twelve princesses condemned to dance each night for the King Under Stone. Together Galen and Rose will search for a way to break the curse that forces the princesses to dance at the midnight balls. All they need is one invisibility cloak, a black wool chain knit with enchanted silver needles, and that most critical ingredient of all—true love—to conquer their foes in the dark halls below. But malevolent forces are working against them above ground as well, and as cruel as the King Under Stone has seemed, his wrath is mere irritation compared to the evil that awaits Galen and Rose in the brighter world above.
Captivating from start to finish, Jessica Day George’s take on the Grimms’ tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses demonstrates yet again her mastery at spinning something entirely fresh out of a story you thought you knew.
Galen is a young soldier returning from war; Rose is one of twelve princesses condemned to dance each night for the King Under Stone. Together Galen and Rose will search for a way to break the curse that forces the princesses to dance at the midnight balls. All they need is one invisibility cloak, a black wool chain knit with enchanted silver needles, and that most critical ingredient of all—true love—to conquer their foes in the dark halls below. But malevolent forces are working against them above ground as well, and as cruel as the King Under Stone has seemed, his wrath is mere irritation compared to the evil that awaits Galen and Rose in the brighter world above.
Captivating from start to finish, Jessica Day George’s take on the Grimms’ tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses demonstrates yet again her mastery at spinning something entirely fresh out of a story you thought you knew.
This was a book I have been wanting to read ever since I fell in love with fairy tale retellings, but I just kept putting it off. My main reason is that it was readily available at my local library. I could go grab it off the shelve when I was ready to read it. The Princess of the Midnight Ball is based on the 12 Dancing Princess, which I reviewed as part of my Original Fairy Tales Feature I started during fairy tale fortnight last year. In this post you can see my love for the 12 Dancing Princess Fairy Tale and my love for the Barbie 12 Dancing Princess movie. Obviously I should have known that I would love Princess of the Midnight Ball.
Jessica Day George's writing was beautiful. Every detail of the novel was written so vividly. The elements of the Midnight Balls were described in great detail and were beautiful. I loved the mystery involved in Princess of the Midnight Ball. I knew the mystery, but I still wanted to see how the story would play out with Jessica Day George's version. I found it interesting that the Princesses were forced to dance instead of wanting to dance.
Galen, the groundskeeper, stole my heart, he was handsome, and he knew he shouldn't be involved with the princesses, but was anyways. Rose was the main sister in this book, but each sister had a part in the book and It was fun to get to know every sister and you get to know the family more through the two other books in the series.
Princess of the Midnight Ball was magnificent and magical. I enjoyed reading this mysterious book. I would find myself saying I would only read a few pages before bed and then an hour later finally deciding I should go to sleep. Another neat thing about this book was how knitting was involved in the story. I myself know how to knit so that was a neat part of the book and historically accurate as men and soldiers used to knit. I wish I read this book sooner, but it was a great book to read and I highly recommend this novel.
Hosted by Misty @ The Book Rat and Bonnie @ A Backwards Story
I really liked Princess of the Midnight Ball as well! Are you planning on reading the other two? (Princess of the Silver Woods/Princess of Glass if I remember correctly - though I may not, it's been a while!)
ReplyDeleteTheir reviews will be coming up tomorrow and the day after. I read them all in January and February. I loved the books. They were all great reads and I'm excited to read more from the author.
DeleteI'm glad you liked this so much - I need to go see if its as readily available at my library!
ReplyDeleteIf you haven't read the series I highly recommend it.
DeleteI love this book, and I agree with everything you said. I hope you'll read the next two books!
ReplyDelete