Princess of the Midnight Ball (Twelve Dancing Princesses)

by Jessica Day George

A retelling of the tale of twelve princesses who wear out their shoes dancing every night, and of Galen, a former soldier now working in the king's gardens, who follows them in hopes of breaking the curse.

• ISBN10: 1599903229
• ISBN13: 9781599903224
• Publish Date: 20 January 2009
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 21 July 2021
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 280
• Language: English

Reviews

[Katie King]

Unfortunately as others have said, this is forgettable. Nice in the moment...but it slips from memory once you turn the last page.

[Silvara]

Check out my other reviews, discussions and link ups at Fantasy of the Silver Dragon.

I really liked this fairytale retelling. I haven't seen that many retellings of the 12 Dancing Princesses. And I liked that the story was from Galen's point of view as well as Princess Rose's.

I would have liked the pronunciation guide in the front of the book instead of in the back, past the knitting patterns and such. I had ideas in my head about how some of the names and things were pronounced, and then once the book was finished I found out I was wrong on a few of them. I'm sure I'll continue to be wrong when I read the next book. As now that I've read an entire book with MY version, I'm unlikely to remember the way the author had in mind.

I wasn't sure if I was going to like this when I started it. I mean, it sounded good, but even though I like fairytale retellings a lot of them seem to fall flat or have things that irk me. And then I started reading and couldn't put the book down! I had to know what was going to happen next. I mean, what spin the author was going to put on things since we basically know the story of the 12 Dancing Princesses.

Not all the princesses were fleshed out well. Which is understandable since there are 12 of them, and if all of them had had enough book-time to be given real personalities, the book would be 2-3 times as long! We do get to know the 3 eldest fairly well. The youngest princess, and one of the 13-year-old twins.

I really liked this book as I said earlier, and will be picking up the other two books in the series. If you like retellings, you should give this one a try.


Knitting Patterns Included: Rose's Shawl, The Black Wool Chain.

This review was originally posted on Fantasy of the Silver Dragon

[ladygrey]

a nearly perfect retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. Sweet, with danger that includes more than one bad guy which requires a hero or two, it's also delightfully romantic. A lovely book.