Reviewed by Silvara on
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
Reading updates
- Started reading
- 13 December, 2015: Finished reading
- 13 December, 2015: Reviewed