Monday, March 29, 2010

Princess of the Midnight Ball

By:Jessica Day George

Rating: pretty good, 3.5 stars

The Brothers Grimm tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses is vibrantly retold and set in a fictionalized nineteenth-century Europe. Galen, a soldier (and knitter) returning home from war, encounters an old woman who gives him an invisibility cloak and yarn possessing magical powers. While working as a gardener at the palace, he encounters the princess, Rose, and her 11 younger sisters. Because of a secret bargain their mother made with the evil King Under Stone, the princesses are cursed to dance each night till their shoes are worn ragged.-Amazon.com

When I read reviews of this book on other blogs (who I unfortunately don't remember), I was super excited. This was one of my favorite stories when I was little and to see it re-imagined was the best thing ever. It started off great and I was really enjoying learning more about Galen and the princesses. And then it got to the end. The ending was mostly a let down. (Gets a little spoilerly from here. Fair warning.) The suspense just kept building and building and then finally the King Under Stone kidnaps the princesses so then of course I expect a long trial for Galen to get them back. No, he basically just gets in to the castle, kills the king and some of the princes,  and saves the girls. And all that happens in about 30 pages. It was just too easy. Until I got to the end this book was going good for a 5 star but with the ending it finished as a 3.5. 

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