Entwined, by Heather Dixon

Young Adult
480 pages
Greenwillow Books

Oh, I really enjoyed this book! I've read other retellings of the Twelve Dancing Princesses (and liked the others as well)--and this one is quite unique. Twelve sisters who love dancing are plunged into mourning for a year when their mother dies. They were close to their mother. Their father, well. He's the King, not their father. They basically have no relationship with him. He's certainly not there to comfort them in their mother's death. And so, it's in direct defiance to him that they find a magic passageway in the castle and a strange man named Keeper who allows them to dance and ease the pain in their hearts. But--all is not as it seems.

The book is creepy, suspenseful, funny, and heartwarming. I loved particularly the development of relationships in it. They change, in real, complete, and sometimes surprising ways. Considering all the characters, it was easy to keep them straight because they are all different, and because the lines of their relationships keep things clear. There was one relationship in particular that is not often found in YA books that was excellently done, and changed my opinion of a certain character completely from the beginning to the end. I think I would particularly recommend this as a fun read to my librarian SIL--but also to anyone else who likes well-done retellings.

Books I've read since the beginning of September

1. Forever, Maggie Stiefvater. And so ends the Wolves of Mercy Falls. What is so strong about these books is that they make you feel. They have imperfect characters who are trying, and an exciting plot going on as well. Very nicely done!
2. Always a Witch, Carolyn MacCullough. Sequel to Once a Witch. Nice time traveling story about competing families with magic. I like the atmosphere in here, and the determined main character.
3. Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy, Ally Carter. Zach is so much more interesting than Josh! More, please. :) (Actually, I read this series completely out of order, so perhaps I was always going to be biased...) Looking forward to book 5 coming out.
4. Restoring Harmony, Joelle Anthony. A dystopian novel with a positive heroine and some gardening instead of dark urbanization. I really liked that. I think I would recommend this to younger readers who like dystopian--the situations the characters were in felt less "on the edge" than in many other books in this genre; just a bit safer in general, the danger of complete loss a little less drastic and permanent. But I guess sometimes you want a break from all the angst.
5. Ultraviolet, RJ Anderson. One of my favorite books of the year! And I’ve been waiting since about 2007 to read the rest and see it in print, so…  Cool cover, cool mystery/scifi genre bender, some beautiful writing and great plot twists, and it made me FEEL. Very original, but with some faint flavor of L’Engle and Dr. Who.
6. The Decoding of Lana Morris, Tom McNeal and Laura Mc Neal. What to say about this? It's not the sort of book I necessarily connect with because the characters weren't people I feel are much like me. The POV was interesting--third person present, and rather outside the MC's head. The concept was an interesting one, though. Fifteen-year-old Lana is in foster care, looks down on the other kids at her new home because they're Snicks (Special Needs Kids, or SNK). But gradually she learns to love them, and wants something better for them. She discovers a pad of paper that grants wishes when you draw on it, and has to decide how to use her wishes. There's a slight squick factor with an attraction with the foster father. I think some people will read this book and it will really speak to them, and others who have had perhaps different life experiences or different friend experiences won't relate as well. But aren't all books like that?
7. Jump, Elisa Lynn Carbone. Nice book about a couple of runaways who rock climb and discuss the philosophy of not stressing about things you can’t control. I enjoyed the rock climbing and felt for the characters.
8. Dust City, Robert Paul Weston. Henry Whelp is a wolf—in a world where animals have more or less evolved to walk around and reason like humans. He’s a nice kid, even if his father went total wolf and killed a little girl and her grandmother. Henry doesn’t like dust—the leftover magic left behind when all the fairies left—because a truck of it ran over and killed his mother when she was younger. Then, he finds out that some dust may not just be synthetic. And some of it may have been given to his father to make him kill those people. Even though it’s a fractured fairy tale, it’s gritty and thriller-y. Not a snuggly book, but well written. I'd say it's definitely a boy book, but if you are recommending it to a boy, DON'T call it a fractured fairy tale. Say it's a thriller about a boy busting a creepy, legal drug ring to clear his father's name, instead.
9. The Faerie Ring, Kiki Hamilton. This one had a beautiful cover! Tiki lives on the Victorian-era streets with the other children who are her adopted family. They steal to survive, and one day, Tiki finds something she knows will go for enough money to get them off the streets forever--a ring. Only--the ring, it turns out, belongs to Queen Victoria. And, it holds a truce between the scary faerie world and ours. And, if they don't give it back, disaster will occur. Fun, atmospheric novel where no one is really who they seem.
10. Entwined, Heather Dixon. Oh, oh, oh! I loved this one! It’s a Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling, but it’s fresh and warm and funny and lovely. One that sticks in your mind afterwards. Great things about this book: the villain tricks you at first as much as he does the princesses, and his evil is all the stronger because of it. Lord Bradford and Teddie are wonderful in their respective ways. The magic feels real, and works. And not to be spoilerish, but there's a nontraditional sort of love story (for want of a better word--it's not romantic, though) that really works, too.