VVMBookBlog

Princess Rose and her eleven princess sisters have a big secret.  Every night at midnight they are compelled to go dance for the evil King Under Stone, but magically, the only evidence of this curse to others in their kingdom is the girls’ worn out dancing shoes and their visible exhaustion.  And they can’t tell why or the curse will make life worse for them!

So Galen, home from the war and now a gardener’s apprentice at the palace, has made the dangerous decision to follow the princesses and find out what’s happening to them.  Some magical gifts and messages he received on his way home from war now give him extra powers and courage to find out the secret of the dancing princesses.

I really enjoyed this retelling of the Brothers Grimm fairy tale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, even though fantasy stories aren’t usually my favorites.  I think readers who like the Cinderella-type stories will like this one, too.

I wasn’t sure about this book because I thought it was going to be like Goose Girl, also by this author, and Goose Girl just got a little long for me.  But, it’s very different!  It’s based on a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm called Maid Maleen, but the story is placed in a setting like today’s Mongolia, a central Asian country located in the mountains and steppes between Russia and China.

Lady Saren, a young girl from a wealthy family, is in love with Khan Tegus from another realm, but her father has promised her to evil Lord Khasar in a marriage for his political gain.  When Lady Saren refuses go with Lord Khasar, her father condemns her to 7 years locked inside a brick tower.  Fortunately for Lady Saren, shortly before being sentenced to the tower, orphaned “mucker” Dashti has come into the village seeking employment and ends up as Lady Saren’s maid.  So they go to the tower together, along with 7 years of food and water.

Of course, things don’t go well in the tower.  Lady Saren gets depressed (who wouldn’t?), the food starts to rot, and then the rats come!  Their only access to the outside world is a 6-inch square through which fresh milk and “waste products” can be passed in and out.  And…visitors can communicate with them, including both Lord Khasar and Khan Tegus.  But what do they have to say and who does the talking back to them–Lady Saren or Dashti?

Without telling too much of the story, I’ll say that they do get out of the tower before the 7 years are up, but that’s when another whole story begins–and I had to read it to the end!  Animals with special powers, people with weird powers, kingdoms at war, and of course, a fairy tale romance.  Great story!!