/ Entwined by Heather Dixon

Entwined
By Heather Dixon
472 pages


Ah Entwined. I sure did like this one. It reminded me of a Disney movie made into a book. It had a little of everything: mystery, heartache, magic, and, of course, romance.

It is the story of The 12 Dancing Princess by the Brother's Grimm which to be honest I had never heard of before now! for those of you like me who didn't know a thing about this story I'll summaries.

There is a royal family with 12 beautiful princesses, in this version all of which are named after a flower in alphabetic order starting with Azalea, Bramble, Clover, and so on. Their mother has been very ill for the past year and saddly dies during childbirth to the 12th princess Lily. The King declairs that they are all in mourning which means black clothes, no going outside, and worst of all for the girls, no dancing for a whole year.

The girls live to dance and are heartbroken to learn that they can't anymore when someone mentions to Azalea that the ancient castle has magic passageways that can be opened by rubbing silver on them. One night she sees some ancient markings in the fireplace of the princesses room and rubs silver on it and it magically opens up into a passageway. The princesses see her and follow her down and it opens up into an enchanted silver forest where they meet a handsome man called Mr Keeper. Keeper has been trapped in the walls of the castle for hundreds of years and cannot leave. He invites the girls to come and dance in the forest every night.

The girls promised each other not to tell the King where they are dancing so he creates a contest that anyone who can find out where the princesses are dancing at night can marry Azalea and thus be the future king. Princes and royals come from far and wide to figure out the princesses secret.

The girls go on dancing each night, but Keeper likes to keep things. The girls don't realize who he is and how he has tricked them until it is too late.

My Review
Writing
I loved Heater Dixon's writing style. It was just plain fun. Some reviews I read about it complained that she was too sweet and cheesy, but I thought it was just perfect for the story. My only complaint it the that king sure "sucked in his cheeks" a lot. I swear every time someone said something to him he "sucked in his cheeks"
Plot
First of all I was excited to learn from the jacket of the book that this is a Salt Lake City author so I was happy to support the locals. Second, this was such a fun read. I loved this story. Since I had never heard of this fairy tale before it was very original for me and kept me guessing the whole time. It has such a good message of right and wrong and listening to your parents, and fixing your mistakes when you make them.
Characters
The author did such a great job with the characters even though there were a LOT of them. She made each of them have their own personality and it was easy to keep track of who was who. I loved how they interacted with each other. It was just what I would think a family with 12 girls would be like.  I do wish that we learned a little more about Mr Bradford, the love interest a little more, but with the style of the book I think it was enough.
Romance
Mr Bradford and Azalea are the main love story in this and it was done so well. It developed slowly and believable and was just so Disney sweet.
Overall
Well I'll say it again, I loved this book. It was so sweet and funny and just plain charming. Plus one of the biggest things I liked about it is it's not a series! One book, bam, done. I don't have to wait to find out what happens, I don't have to buy another book, this is it. Those seem to be pretty rare now-a-days.

If you like a good fairy tale, a story with strong moral values, and a cute love story you will LOVE this book. In fact I would say that if you have a daughter who loves princesses this would be a good one to read aloud to her!


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