review: Entwined by Heather Dixon
I love the cover of this book, from the awesome dress to the very Cinderella-esque castle, to the vines. Perfect and one of my favorite covers so far this year.
from goodreads:
Azalea is trapped. Just when she should feel that everything is before her . . . beautiful gowns, dashing suitors, balls filled with dancing . . . it’s taken away. All of it.
The Keeper understands…Azalea may not realize how tangled she is in his web until it is too late.
My thoughts:
I enjoy fantasy, and truly enjoy books that even hint at historical fiction. Unfortunately, this book did not work for me. It was odd.
Even though the scope of the story was small, the setting was pretty much isolated to the castle, and the main characters were a bunch of princess sisters, I was okay with that. I was okay with a magicked tea set and an evil creepy guy called The Keeper. What got me was the dancing. The sisters felt a strong need to dance for hours, every day. So much so that they didn’t care the cost and that deep desire they had never fully articulated itself to me in the story.
While the ending isn’t bad, it was wrapped up a little too pretty and nice for me.
I give this book 3 STACKS
See you in the STACKS,
Stacy, who wanted to like this so much more.
I actually loved this book…I think I gave it five stars on Amazon. I thought it was a beautiful story…I loved the whole ‘father’ storyline. I can understand what you say about the ‘dancing’ but I believe this was the same compulsion that the sisters always had in the fairy tale ’12 Dancing Princesses” upon which this is based.
As Stacey said above, this is based on a fairy tale, but I admit, I only knew that because I read a review on another site. Maybe it wasn’t made clear enough that it was based on an existing story. Or, is that even necessary? I agree the cover is beautiful.
@Stacey (great name btw!) I did enjoy aspects of the book, it was just the girls NEED to dance wasn’t there for me. Also, it was after I read the book that I realized it was based on the Twelve Dancing Princesses. Though, I’m not sure if I had read that first if it would have made a difference.
I haven’t read the Twelve Dancing Princesses…do you think I should to better understand the book? I’ve seen mixed reviews on Entwined, but it’s like people can’t quite place exactly why the book didn’t work for them. It’s like something was off. But then there are those who absolutely loved it. It’s on my TBR list, and I’m still curious to read it so I can form my own opinion, but I wonder if the lack of clarity (in the book) will make it less enjoyable.
I love the cover but I have heard really mixed things about this book. I’m also not a big fan of historical fiction so I’m not sure if it would end up on my list. Thanks for the review!
Aww. I love the tale of The Twelve Dancing Princesses so I’ve been pretty excited to read this one. Sorry you didn’t enjoy it that much!
Boo for falling short! I have this one for review so I’ll be interested to see where it falls for me.