This has easily become one of my favorite fairy tale retellings of the past few years. It's very simple - it does nothing too experimental with the original tale, other than expand it, give it depth, motive, and characters. And the characters are excellent.

The story is the same as always. Mysteriously, the king's twelve princesses wear out their dancing slippers every night. The king makes a pledge that whatever man can discover the truth behind this will win half the kingdom, and one of his daughter's hands in marriage. A soldier takes the dare, and using mostly his wits (combined with a handy cloak of invisibility), discovers that the princesses go underground each night to dance until morning. He stops the midnight outings cleverly, proves it all to the king, and marries the eldest princess.

This is that same story, but given depth. Everything is tied together, from the soldier's deux ex machina of the Cloak of Invisibility to his knitting. Even the fact that he is a soldier links to the tale.

The characters are compelling. Even the soldier, humble Galen, who could've been just a prop (or a Typical Love Interest, as I like to call them), is really an interesting person to read about. You enjoy reading his sections, and you actually *like* him, which is rare for the stereotypical Prince character in these fairy tale retellings. And while it's hardly possible to give twelve princesses equal time and attention, this author makes the attempt, so that by the end, you're pretty sure you could rattle off the personalities of at least seven or eight of the ladies (no small feat, considering they're all given interchangeable flower names.). ( )

Reviewed by Jennifer Rummel for TeensReadToo.com

Based on the fairy tale of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, Jessica Day George pens her version of Rose and her eleven sisters. Due to a bargain their mother made, they must go down to Court of King Under Stone and dance the night away.

What first begins as a mystery to the numerous ruined pairs of dancing slippers soon becomes the most gossiped rumor in the land. The girls are forbidden to talk about their curse; thus their father has no idea what's happening. Only death can cure the curse their mother left upon them when she died.

Soon, however, the sisters become gravely ill. Even in sickness they must dance, causing their health to linger in and out of danger. Princes come from all over the land to unravel the mystery - only to die a mysterious death some days after leaving the castle.

The deaths of so many princes cause alarm throughout the land. A lowly gardener, who has fallen in love with Rose, is determined to uncover the secret. When he does find out, is there anything that he can do to save the girls?

The cover alone attracted me to this book. It's gorgeous, but the delightful tale sucked me in. The dark undertones combined with the forbidden love story made the book extremely hard to put down. ( )

I am a sucker for the fairy tale stories. Review sometime soon on http://librariansbookreviews.blogspot... ( )

I was drawn to this book first mainly due to the cover. I loved the dress and thought the dress was gorgeous. While the story was not bad it is not one of my favorite books. Apparently the story is based on some fairy tale that I am not familiar with but it was still an interesting concept. Galen was a wonderful hero although I found some of his actions to be rather inept for a professional soldier. Nonetheless he and Rose seemed perfect together and I would like to see the stories of the rest of the princesses as they all finally settle down. There is a hint that there are other portals that allow evil forces into this world and are being protected by 4 white witches. So I think that leaves room open for sequels. Galen's knitting talent holds a prominent role in the story and there was an interesting afterword that mentions knitting initially being a male only past time as it was thought to be too complex for women's minds. It even mentions how some schools required it's students to be able to knit in order to graduate. I found that to be an interesting historical tidbit as now knitting is so predominantly a woman's hobby. ( )

Galen comes home from his country’s successful but draining war against a rival country, orphaned and now an undergardener at the king’s palace. However, something more suspicious than regular court intrigue is underfoot at the palace: every morning the king’s twelve motherless daughters wear their brand-new dance slippers out. No one knows where they go at night, and the scared princesses are muted.

The king declares that any prince who is able to solve the princesses’ mystery will marry one of them and be king. But as prince after unsuccessful prince arrive and leave, only to die in unfortunate accidents soon after, whispers spread throughout the land that the princesses are witches.

Galen is sure that the princesses are innocent, and rather are being controlled by someone—or something—powerful. And Galen is willing to put his life on the line in order to rescue the princesses. After all, you don’t need to be a prince to be worthy.

I love fairy tale retellings, and I loooove Jessica Day George’s writing! PRINCESS OF THE MIDNIGHT BALL swept me back to when I was young and rereading my Complete Grimm Brothers Fairy Tale book. It has everything I want in a fairy tale and everything I want in a fun YA book: handsome and gallant heroes; beautiful, troubled, yet courageous princesses; evil villains; well-developed supporting characters; mystery; magic; love. I was left satisfied with a successful retelling of a beloved story, yet renewed with the unique spins that George put in her telling.

I don’t read fairy tale retellings and expect to read about drastic anti-hero types. PRINCESS OF THE MIDNIGHT BALL works for me, then, because of the clichés one comes to associate with beloved fairy tales. Think Disney for tweens and teens. Doesn’t everyone enjoy a good ole happily-ever-after tale every now and then?

And Jessica Day George adds even more magic to this old favorite with her sparkling characters and prose. Her straightforward yet colorful retelling keeps you glued to the pages, and I found myself sighing about Galen after I finished the book.

Every once in a while you should just reward yourself with a well-written, feel-good, happily-ever-after read. If you’re in that mood, pick up PRINCESS OF THE MIDNIGHT BALL. You won’t be disappointed. ( )