Princess of the Midnight Ball

Princess of the Midnight Ball is a fantasy rendition of the Twelve Dancing Princesses fairy-tale, and is deftly handled by Jessica Day George. The basic story is fleshed out, giving us a fun story with touches of magic and romance.

Fans of fairy-tale retellings will enjoy this book, as the author kept her story very close to the original. Twelve princesses are doomed to travel underground and dance the night away, as they must work off the pledge made to the Underworld king by their deceased mother. A young soldier, turned under-gardener, vows to free the girls from their curse. Of course, as this young man is a true hero he receives some magical help along the way.

I liked that the author didn’t stray too far from the original show more tale, instead she built upon long established visuals to create a vivid and lasting portrait of this well loved story. If you are a fan of fairy-tale fantasy, then I believe you will enjoy this solid effort that is the Princess of the Midnight Ball. show less

Princess Rose is the eldest of twelve sisters, all of whom are forced to dance every night in the palace of the King of Under Stone but as hard as they try, they cannot explain to their father why their dancing slippers are full of holes in the morning. When Galen, freshly returned from war, joins the gardening staff at the palace, he develops a fondness for Rose and her sisters. When several princes die mysteriously after attempting to solve the mystery, in order to win the hand of one of the princesses, Galen offers his services to solve the mystery and save the princesses from their curse.

This isn't so much a fairy tale retelling, as an expansion of the source material. George takes the simple tale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses show more provides distinctive characters, an intriguing magical world, and a world roughly based on Europe as best suits this tale as originally shared by the Brothers' Grimm. Rose is a lovely heroine, although not as well-developed as I would hope for. Galen, however, is a gem of a hero. He is charming, polite, and he knits (and there are two knitting patterns included in the back of the book for those who might enjoy such things). But this novel is remarkable mostly for the wonderful story. George has turned a very simple tale into one that is longer but full of magic, intrigue, political machinations, a light dash of romance, and still has that wonderful feel of being a fairy tale. A fantastic read. show less

There are people in the world who don't understand the point of the "fairy tales retold" genre. If you're familiar with the fairy tale, you already know how the story's going to end, so why bother reading it, especially if the author isn't subverting the original story à la Geoffrey Maguire?

"Princess of the Midnight Ball" is a good response to critics who don't understand how a fairy tail novelization can be a good story.

First, Jessica Day George made a wise choice in picking the story of the twelve dancing princesses: It's not so obscure that no one has heard of it, but not so popular that it's been overdone. Second, she fleshes out the story by giving personality to the soldier, the king, and the individual princesses. Third, she show more takes unmotivated or unexplained plot points and gives an explanation for them. (Why do the princesses have to dance every night? Why are there twelve of them? Who was the old woman who gave the soldier the invisibility cloak and why did she do it?)

All in all, a delightful read. show less

One of my favorite fairy tales, fascinatingly retold. I love the story of the 12 Dancing Princesses, although the characters are cardboard at best and are frequently rewarded for behaving badly (stealing the tinderbox, for example). Here is the same story (more or less - she leaves out the dogs entirely), told with lively, interesting characters and good solid backgrounds for each. The princesses are hard to keep straight, despite being quite individual - well, twelve flower names?! But the heroine, Rose, is clear, and each one seems reasonably distinguishable by behavior, even if I'm not quite clear if it's Poppy or Pansy that's the youngest and so on. Galen is great - I like his story (soldier's son become soldier in his early teens, show more and now sick of war), his determination to work, his knitting (it's actually quite pertinent to the story), and his careful dancing around Rose. The king, the archbishop, the old gardener, the chief gardener and his family, the inquistor bishop - all of them are richly depicted and act from reasonable motivations. The explanation for the curse on the princesses actually makes sense; the (aforementioned) inquisitor bishop is a nice complication. The way Galen solves the puzzle, not quickly or easily but working his way through the possibilities, and occasionally being stalled until he gets help, again enriches the fairy tale beyond the rote movements of the original. I loved it. Now I need to find the next story in this series...Jessica Day George is definitely a new favorite.
Rereading - I'd forgotten a lot of the richness of the story. Still love it. show less

Oh my goodness, this was just lovely. I've read retellings of The Twelve Princesses before, but none made the man/boy(depending on the retelling) quite as endearing and lifelike as they did the princesses. When, really, he is just as important if not more important than they are. I like how she makes each of the princesses different enough from each other that you don't have to keep going back and wonder, "Wait, this is WHICH princess again?" Overall, this is wonderful enough that even though I read the sequel first(I usually just HATE when I do that because it can ruin the previous novel/rest of the series for me) it wasn't ruined for me because she only vaguely referenced this tale in the sequel.

As in _Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow_, George starts with a familiar fairy tale; this time, it's "The Twelve Dancing Princesses". Rose is the eldest princess, cursed along with her eleven sisters (all named after flowers) to dance every night at the ball of the King Under Stone. Galen is an soldier returned from war, now an undergardener with some unusual skills. Now they must work together to free Rose and her sisters from the dreadful bargain made long ago between the King Under Stone and the queen, who died years ago.

As in most fairy tale retellings, the author has to add complexity in order to make a short tale into a longer book, and George does a good job with this. She adds political intrigue around the proposed betrothals of the show more princesses, so that their kingdom is threatened not only by the King Under Stone but by enemy countries above ground.

It's tough to make the twelve princesses distinguishable from each other, but she manages at least to give each one or two unique characteristics, and some are more complex than that, notably Rose. And I really loved Galen -- he knits! And it's an important plot point! More than that, he and Rose develop a nice relationship and make it believable that they would end up together at the end, beyond the simple "and the soldier chooses the eldest daughter" solution at the end of the fairy tale. show less

Previously I read Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow by Jessica Day George and enjoyed it. When I saw that she had done a retelling of my absolute favorite fairy tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses I was very excited to read it. Overall it is a great read.

Rose and her sisters are cursed to dance every night away at the King Under Stone's castle because of an agreement their mother made with him. As the mystery of their worn out shoes thickens, rumors of witchcraft abound, and the fate of their very kingdom rides on Rose and her sisters' secrets. Can Galen, a common soldier, solve the mystery behind the princesses to clear their good names and save the kingdom?

I have to say this is my all time favorite fairy tale (with Beauty and the Beast right show more behind it). I loved the beauty behind this story and the evilness that the beauty hides. I still remember as a little girl reading about the forest of silver leaves and being absolutely enchanted by it. So I had very high expectations for this story, which weren't quite met. That being said George does do a good job with this story.

All of the characters are very personable and sweet; George did a pretty good job keeping track of the twelve sisters by grouping them into the older set and the middle set. I was curious as to whether or not juggling 12 princesses' names would bog down the story, but it didn't. She also did an excellent job at staying true to the story and giving it a splendidly happy ending.

Rose and Galen were by far the best characters; they were smart and resourceful and oh so very sweet to each other. It was excellent how the politics of the kingdom overall were woven into the princesses' curse; this definitely filled out the story and made it more plausible.

My only problem with this story is that it was not as magical as I had hoped. The story could have used a little more description, for me it didn't convey the beautiful yet awful majesty of the under world. I didn't feel like I could picture the settings very well or hear the silver leaves tinkling in an invisible breeze. Also I felt that the "danger" the princesses were in was a bit vanilla; the King Under Stone is not all the villain he could have been and I never really felt like the princesses were in all that much danger. I guess at points the story was just a bit too Disney for me.

Overall I enjoyed reading this, but didn't think it captured the absolute danger and majesty of the original tale. It is a nice story and ends happily, overall a good light read. It is appropriate for all ages of readers and never gets too scary or too violent. I enjoyed it enough that I will probably check out her latest book using these same characters Princess of Glass. show less