Entwined

Heather Dixon
Greenwillow Books (2011)
ISBN 9780062001030
Reviewed by Danielle Reid (age 17) for Reader Views (6/11)

Princess Azalea and her eleven younger sisters have a passion for dancing. When their mother is killed by a disease she had been battling for years, the twelve siblings fear that they will be unable to ever dance again. Their father, the King, declared the household in a state of mourning and that during this time dancing and all other signs of gaiety were forbidden.

Just when the girls finally come to terms with their fate of boredom without dancing, Azalea stumbles upon a passage that is magically embedded into the walls of their royal castle. They believe they have found the perfect place to continue dancing in secret, and none of them seem to mind the company of a beautiful young man who calls himself Keeper. With his dashing good looks and flattering attraction to Azalea, who would ever suspect Keeper of having darker, more sinister purposes?

With its fairytale setting, “Entwined” is a very light, refreshing read. There aren’t any heavy thematic elements. It’s the sort of novel for the poolside on those lazy summer days. Though entertaining, I had mixed feelings about the book. For a four-hundred and seventy-one-page book, one would expect much to transpire, but there was a lot of unnecessary “fluff” that didn’t really contribute to the novel. Halfway through, I noticed that the plot grew a bit repetitive as the same events reoccurred several times. I understand that the repetition was probably required for the plot to develop the way Heather Dixon intended, but I wish she had found more creative ways to retell the same happenings. I feel that I would have enjoyed the novel more if it were shorter; it had far too many pages for the amount of material it discussed.

I found the romance to be a bit underdeveloped and spontaneous, and the antagonist of the novel wasn’t as villainous as the average evildoer, so I felt that these elements were lacking. One thing that confused me throughout the book was the fact that they were a royal family with a grand palace, servants, and the capability to throw amazing balls, yet one of the family’s main problems was that they were poor and rarely got a satisfactory meal. I understood that they were in rough economic times, but how were able to hold servants and balls but not eat a decent meal? There were a couple others slightly off factors that irked me throughout the book, but these things didn’t contribute to the plot so I simply ignored them.

If you want to enjoy this book, you can’t expect too much from it. “Entwined” has to be read as a carefree sort of fairy tale where things don’t necessarily have to make sense, where love can just sort of happen, else you’ll be disappointed. With its sweet, happily-ever-after ending, this classic retelling of the old fairy tale, “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” will fare well with people seeking a casual read.

Make comment on weblog

FTC Disclosure