Entwined [Hardcover]

Heather Dixon (Author)

Book Description

Release date: March 29, 2011

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. He's trapped, too, held for centuries within the walls of the palace. And so he extends an invitation.

Every night, Azalea and her eleven sisters may step through the enchanted passage in their room to dance in his silver forest.

But there is a cost.

The Keeper likes to keep things.

Azalea may not realize how tangled she is in his web until it is too late.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

*Starred Review* In the half-magical world of Eathesbury, Azalea is the oldest of 12 daughters and heir to her father�s throne. When the sisters� mother dies after a long illness, the siblings find a hidden passageway to an enchanted pavilion under the castle where they can dance all night, secretly breaking the rules of mourning. The mysterious and alluring Keeper makes this possible, but he also seems to have less-than-honorable plans for the girls, especially Azalea. The tale�s atmosphere becomes increasingly dark and brooding as the truth from ages past comes out, and Azalea realizes just what evil they are pitted against. With several unexpected twists, the story, based on the original Grimms� tale �The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes,� plunges toward a harrowing conclusion. This first novel is richly imagined with a gothic feel, and Dixon�s descriptions of the many dances are thrilling. Although the general story line will be familiar to readers of Jessica Day George�s Princess of the Midnight Ball (2009), this romantic fantasy is darker in tone, and the villain resembles the faeries in Nancy Werlin�s Impossible (2008) and O. R. Melling�s The Hunter�s Moon (2005). The story gracefully explores significant themes of grief and loss, mercy and love. Full of mystery, lush settings, and fully orbed characters, Dixon�s debut is both suspenseful and rewarding. Grades 7-10. --Melissa Moore

Review

“Full of mystery, lush settings, and fully orbed characters, Dixon’s debut is both suspenseful and rewarding.” (Booklist (starred review) )

“Readers who enjoy stories of royalty, romance, and magic will delight in Dixon’s first novel.” (Publishers Weekly (starred review) )

“Dixon balances the suspense with generous helpings of humor and sparkling dialogue…[A] charming, romantic story, told with a light touch.” (Kirkus Reviews )

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 480 pages
• Publisher: Greenwillow Books; First edition (March 29, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0062001035
• ISBN-13: 978-0062001030
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.9 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (208 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #123,963 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I like story and drawing and Mary Poppins ^_^


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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 87 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply Delightful! January 28, 2011

By J. Prather TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Entwined is a delightful retelling of the Grimm's fairy tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses. While my taste in fairy tales typically runs more to the evil witch or flesh eating ogre variety, I was quick to recognize all the basic story elements from the original. The book takes place during the year of mourning following the death of the Queen, mother to twelve daughters all named after flowers. The eldest daughter (Azalea), is the primary focus of the tale which details her efforts to take care of her sisters after their mother's death.

Azalea is a wonderful character. First seen at what is essentially her "coming out" ball, we follow her growth from a girl most concerned with balls and dancing to a girl with a strong sense of family and loyalty. All of her sisters are also well portrayed, each having characteristics that will endear them to readers and easily enable them to differentiate between each girl. Clover and Bramble, the two who are next in line following Azalea are each as well developed and eventually have their own roles to play in the story.

There are so many things going on with this story that readers will be entranced from the beginning. The dancing, balls, gentlemen suitors, and gowns will appeal to any young girl who ever fancied herself a princess. There are also elements of magic and adventure, and a villain who provides some genuinely creepy moments. The author does an excellent job creating a believable environment, and while there's not a lot of world building going on, it doesn't detract from a story that is expertly plotted and paced.

This is a great fantasy that transitions well from light moments to chilly moments of genuine peril that will keep the pages turning. There are romantic elements that are not overdone and left me with a big smile on my face, and sinister moments that made me stay up late so I could finish. The entire book has a cinematic quality to it that guarantees a great flow and makes this one a perfect recommend for young fantasy lovers. This is a fantastic choice for grades six and up, or any adult who wishes to remember what reading a great fairy tale feels like. Don't pass this one up. Recommended.

34 of 36 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A Beautiful Rendition of The Twelve Dancing Princesses April 21, 2011

By Bonnie Lynn Wagner

Format:Hardcover

The Twelve Dancing Princesses has always been my favorite fairy tale. While the gorgeous cover is what initially made me see what Heather Dixon's debut novel, Entwined, was all about, the fact that it retold this tale made it a Day One Buy for me. Lush and descriptive, Entwined brings the tale to life like never before. I loved the way Dixon extracted the best parts of the story and tweaked other aspects, making the story fresh and vibrant. It manages to remain true to the original tale while still becoming its own entity, which can be hard to pull off when creating a new version.

Despite the fact that there are twelve princesses involved in this tale, Dixon uses a creative way of allowing readers to remember who's who by naming them alphabetically. Our main character, Azalea, is the crown princess, followed by her sisters, Bramble, Clover, Delphinium, Evening Primrose (Eve), Flora, Goldenrod, Hollyhock, Ivy, Jessamine, Kale, and Lily. Not only are they all named after plants and flowers, the very fact that they're named such reveals the way their father the king leads a very structured lifestyle. This trick is also good for readers. The girls are all about a year apart; Azalea is fifteen at the novel's start and baby Lily is a newborn. If readers are confused about why Ivy is acting like a child, for example, it's easy to figure out that she's one of the youngest princesses.

The book starts off with Azalea getting ready for her first yuletide ball now that she's finally of age. We immediately see how important dancing is to her. I love the way Dixon fleshes out this interest and turns it into an entity of its own. Even the novel's title, Entwined, is based on a dance called the Entwine, which is a clever twist (that taught me something new, no less!). In the original fairy tale, we never know why the princesses go dancing each night or how they found the enchanted forest in the first place. In Entwined, however, we're with the girls every step of the way. We see how they're no longer allowed to dance after their mother passes away during childbirth. They feel stifled during their year of mourning. They find the enchanted forest within the walls of the castle quite by mistake, but through it, can cherish their mother's memory through dance, a need no one but the princesses can comprehend. Love interests are introduced early on, allowing time for love to blossom. The man in charge of the enchanted dance, Keeper, is mysterious and written in such a way, my arms got goosebumps as I read. The forest itself is gorgeous and I could see it in my mind's eye. Because Dixon focused on making the fairy tale's nemesis so dark, she maintained a light balance in the "real world." Unlike in the original, men aren't put to death if they're unable to discover how the girls manage to dance the night away. I appreciated this aspect and loved meeting all of the potential suitors. Lord Teddy and Mr. Bradford were my favorite characters. Lord Teddy stole the show every time he appeared on a page, creating many laugh-out-loud moments.

Overall, I love the way Dixon kept to the traditional tale while still giving us something new and unique. Entwined is almost five hundred pages, and when I first picked it up, I wondered how it could take so long to tell the story. The pacing remained even and never dragged. Once the story sucked me in, it was impossible to put down. The Twelve Dancing Princesses is still a favorite of mine, especially this version of the classic tale.

33 of 36 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Has some potential, but just isn't quite there February 13, 2011

By Amanda TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

With such a gorgeous cover, it's not surprising that Entwined is a retelling of the classic fairy tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses. It was this amazing, romantic cover that first drew me to this novel -not to mention the intriguing title. I had high hopes for Entwined. Especially after reading Princess of the Midnight Ball, I was already in full-on fairy tale retelling mode. I truly wanted Entwined to blow Princess of the Midnight Ball out of the water and be one of my favorite reads of the year. Perhaps, going in, my expectations were too high, because, while Entwined is still a good book, it's just not a great one.

Azalea and her sisters love dancing. That is, until the night of the annual royal ball at Yuletide, when her mother dies after giving birth to Azalea's twelfth and final sister. Struck by grief, the King demands that all the girls go into mourning for a full year and, most importantly, no dancing is allowed while in mourning. But, living in a castle with a dark, magical history can have its benefits...well, most of the time. Azalea finds a new place for the girls to dance, in a magnificent palace overseen by the Keeper. Of course, the Keeper is connected to the darkness, and when Azalea and her sisters try to leave, he won't let them...

Entwined had its positives and negatives for me. Overall, it's a well-paced, enjoyable read rooted in classic fairy tales with a darker edge. The mythology Dixon creates is engaging and unique, and, by far, is the best aspect of the novel. Dixon also does an amazing job of spacing out information about world mechanics and mythology throughout the novel rather than just dumping it on readers at once.

Dixon's writing is strong, but could use a little work. The biggest problem was the lack of details when describing virtually anything, especially when it came to the fantastic world underneath the palace where the princesses dance their shoes to ribbons every night. There were so many things in this book that I could never see, so I sometimes found myself getting confused about what everything looked like. This issue also hurt the novel's overall tone, making it feel a little thin and unencompassing. I really think that if Dixon had worked a little more on setting and detail, it also would have enhanced her characters, who are just okay.

I wouldn't say that Entwined was a complete let down for me. It was well worth reading, enchanting and filled with some great things, but also some not-so-great things. Entwined really has some great potential, but it's not all realized by the end. However, it does prove that author Heather Dixon has talent and potential as a writer, and could improve with future novels.