Review Detail

“When I first started reading Entwined, I have to admit I thought it would be a rather mediocre fairy tale retelling. It was pushed even further into the realm of possible disappointment because The Twelve Dancing Princesses is among my favorite fairy tales and I had already read the fabulous Princess of the Midnight Ball. Throw in the difficulty of creating unique well developed characters for each of the princesses (something I have given up on) and ensuring that the reader is able to keep them all straight…Entwined had a difficult path ahead.

To my delight it succeeded in capturing my attention and offering an enjoyable and sometimes a surprisingly morbid tale. It took a while to get to that point, but even during that time it was nice and refreshing. While Entwined certainly had a number of eye-roll worthy scenes and lines, it was able to overcome its imperfections with a number of witty and hilarious lines and adorable and terrifying scenes.

The Keeper made the story.

If not for him I would have most certainly not liked this book half as much as I did. He was played (created?) to perfection (as far as evil villains go). Well, maybe not quite perfection, there were some parts that he seemed too weak. But whatever, I liked his character anyway. And his magic world. And his freakish ball. And his evil-ness….what can I say. I like good villains.

Another thing that surprised me about this story was how the characters grew and developed and ultimately grew on me. Early in the story every single princess(including Azalea) annoyed me. Every one. So I was pleasantly shocked when I found myself beginning to like them, a lot. And I was even more surprised when I grew to like the King! Though it is marketed as a romance I found that the family relationships were more important to the story and played a larger role than the romantic ones, something I appreciated and was glad for.

Speaking of romantic romances. To me they were sweet not “breathtaking” as the Aprilynne Pike states on her back cover blurb thing. There is nothing wrong with sweet romances, I like them. But I don’t like going into a book and expecting an incredible romance and not get it. Don’t get me wrong, I was glad that the romance was more a backburner plot and was sweet, but I like to know what I am going to get and not be almost tricked into thinking it will be something it is not.

That said, I did love the romances they were adorable and fun, even though at certain points somewhat annoying. (I mean really Azalea, you are kinda exhibiting feelings about a guy and then suddenly. I’m in love with him. So silly.) But as long as you ignore certain parts the romance over all is good.

One other thing I think I should point out that I did not like was how easily people forgot things! I mean, really! It bordered on sheer stupidity sometimes. It wasn’t a huge detraction for me, but it got a bit annoying at some points. Though I guess all fairy tales are like that to an extent and so it crosses over into fairy tale retellings. I think the same phenomena goes for over convenience. That happened in Entwined as well, but I mainly just over looked it because of the fact that it was a fairy tale retelling. I’ve almost grown to expect it.

So yes, Entwined failed to make each of the princesses unique and interesting, well developed characters. I’ve grown to expect that. But I was about to keep track of who each of the princesses were because (thankfully) the King had them named in alphabetical order(A being the oldest and L being the youngest) so that helped a lot. And while I didn’t enjoy it as much as Princess of the Midnight Ball, I still liked it a lot, enough to finish it in a day (though to be honest that was mainly because I had the whole day and wasn’t feeling well…but still it shows I like something). And I believe it offered a unique perspective on one of my favorite fairy tales.

Soundtrack: Dance of the Knights from Romeo and Juliet (Prokofiev) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFkZQ84YDlk