This was by far one of more imaginative retellings of The Twelve Dancing Princesses that I've read. I haven't read Callier's Four Kingdoms novels (the quartet that precedes this book and features how they overcame the darkness), so I was a little lost at times when prior events were mentioned, but overall it read well as the start of a new series.

I quite liked Lily and Sophie, as well as Jon and Daisy and Celine. Really many of them intrigued me.

I have a feeling after the next book (based around Beauty and the Beast with Sophie) we will have a Snow White retelling (Blanche), The Little Mermaid (Teddy from Trione) and possibly the Snow Queen (Celine, Emmeline and Giselle?). I'm kind of hoping Daisy also gets an adventure as she was a pip. Those are guesses though, being my first book with the author I'm not sure if she foreshadows all the stories she'll be writing or if they're just fun Easter eggs. ( )

As far as I remember, I have not read this author before. The book is supposedly a retelling of "the Twelve Dancing Princesses" which I do not recall ever reading. From what I can tell, the author is attempting to weave a common storyline among many known fairytales. ("The Princess and the Pea" apparently being something that happened in the past and "Beauty and the Beast" being the one that follows this one.)

Three princesses from two different lands travel with their respective diplomatic delegations to Marin. When they arrive, they are informed that, unbeknownst to their escort, they're required to participate --along with other princesses from various duchys--in a Princess Tourney called by Prince Dominic of Palinar. This book mainly follows twin princesses Lily and Sophie. As twins, and with a gift from their godmother, they have a special talent. Lily finds love but feels she needs to protect her twin. Sophie doesn't want Lily to pass up the chance at true love and the chance to save Marin.

To me, being unfamiliar with the original fairytale, it was a little harder to predict how the story would unfold. Some of it I did find predicatble. The tourney seemed unnecessarily long and I sort of expected more types of events--perhaps ones that played to each individual's strengths rather than having a defined set of leaders that rarely changed. There were a lot of countries and a lot of names to try to keep straight, and I don't think I did so very well.

I wasn't sure at the end why Lily's and Sophie's group excluded Celine's country in the deal they made with Marin. I would be interested to see what Celine discovers in her trip to one of the other countries. It would be interesting to see why the princesses were perceived in the way that they were. ( )