It took a bit to get into this book, which was extremely well-written with beautiful imagery. But once I got into it, I really got into it and finished over half the book in one night. Marillier takes on the tale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, setting it in Transylvania, throwing in a little Frog Prince, and some vampires for good measure. Oddly enough, it all worked extremely well. My only issue was that some of the characters were just too -- Cezar was too arrogant, domineering, and a PITA; Tati was too flighty; and Jena was too capable. It took a while for me to get over wanting to reach into the story and start slapping people, but I'm glad I did.

And the vampires... subtle, and very well worked into the world as the Night People, who exist side-by-side but yet separate from the world of fairy rings, dancing, and enchanted glades. ( )

Twelve Dancing Princesses mixed with the Frog Prince and vampires!

Jena’s father is departing for warmer climes for the winter to recover from his illness, leaving Jena and her four sisters to look after their Transylvanian castle, Piscul Dracului, on their own. Luckily, due to their father’s unorthodox methods of raising them, the girls are more than capable of taking care of business matters as well as housekeeping and running the estate. And although they will miss their father terribly, his absence will make it a lot easier for them to hide their secret trips to the Other Kingdom to dance the night away with the Fair Folk.

But their neighbour and cousin, Cezar, sees things differently: as an excuse to seize control of Piscul Dracului and an opportunity to destroy the Other World in revenge for the death of his older brother ten years ago. And with the arrival of the mysterious Night People at the monthly revelries, Jena has her hands full trying to prevent both her worlds from collapsing.

There is so much to love in this book! The fairytale magic woven into Transylvanian folklore made for such an interesting and intricate world filled with a wide variety of characters (perhaps bordering on too many?) that laid the foundation for a rich, fantastical, gripping story. I will say, though, that I wish we had gotten a lot more closure at the end, because it felt like some of the storylines dropped off or tied up rather abruptly after so much build-up. Still, I would definitely recommend this one! ( )

Carpathian Mountains, it has dancing young ladies, fairy folk, Night People, good guys in disguise, bad guys who think they're the good guys, suspense, a healthy dose of romance (of course), and a helpful and adorable sidekick frog. It felt a bit slow to get going, but once it did, I loved it. ( )

I was kind of skeptical going in to this book, but I ended up absolutely loving it.
Though it's been a long time since I've been as angry with a character as much as I was with the antagonist in this book. Very good read. ( )

Wonderful retelling of the 12 dancing princesses, set in Transylvania. I was enthralled and it surprised me. ( )