Loosely based upon the fairy tale 'Twelve Dancing Princesses.' Eldest sister Jo is the closest thing her eleven sisters have to a mother in a household run by a distant, controlling father. She teaches them to dance and herds them to and from the dance clubs to keep them safe and secret, until one day her father decides it's time to for them to marry -- to his benefit -- and not only that, but he suspects that they have not been keeping to their attic abode, but instead sneaking out to dance.

I listened to this as an audio book.

I don't really have much to say about The Girls at the Kingfisher Club except that it was a jazz age glory, and it both broke my heart and kept me up all evening -- and then all night -- finishing the book. I staggered into work the next day running on three hours of sleep with red eyes and exhausted, and then had a hard time reading anything else for more than a month. Do you hear that, Valentine? You wrecked my reading goal for the year, thanks a lot.

I don't tend to push books at my friends, mostly because I never know if they share my interests enough to enjoy my reading habits, but I've been singing this one to anyone who will listen to me for thirty seconds. The audio book is great. The story is great. It ended just where I think it ought to have, and no, I do not want a sequel, just more like it. Hosannah, hosannah, The Girls of the Kingfisher Club rocks, hosannah. ( )

Twelve sisters in 1920s New York go dancing at night without their father's knowledge. It's their only escape from their stifling home life, and it's only possible because of Jo, the oldest sister, known as The General to her younger siblings. Jo's the one who decides when and where they will go, and who keeps a watchful eye on the group when they're out and makes sure they all get home safely. But Jo, even more than the rest of them, knows that their current situation can't last forever. When their father starts trying to arrange marriages for them, it's obvious that the sisters will have to make other plans, or face lives of captivity with husbands who will treat them no better than their father has done.

This is an extremely engaging read. I listened to the audiobook, and found it hard to tear myself away from the story when I had to be doing other things. I'm a big fan of fairy tale retellings, and The Dancing Princesses has always been one of my favorites. And, while I don't always love stories set in the Roaring '20s, it worked so perfectly for this particular retelling. If this sounds like something you might enjoy, I highly recommend it. ( )

Cathy: A retell of the fairy tale "Twelve Dancing Princesses" as flappers during the roaring twenties in Manhatten, Jo, the firstborn, "The General" to her eleven sisters, is the only thing the Hamilton girls have in place of a mother. She is the one who taught them how to dance, the one who gives the signal each night, as they slip out of the confines of their father's townhouse to await the cabs that will take them to the speakeasy. Together they elude their distant and controlling father, until the day he decides to marry them all off.

The Girls at the Kingfisher Club takes the fairytale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses and imagines it taking place in Twenties New York instead, where the twelve Hamilton sisters defy their overbearing father each night by taking to the dance floor in vibrant Prohibition-era nightclubs. This was solid but never quite clicked with me—perhaps because of the slightly mannered prose style, perhaps because of the challenge of keeping so many sisters straight in my mind. Genevieve Valentine also didn't seem to have much to say here, beyond the bald fact of "treating women as things is bad." Yes—and? It all felt a bit surface, and this may be an example of the kind of book that would work better as a movie. ( )

A very cool twist on the Twelve Dancing Princesses. The whole story has a very dreamy feel to it, and while I kept expecting some fantastical elements to it it is very much based in reality. Which I quite liked. I also liked the sort-of open ending and I was a little surprised by the direction. I think I need to read more books set during that period. ( )