Entwined-- Heather Dixon
Release Date: March 29th, 2011Genre: Fairy Tale Retelling, Romance
Publisher: Greenwillow Books
Pages: 480
Rating:
Amazon Link*:
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Goodreads Page: Click hereSummary:
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.Review: The advertising for this book states that "fans of Shannon Hale" will love it. Well, being one of the BIGGEST Shan-fans out there, I knew I HAD to read it. And I wasn't disappointed.
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.
This book reads like a fairy tale. It was enchanting, interesting, and had both edge-of-your-seat moments and swoon-worthy moments. You float along with the story.
My only complaint was that you don't float very fast. That's why I rated this book five flowers, but it isn't a Squeaky Book. It took me well over a week to read this (luckily I somehow ended up with TWO tour copies, so I was able to finish). There are things that definitely could have been removed, or tightened up. HOWEVER, they don't weaken the story at all. They just make it longer and a give the book a more relaxed pace, which isn't a bad thing, but it also wasn't the kind of book that I just HAD to read what was coming next.
I know that paragraph was pretty long, so it seems like that was a big complaint, but it wasn't, I promise. (There are a TON of commas in that sentence!) There were so many cool things in this book. For instance, all twelve of the sisters were named in alphabetical order (Azalea, Bramble, Clover, etc.) and this was so helpful. It would have been really easy to mix up who was who, but their names made it easy to remember "Oh, she's the youngest. And she's in the middle." BRILLIANT!
And Azalea's relationship with Keeper was really interesting. He was a very creepy character, but you aren't sure if that's him being "darkly" romantic, or evil. He gave me shivers.
I LOVE a good fairy tale retelling, and this one is no exception. I adored it, and I will certainly be purchasing a copy for my personal library.
All review content © Enna Isilee, Squeaky Books 2007-2010
P.S. Ooh! And thanks to Chantele I found out that Heather is actually another native Utah author! Wahoo! I don't know where she lives now (I forgot to read the author bio in the book), but that doesn't really matter. Once a Utah author, always a Utah author.
*I am an amazon affiliate. If you purchase this book using my link, I will get a tiny fraction of the purchase, which goes toward contests.
She is also super nice and adorable! You should check out her bog, too, where she draws cute things, like Mary Poppins! http://www.story-monster.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteI read this book about two weeks ago. I thought the story was good but it was a big long. Some of the beginning of the story could have been taken out to make the book a little shorter and flow a little faster.
ReplyDeleteEntwined sounds so, so good! It seems like fairy-tale retellings have been making a big appearance on the YA stage lately. Exciting!
ReplyDeleteI love fairy tell retelling! I'll have to check this out, I hope its not too long and stretched out though...
ReplyDeleteI LOVED this book so much! :) Glad you liked it, too.
ReplyDeleteOooo, I so need to read this. Thanks for the great review! :)
ReplyDeleteLisa ~ YA Literature Lover
Sounds like just my kind of book. I love fairy tale retellings and Shannon Hale and am really excited for this to come out in the UK.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how this book ended up in my wishlist. Not the kind of book I'll read, but I'm going to give it a try. And the cover is beautiful. Thanks for the review.
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