Review: Princess of the Midnight Ball

Title: Princess of the Midnight Ball
Author: Jessica Day George
Published: 2009 by Bloomsbury
Obtained: Library

Princess Rose is the eldest of twelve sisters condemned to dance each night for the wicked King Under Stone in his palace deep within the earth. It is a curse that has haunted the girls since their birth – and only death will set them free.

Then Rose meets Galen, a young soldier-turned-gardener with an eye for adventure and a resolve that matches her own, and freedom suddenly begins to seem a little less impossible. To defeat the king and his dark court, they will need one invisibility cloak, a black wool chain knit with enchanted silver needles, and that most critical ingredient of all – true love.

First Sentence:
"Because he had once been human, the King Under Stone sometimes found himself plagued by human emotions."

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I am a big fan of fairy tale adaptions. I don’t care if it’s the five millionth (*cough*Cinderella*cough*) or the third. I’ll probably love it. This was no exception.

Although I was never well acquainted with the story of the 12 Dancing Princesses, I picked up on the basics right away and fell in love with this adaption.

No real need to get into a lengthy plot summary. It’s just the 12 Dancing Princesses with the twist of the King Under Stone who forces them to dance because of a deal their mother made with him.

The characters were probably the element that made this book amazing. Princess Rose was such a cool character. She was the eldest sibling, trying to be a mother and a friend/sister all at once. Not only that, but she had to deal with the continued stress of dancing every night and not being able to tell anyone about it. Obviously this makes her super stressed, so it was nice to see her and Galen start a little romance. All the other sisters (all of their names were flower names, so it got a bit confusing as to who was who) were into different things, so their personalities were very unique/different. I loved the “sister support” they gave each other. That’s a lot of sisters to have, but they all loved and cared about each other enough to avoid most problems.

Galen was a pretty cool guy. A bit flat maybe as the main male character, but I thought he and Rose were really good together. His transition from soldier to gardener to investigator was realistic. Overall he was a nice guy. I mean, a man who knits in his spare time? How useful is that!!

Jessica Day George is obviously very talented at writing in general, and adaption fairy tales. I’m definitely planning on reading her other fairy tale adaption Princess of Glass.

Rating:

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Content Warning: Nothing.