Jessica Day George

A retelling of the tale of twelve princesses who wear out their shoes dancing every night, and of Galen, a former soldier now working in the king's gardens, who follows them in hopes of breaking the curse.

Princess of the Midnight Ball

Julie Janis

Reread:

A fun, enjoyable story! This is a classic retelling of the twelve dancing princesses and I really enjoyed a lot of it. I liked the sister relationships and Galen. Something I noticed while reading was how plot focused this story was. Not that there is anything wrong with that, but it seemed to takeover any character development that could have happened. The more I read, the more I realized there wasn't any character arc in Galen and Rose. There also was hardly any relationship development between the two. The development felt like bones rather than flesh. If there was more focus on character and relationship growth, I think I would have enjoyed this story a lot more. Despite that, this is still a good story.

Kaley Catron

Never ever ever ever doubt that this book will get less than a five star rating from me. Easily one of my favorite books of all time. Thats all I even have to say.

Kathryn 

This book was cute! It's hard to really articulate my feelings for it but I did really enjoy it! Pleasantly suprised! I will say this: I was a little nervous because I'm usually pretty good at figuring out what's going to happen in books but besides a few small details I had no idea what was gonna happen! It made me want to read more. The characters were great and although the beginning was a little slow it was still a pretty solid read.

Maria

тетенька пересказывает сказки и делает это довольно увлекательно
правда, ни эта, ни предыдущая сказки мне незнакомы в оригинале, поэтому не знаю, много ли она допридумывает и куда углубляется
впечатление пока сложилось, что очень близко к оригиналу рассказывает
вот не знаю, читать ли пересказы золушки и красной шапочки

Jennifer

I read this book nearly 10 years ago. It's probably the best retelling of The 12 Dancing Princesses out of the ones that I've read and I still remember nice bits & pieces from the novel.

Clara Garcia

The only thing I liked about this book is that I could get to know the tale of the 12 ballerinas a little bit better. But all of the characters were really one dimensional and the plot was flawed.

Faith Collins

My favorite fairy tale of all time is the Twelve Dancing Princesses so I was ecstatic when I stumbled across Jessica Day George's book on GoodReads. And while I will love anything that pertains to my twelve princesses, this book fell a little flat for me. Perhaps I had set my expectations too high or was too excited to read it? Overall, it was a good read! Full of fantasy, ball gowns, a bit of romance, and magic-- more than enough to appear to the average YA reader. 

I loved the new dark twist George gave the tale and I really liked Galen. I thought the Princesses' character development could have been a bit deeper but they still captivated my attention and despite there being twelve of them, I was invested in each girl. Honestly, I thought the romance between Galen and Rose was a little lacking but I still rooted for them (and wasn't too concerned...). 

What I DID love was that the book was told from two POVs-- Galen and Rose. I'm a sucker for split POV as I like to hear both sides of the story. In addition, the descriptions written by George were just gorgeous! I could easily picture the ballgowns and the silver forest. That made me really happy! George's writing was really smooth and flowed nicely.

The villain wasn't as scary as I would've liked and I didn't really hate him like I was supposed to. This just furthers my criticism of the wan character development. My final criticism of the book was a surprise that came at the end. I felt that it was totally random and honestly would have preferred had not happened. 

The story was creative and enjoyable but I felt a fair share of indifference for this book. I think that Princess of the Midnight Ball was just a little too YA for my taste. Despite the faults I've outlined, it is certainly a fun read and I would easily recommend it to my students as well as to anyone who enjoys the genre!

www.blueeggbooks.blogspot.com

Celia Adams

This is a childhood favorite of mine I tend to reread from time to time, and I still love it as much now as I did back then!

Teresa Schultz

If you like your fantasies like old-time Disney movies, ie the woman is incapable of helping herself and only the man can save her, then you'll probably like this book. It drove me nuts how passive Rose was, and the one time she tries to be proactive in saving herself, she basically makes a decision that's obviously dumb. 

As for our knight in shining armor, Werner basically gets incredibly lucky. All I could keep thinking while reading this book was how convenient is is that he would know exactly what to do with each magical item he manages to pick up - and how convenient that he seems to just trip over magical items like they're going on a fire sale! 

Ugh. Shallow characters, shallow story.

Princess of the Midnight Ball

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