Fairy Tale Retelling Review: Entwined by Heather Dixon

Entwined
by Heather Dixon


Description:
Just when Azalea should feel that everything is before her—beautiful gowns, dashing suitors, balls filled with dancing—it's taken away. All of it. And Azalea is trapped. The Keeper understands. He's trapped, too, held for centuries within the walls of the palace. 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.

My Review:
I picked this gem up as an audiobook from the library.

Entwined is a heavily dance themed fantasy retelling of “The Twelve Dancing Princesses” by The Brothers Grimm, which I hadn't heard of until now.

It begins when Azalea’s mother passes away and her house is placed into a state of mourning: clocks stopped, windows covered, clothing blacked, and dancing banned. Her father occupies himself with a distant war, leaving Azalea to care for her twelve sisters.

As the story progressed, I became more and more delighted with the story. There’s just so much meat to it. The mythology of the High King and the magic of silver and oaths, the call of the dance, the battle between youth and duty, the coming of age, the redemption of a mourning and distant father, all of it is pulled into a most fantastic mystery. There’s even a delightful edge of romance, not limited to the main character. I also just adored the sugar teeth. A surprising character in a story of dancing, danger and romance.

At first I was put off by the dance descriptions, but they quickly become integral to the storyline. And as someone who doesn’t dance, I found it very impressive that the author could describe the moves in such a way that I could picture the graceful forms and interactions.

I was impressed, as well, by how the author and narrator gave the rather large cast of characters each their unique voices and personalities. This was a hefty feat as the story features Azalea, her twelve little sisters, several suitors, her father, the Keeper, and several historical figures.

Overall, I loved this story. I would highly recommend it to fans of fantasy, mystery, and clean romance.

As for the audiobook, the narration is skilled, assigning unique voices to all the characters. The accent of the narrator took me a little while to get used to, but ultimately suited the story and it’s setting exceedingly well.

About the Author:

Heather Dixon has been a story artist for Disney, a writer for HarperCollins, and currently works as an animation director in Salt Lake City. She is the author of the books "Entwined" and "Illusionarium". You can find more of her stories and comics at www.story-monster.com.

On her Amazon Author Page, she describes her likes as "story and drawing and Mary Poppins."