Book Review: Entwined by Heather Dixon

Entwined by Heather Dixon
Genre: Young Adult (Fractured Fairy Tale/Fantasy Romance)
Date Published: March 29, 2011
Publisher: Greenwillow Books

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.

Entwined by Heather Dixon is a fairy tale retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses. This was interesting for me, because, until reading this book, I knew nothing about about the original fairy tale. Aside from Azalea, Bramble, and Clover, most of the sisters blended together. It was a lot of characters to keep up with. Azalea was the eldest sister and the main character. She carried the story well. Bramble was the snarky, fun sister. Clover was the prettiest sister. I found the pacing to be drawn out quite a bit though. I also would have liked some more chemistry between Azalea and Mr. Bradford. I was surprised to find more chemistry between Clover and her love interest. Keeper was intriguing. The times when the sisters were in his world were hard to turn away from. At times, I wondered if he was meant for Azalea as I felt more tension when they were around him. I never felt like I got to know Mr. Bradford. That disappointed me because when he was around, I found that I liked him. This was a hard one to review, because it sounds like I didn't like this book, when I actually did. The story itself was enchanting. There was a dark, eeriness to Entwined, and I'm glad I read it.

"He was shockingly easy to follow. The pressure of his hand, the step of his foot, the angle of his frame. . . it was like reading his mind. When he leaned right, they turned in perfect unison. He swept her across the gallery in a quick three, a dizzying pace. Gilded frames and glass cases and the window blurred in her vision, and Azalea spun out, her skirts pulling and poofing around her, before he caught her and brought her back into dance position. She could almost hear music playing, swelling inside of her.

Mother had once told her about this perfect twining into one. She called it interweave, and said it was hard to do, for it took the perfect matching of the partners' strengths to overshadow each other's weaknesses, meshing into one glorious dance. Azalea felt the giddiness of being locked in not a pairing, but a dance. So starkly different than dancing with Keeper. Never that horrid feeling that she owed him something; no holding her breath, wishing for the dance to end. Now, spinning from Mr. Bradford's hand, her eyes closed, spinning back and feeling him catch her, she felt the thrill of the dance, of being matched, flow through her.

"Heavens, you're good!" said Azalea, breathless.

"You're stupendous," said Mr. Bradford, just as breathless. "It's like dancing with a top!"

Heather Dixon grew up in a large family and currently works as a story artist for Disney Interactive in Salt Lake City. She has a passion for the movie "Mary Poppins", and her dream is to write a book of twisted nursery rhymes. She is the author of the books "Illusionarium" and "Entwined"

To learn more about Heather Dixon and her books, visit her website.You can also find her on Goodreads.