Book Review: Entwined by Heather Dixon

Synopsis

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. 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. (Goodreads.com)

Title: Entwined

Series: N/A

Author: Heather Dixon

Genre: YA Fiction, Romance, Fantasy

Published: March 29, 2011

My Rate: ♥♥♥♥♡

The cover did not disappoint. This is one fantastic read! Like their father, I dance like a tree but I loved it. The dance jargons, the unfamiliar curtsies and creative names and places. The tragedy, the magic, the horrid fairytale of it all. This is sort of fairytale-ish. Although to compare it to Disney is hilarious. This is the real fairytale for me, Brothers Grimm-type with horrible antagonists and perilous journeys.

I adore the female lead. She's strong, she's fit to be queen, she doesn't compromise her sisters and in my opinion, she's the best daughter her father could hope for (given their circumstances). I love her sisters too, their diversity and their unique characteristics from each other. The love interests were quite pronounced. Especially Mr. Bradford! I loved him from the start. What I like about medieval characters is that they don't need to throw each other at well, each other to give me that giddy rush of hormones inside. They kissed as much as one kiss in the book but the moments that literally had me dancing were abundant.

The Keeper is freaky and it was no effort for me to guess his real character. He was great in an antagonist kind of way. The supporting characters were also quite memorable. There are a million things I liked about this book that I couldn't put it down until I finally finished it two in the morning. It's not even the writing (and I put particular emphasis on the writing) as it could've been better.

I think the only con to this is that the story is quite draggy--it's long and develops slowly. But other than that, I found no other flaw to the book.