| Title | : | The Night Dance: A Retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1416905790 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781416905790 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 193 |
| Publication | : | First published November 22, 2005 |
Under the stars, in a secret world...
Rowena, the youngest of twelve sisters, loves to slip out of the castle at night and dance in a magical forest. Soon she convinces her sisters to join her. When Sir Ethan notices that his daughters' slippers look tattered every morning, he is certain they've been sneaking out. So he posts a challenge to all the suitors in the kingdom: The first man to discover where his daughters have been is free to marry the one he chooses.
Meanwhile a handsome young knight named Bedivere is involved in a challenge of his own: to return the powerful sword, Excalibur, to a mysterious lake. While looking for the lake, Bedivere meets the beautiful Rowena and falls for her. Bedivere knows that accepting Sir Ethan's challenge is the only opportunity for him to be with Rowena forever. But this puts both Bedivere and Rowena in a dangerous situation...one in which they risk their lives for a chance at love.
The Night Dance: A Retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses Reviews
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In all honesty after I finished reading this I could think of was "huh?" . Don't misinterpret me this is not a bad huh just I kind of confused one.
This time around I did have some background of the original tale from reading
Jessica Day George's
Princess of the Midnight Ball. Highly recommended! But on to this retelling.
Suzanne Weyn in her other retellings always relies on a historical setting to place the fariy tales in. In this one she incorporated the well known Arthurian legends. That was a totally good move on her part. It weaved well in the story because we see her version of the life behind the mysterious Lady of the Lake, which in this tale turns out to be the mother of the dancing princesses.
Ok this is going to be an irrational irk on my part but it bothered me to no end that Rowena (the focus of the book) is the youngest of the sisters. This shouldn't have bothered me, but really she doesn't display too much of the characteristics of the youngest. Then there is sweet Bedivere that is simply devoteful, but I thought the whole "soulmate" bit was over done. I mean really that fast? The most ridiculous thing is when their father sets up the contest that any man can marry one of his daughters if they solve the mystery behind the girls worn out slippers. This is not what is ridiculous, but he lets the men stay in a room beside theirs to solve the mystery. Ummm... maybe I'm really smart but shouldn't have he tried to do this exact thing himself first? I think it's kind of obvious but I get why it was done because that was the only way to have the adventure that ensues.
It was lovely though, and the part where they go through the different forests was symbolic but a little too short. Good but not great and that's why all I thought in the end was huh , because I was expecting to love it since it had such good bones with the Arthurian legends to help it along. Could have been better but still worth a read. -
This was a good book. It was all nice and sweet. Just like every other book in the series true love prevails above all. Rowena is a good protagonist and Sir Bedivere is all you want in your knight-in-shining-armor.
I like the the story of the 12 dancing princesses and the way Weyn portrays the story is done well. But I couldn't get over the fact that out of all the 12 sisters Rowena just has to be the most beautiful, as well as the most adventurous and the only daughter with the second sight. Also Sir Bedivere just has to be the most handsome of all the knights aside from Arthur who dies. There is only one sister you really get to know other than Rowena. This is due to how short it is so its forgivable.
There isn't as much rising action as I would've hoped for. The struggle was just too easy for me. I like it when the characters have to work really hard to finally find there happiness. It makes it all the sweeter and it makes me feel like the characters are strong and they really deserve it. Its not that Rowena and Bedivere don't deserve happiness because they are good people but I felt like they just got it so easily.
The ending resolves everything. The good guys win and the bad guys lose. There is magic, love, and revenge so its a good read. -
Click here!
http://enchantedlibraries.blogspot.com/ It's book stuff.
At the beginning of this book...
Everyone else around me at school and such:
Me: (Reading)
Middle and end of this book...
Everyone else around me at school and such:
Me: (Reading)
Really, what I'm trying to say is that at the beginning it was very tiring, boring and not interesting. But towards the end, it got way better. That's why it doesn't deserve 5 stars. You don't get 5 stars when only 1/3 cf the book is good.
This book had the sound of an old fairy tale, which is good because it is a retelling of one. You know, the usual, people falling in love at first sight. Evil spirits...I've actually seen a lot of people complaining about that, but they should get over themselves. What do you expect when you pick up a re-telling of a fairy tale? Jeez!
Also, the cover was pretty cool. Seriously. It's pretty amazing.
I don't have anything else to say. I think I've elaborated enough.
But wait! I forgot to tell you. I tried to party with the others and it didn't end too well...
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I love fairytale retellings. It's one of my favorite genres of books because unlike modern day stuff, these kinds can take on a world of their own.
Rowena doesn't know a lot about what happened between her father and her mother. When she was a baby, her mother left and never returned and her father shut all 12 children in a castle. They can have anything they want except the one thing they need...freedom. But when the girls discover a secret passage hidden within the floor of their castle, they explore and find so much more than they ever intended. And they might just find a way to free their mother from her watery prison.
This was a clean retelling of the Twelve Dancing Princesses which was interesting enough to keep reading but not good enough to remember. The way the author weaves in other legends into this one had me confused and the romance was anything but. Girl meets guy. They start kissing and professing love to each other within the next five pages.
This book is appropriate for ages 13+. -
The Night Dance was a cute retelling! I enjoyed this twist on "The Twelve Dancing Princesses". I felt bad for the mom and how she was trapped for so long. The dad was a little crazy and I felt he went overboard trying to protect his daughters.
The ending was really good and I loved that true love won. :D -
The 1.5 stars I gave this is purely for the ingenuity of mixing "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" with Arthurian myths\legends. Other than that, it's just a bad book. It's badly done. My review might be a little confusing. My notes were a little hard to read so.....
Story
The Lady of the Lake, Vivienne,put a spell onfell in love with Sir Ethan and they had six sets of twins, all girls. When the eldest of the sets was 5-6 ish years old, Vivienne left their cottage for a walk and never returned. She managed to get herself trapped in the Lake that was moved underground and put a spell on by Morgan le Fay. Sir Ethan was so afraid that something should happen to his girls that he built up and around the cottage and turned it into a manor and built a wall around it that the girls could never leave the limited grounds. Other than themselves, the girls grew up with no friends or social interaction. There were also no boys around except for the stable boys etc, which could account for the way that some of them meet a guy and *poof* they are in love.
Rowena, the youngest of the girls, being a curious thing yearning for something more, finds herself a way out of the wall and finds her mother's scrying bowl.
Also in the forest, she sees Bedivere and he sees her in a vision\dream through use of Rowena's "magical abilities" that are not well thought out. It is never explained well or at all. After seeing Bedivere, this is Rowena, "She had already fallen so deeply and inexplicably in love with him that his death was too terrible to be considered for even a moment."
Bedivere just wants to pull the beautiful girl from his vision\dream to his side and kiss her. Yep, he's a real winner.
My reaction to both of these brainless twits:
The scrying bowl mentioned earlier allows Rowena see her mother trapped in the Lake but since she was baby when Vivienne left, Rowena doesn't recognize her. Using Vivienne's mute guidance and all of Eleanore's (the eldest) wits, the 12 girls find a trap door with music emanating from within. They dance their way down to tunnels and caves. But they don't find their mother. Morgan eventually send them suitors that dance them through the night. This whole thing was Morgan's brainchild to get Excalibur which Bedivere has. Don't worry, he's coming.
So the girls return from their night of dancing with their slippers torn and dirty. Ethan is outraged that they went to the OUTDOOR WOODS. He locks them inside their room and it happens again.
Also, at this time, Bedivere, a Knight of the Round Table, is on a quest to get Excalibur to the Lake. He swore that he would do so to Arthur as it was Arthur's dying wish\command. Bedivere finds his way to the manor but there is no lake. He meets Rowena outside and, literally, less than two (2!) pages later, they are "passionately" kissing one another.
Insta-love. Aarrrggggghhhhhh. *displeased and grumpy* After meeting him once, Rowena's POV thinks, " How would she go on if she could never see him again? She simply could not endure life without the possibility of seeing him. All that mattered now was Bedivere, her love of the North Country." What happened to getting to know one another. They *knew*, if you call it that, one another for less than five minutes. That is not love. That is attraction and infatuation. You have to know someone to truly love them. And, though they seemed to be willing to do anything for one another, there was never any proof that they had forged a unbreakable bond and if they had, how? It was not possible in the way it's written in the book. In addition, in all but ONE (1) scene, Bedivere and Rowena kiss "with desperate passion." It's really annoying.
Ethan sets up the contest where a man will attempt to find out where they are going and how they are accomplishing escaping. The girls put the first man to sleep with a potion. Bedivere is next and Rowena warns him not to drink the potion. And Bedivere conquers and Vivienne is set free and everybody is happy. They kiss, they dance, I don't care. The end. Not recommended. I would suggest
Princess of the Midnight Ball by
Jessica Day George. It's another retelling of the "12 Dancing Princesses" and far better. It's awesome. -
The Night Dance is a wonderful combination of the fairy tale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, and King Arthur legend. I was captivated at the first page, but at the same time wondering how the author could successfully tell this story and use the death of King Arthur and the sole remaining knight Bedivere's quest to return Excalibur to the Lady of the Lake. Well Ms. Weyn did an excellent job.
The Twelve Dancing Princesses has always been one of my favorite fairy tales. I was excited to read a fantasy story built around this tale. Ms. Weyn preserved the aspects of this story that I really liked, and gave them a different spin. I found I wanted to know more about the twelve princesses' dad, Sir Ethan Colchester, because we meet him and his wife, Vivienne, who happens to be the Lady of the Lake long before we meet the daughters. It was interesting seeing how the girls' parents met, and how this tied into the King Arthur myth. They are both shown as sympathetic characters who have reasons for why their actions have led to the princesses being motherless and locked away from the world. We also get to see the youngest daughter, Rowena find true love with the sole remaining knight, Bedivere. Also we see one of the oldest daughters fall in love with a would-be suitor who fails Sir Ethan's challenge to stay awake and see why his daughters' shoes are tattered every morning after being locked in their bedrooms. And we get to see what becomes of the other ten daughters as well. I don't want to tell you the whole story, and give too much away. It's short, but a rewarding read, especially if you like fairy retellings and King Arthur. -
This was an interesting retelling of the Grimm Brothers' The Twelve Dancing Princesses, which took the original fairy tale and combined it with Arthurian legend, making the boy who figures out the mystery behind the girls' worn out shoes one of Arthur's Knights of the Round Table. In this story, the girls are the daughter of a self-made Count, who met their mother near a lake in the forest. The woman turns out to be Vivienne, the Lady of the Lake, and Arthur's aunt. She's trapped in the lake by Morgan Le Fay, causing Ethan, the husband, to think she left him. This makes him extremely overprotective of his daughters, whom he raises in a walled-in manor house.
I liked how the author switched the viewpoint of the narrator throughout, although it did get kind of clunky in some spots. Rowena (the youngest daughter) and Bevidere (the Knight) were my favorites, though. I've always had a problem with the lack of feeling that the sisters have for the men they end up tricking, causing them to lose their lives, and was glad that Weyn only had two men attempt it . I'm actually using this fairy tale as one of the stories I'm going to tell for my Storytelling class in Grad school, and have read many MANY versions of this story in preparation. This was definitely one of the more interesting ones. -
I couldn’t finish this one. It’s more a disjointed King Arthur than Twelve Dancing Princesses and it has too many points of views and side stories that it’s just dragging the pacing to an incredibly sluggish crawl.
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So at first I was a little (Ok, a lot!) skeptical! I mean it's The 12 Dancing Princesses meets The Knights of the Round Table, you have to admit, it sounds just about as good as Cheetos and milk (weird right?)! But, not all weird things have to be bad. . . . And this book just happens to be one of them!
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I was so excited about this book. I'd read a couple of the books in the Once Upon a Time... series and had enjoyed them (The Storyteller's Daughter is just fantastic). The story of the 12 Dancing Princesses is one of my all-time favorites, and I'm also a bit of a sucker for Arthurian legend. I thought that combining the two would be fantastic. Alas, I was disappointed. The story just never gelled. It followed two characters who were separated and then came together, but the way they met didn't really make sense. The magics weren't well defined (a problem for a fantasy novel) because they weren't exactly Arthurian, but then weren't like those in a typical fairy tale. The combination made one of the central elements very confusing and took away from the book. The plot was also a fusion that just didn't work. Sometimes it felt that I needed to be thinking about Camelot, yet at others I should have remembered the fairy tales. I love fusions and twist on fairy tales, but this time it just felt choppy. It didn't blend together like it needed to. Besides that, it was predictable. I didn't know exactly how everything was going to happen, but I knew ahead of time what was going on. I hate being able to guess a plot (and I'm also really terrible at it), and it really detracts from the story in my opinion.
The characters were nothing remarkable. The villain didn't seem that evil, and the good characters were on the boring side. I wanted depth and differences and found none. The romance was so blah. It was safe and typical complete with the whole "true love is magnificent, immediate, and conquers/heals all things" message. Maybe I'm just a cynic, but I think that it's more complicated than that. I guess I'm also comparing this retelling with Jessica Day George's magnificent Princess of the Midnight Ball, so it even weaker. The writing wasn't that great, so there was nothing to really save the book. The dialogue was unsophisticated and Weyn tended to drop information on you like a brick. There wasn't any nuance.
I was saddened by this book. I wanted it to be good and fun, but it failed me. If you want a better retelling of the same story grab the book by Jessica Day George that I mentioned because you won't regret it. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for this one.
Book from Library -
It's a small book, but people who enjoy reading fairy tales re-told will find it a very pleasant light-read. It also intertwines with the legend of King Arthur and the Round Table. (having our main male protagonist being one of Arthur's knights)It doesn't follow King Arthur's specific story, but this book has some of the main characters in it, such as King Arthur (though he's in it for a very short time), Morgan Le Fay(and Morgan's son but I forget his name right now), the Lady of the Lake, and Bedivere. (I'm not certain if he's part of the story of Arthur, but his name could be one of a well-known Knight of the Round Table)
I don't want to give away any spoilers, but the title and small synopsis should be enough. Again, it's a small story, so don't go expecting too much. ;)
I recommend it for people 12 and up; it's a pretty clean book, having a few kissing parts and a couple of suggestive scenes where a girl uses seductive behavior; but it's on purpose for a prior plan, so it shouldn't cause too much worrying. -
It's a pretty sweet idea-combining King Arthur and the 12 dancing princesses. In fact, it's a fabulous idea. And the way the story actually goes is also pretty great. But I had a very "My Fair Lady" reaction about the writing. You know that song where Eliza sings to Freddy, "Words! Words! Words! I'm so sick of words! I get words all day through; First from him, now from you! Is that all you blighters can do? Don't talk of stars Burning above; If you're in love, Show me!" That's how I felt about this book. Show me something! Stop just telling me what happened! Show me now!
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This was one of the very first "Once Upon a Time" books I read...and it's still one of my favorite! A spin on "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," this version has an Arthurian Legend thread woven through it and I LOVE it! It has such a happy, happy ending as well! I have to say that Suzanne Weyn is probably my favorite contributor to the "Once Upon a Time" series!
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I love to read fairy tale retellings and this one is amazing.
Ms. Weyn merged 12 Dancing Princesses with King Arthur lore and it turned out to be a wonderful story! The Lady of the Lake, Morgan le Fey, and Sir Bedivere Knight of the Round Table join Sir Ethan and his twelve daughters in this adventure that kept me captivated to the very last page. -
I liked how this story blended Arthurian legend with the fairy tale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. It made a nice original angle.
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Did not like this one compared to the others retellings by
Suzanne Weyn. It was too simple for my taste.... -
I always loved "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" story, and love this charming retelling, with an Arthurian twist. I loved how it truly honors the original fairytale with the basic storyline structure and details, while also combining Arthurian legends of the Lady of the Lake, Excalibur, Morgan Le Fay, and Bedivere, the last Knight of the Round Table. The insta-romance tracks not only for the Once Upon a Time series as a whole, but also because, well, King Arthur, chivalrous knights, rescuing damsels in distress, yada yada. This is PRIME material for insta-love!
For me, instant romances aren't really a "problem," so much as how they're portrayed. If an instant romance is in an epic story of magic, adventure, enchantment, and knights, it goes without saying. If the lovers in question are positive, supportive, and mutually loving and respectful, then that's all that matters. I'll never understand some of these reviews for these books.... it's like whining about instant-romance bullshit in the literal ROMANCE section. What on earth did you expect?!
This was a charming, fun little read, that was only put on hiatus because of work and life, but mostly finished in a day. In some ways, I enjoyed The Night Dance on the same level as The Storyteller's Daughter, albeit slightly more so, if only for the sake of loving the original fairytale. -
This is Twelve Dancing Princesses meets Arthurian legend. I like what the author did in melding the two. It explains how there is an enchanted area under the princesses’ room and their nightly disappearances. I was interested in this story but I think it was poorly written. There is a lot of clunky exposition and is more explained than lived. The author tells the story rather than showing it. I hate love at first sight books and I felt that the kissing was a little over the top. Points for creativity in combining the two stories but I prefer other retellings to this one. (I recommend Jessica Day George’s Princess of the Midnight Ball or Merrie Haskell’s The Princess Curse).
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This started out as a nice afternoon read. I have always been intrigued by this fairytale and am obsessed with anything to do with King Arther, so combining the two was a treat. The last few chapters however were rushed to put it nicely. So many details which would have seemed to be important were overlooked and characters suddenly lost their charm for sake of time. The story wrapped up in a way leaving me very confused. I found myself flipping back to make sure I had not skipped a page somewhere.
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This was my Reading Challenge 2020 "book picked off the shelves with your eyes closed." I didn't hate it. The idea to put The 12 Dancing Princesses story together with the King Arthur legend was pretty great. I had to give it an extra star for that. It's just that these retellings are all kind of the same and in the end everything gets spat out in a hurried fashion and the book ends rather abruptly. Overall I didn't love it, but it wasn't the worst either. Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but when you chose a book off the shelf with your eyes closed what can you expect?
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I really loved the way Suzanne Weyn entwined her reimagining of The Twelve Dancing Princesses with King Arthur lore. The story was engaging and original. The characters were well-developed, though it would have been nice to get to know more of the sisters. The initial romantic connection between Rowena and Bedivere was interesting, but they almost instantly fell in love, so I wish there had been more development to their relationship. Overall, I really enjoyed this fairytale retelling.
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"The Night Dance" is a retelling of the 12 dancing princesses which is actually one of my favorite fairy tales.
You may be wondering why I picked this up... well, someone recommended it & since I almost never research books before I read them I saw the pretty cover & got it. This book is short and sweet and something I would've loved like 15 years ago. It is definitely a middle-grade to young-adult book and very light and fluffy.
They set the story along side a Camelot story which is cool and I honestly haven't read anything Medieval in ages so that was a fun thing for me.
All in all, I would've loved this whole series of retellings when I was younger but as a fully grown adult I have very little to say. -
Points for originality, blending the myth of Arthur and the Lady of the Lake with the 12 dancing princesses wasn't expected. However despite the original spin the story just wasn't as compelling as I wanted it to be.
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This was an interesting retelling of the fairy tale. It was a bit light on details and character development, but a fun read.
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3.5
