For centuries, the Keeper has been waiting within the walls of the palace. But now Azalea, eldest of the kingdom's twelve princesses, has found the magic entrance to his hideout. Azalea, who thought her life was unfurling brightly before her, but then lost her mother. And her freedom. She, too, is trapped inside the walls of the palace by the strict rules of Mourning--no color, no sunlight, no suitors, no dancing. What is more, her father won't stop treating her like a child. So the Keeper extends an invitation. each night Azalea and her sisters may dance in his silver forest. He is dashing, and his magnetic eyes are always on Azalea. What the Keeper wants in exchange may cost her everything. But the Keeper should not underestimate Azalea's temper, or her strength, or her love for her sisters and her kingdom.
My first book review on my blog ever! And what can I say about Entwined?
The cover is the most beautiful thing I have ever seen ever.
Cover aside:
The book was originally off to a semi-slow start. Azalea's mother, who is sick and on the verge of dying, entrusts Azalea to host her first ball. It's almost Christmas, and everything is well and fine until Fairweller, the Prime Minister, abruptly stops the festivities and coldly escorts everyone out.
Azalea's mother is dead, a week before she was supposed to give birth to her twelfth daughter, Lily. They manage to save the baby, but not the mother.
This quickly launches the entire castle into Mourning, which means black dresses, no going out except for "Royal Business" and church, drawn curtains everywhere in the castle, and no dancing, all for a whole year.
The King, Azalea's father, and whom she and her ten sisters refer to as "Sir," is especially grief-stricken about their mother's death. Naturally, he's strict about Mourning, and he is rigid in enforcing it.
For Azalea and her sisters though, to whom dancing is like breathing, it's torture not to be able to. Naturally, they don't listen to him and instead, start dancing in secret every night. Azalea finds a spot inside their fireplace
The descriptions were lovely and they painted clear images in my head, and sustained them there, which is hard to do, considering I can hardly ever imagine settings in my head at all. The prose is readable, flows easily and elegantly, and I love it. Heather Dixon seems really fond of onomatopoeia. which, in my opinion, is actually pretty refreshing. I really like that she tries to get you to really hear what's happening around in this world. As is the case with some onomatopoeia, some of them could be confusing at first, but after a few attempts to read them out loud, I got the gist of it.
The characters were all likable--Lord Bradford, for example, is the perfect storybook gentleman. HE IS SO CUTE I CAN'T EVEN STRESS IT ENOUGH! He does so many things throughout the course of the book that just make you want to squeal and jump up and down in happiness. Him and Azalea are one of the cutest if not the cutest couples in the book (yes, there are more pairings!). All their meetings were so enchanting and charming and riveting, even when they weren't supposed to be. It certainly made the book more enjoyable and fan-girl worthy.
He's not the only romanceable gentleman, though. If I told you now who the others were, it'd just give stuff away, so for now, read the book and find out yourself! It'll be an awesome journey. Trust me.
I liked Azalea, although there was one thing about her that I didn't like: That she was so detached from her father, showed hardly any respect for him or his feelings, and flagrantly disregarded any rules he had for her. Sometimes she would have flashes of insight where she felt a pang of sympathy for the King, but most of the time she just goes back to "What a terrible father" afterwards. However, since (and I hope this doesn't count as a spoiler) she and her sisters DO make up with him in the end, and they even attempt to take Mourning seriously after (about time!), I forgive her, and all the the ties and conflicts and issues I had with the book were resolved, hence the five stars.
She was caring, independent, brave, spirited, and got things done. What more could you want in a heroine?
Since there are twelve sisters in total, you would think they're all hard to keep track of (they were, at first). But soon as you read more and more you realize that there's actually an order to their names, in alphabetical order from eldest to youngest: Azalea, Bramble, Clover, Delphinium, Eve(ning Primrose), etc. I like how they kept with the flower-theme with the names, and it made them more memorable.
Her sisters all had distinct personalities, which is hard to pull off when you've got so many characters like in this book. Although sometimes it seemed like Heather Dixon was trying too hard to fit them all into scenes, most of the time everyone's screen time was just right.
The King's character development, and Azalea's and Lord Bradford's and everyone else's, was done beautifully, in my opinion. I just loved learning more about them and their world, which is one of those historical settings that you don't know what time period it is exactly, but it's reminiscent of olden days with touches of modern times (like the Bartimaeus Trilogy). The family's going through mourning and the grieving process together that inevitably pulls them together whether they know it or not is just great to watch. I love the family values and moments.
The explanations for magic ("Magic is a lot like science, actually"--one of the lines that convinced me to buy this book) were great, and the fantasy touches (like a magical, enchanted tea set and sword) added the right amount of magic to the story and setting.
With all this going on, you'd think it was too much in just one book, but trust me, it's not. The story, setting, and characters all unfold perfectly, and everything together makes this book one of the best I've read all year.
Reading this book was like a never-ending, beautiful journey that I wholly enjoyed taking. It seemed to span on forever and ever, and when it did end, it seemed like there was still something that could keep going on, even though there was a beautiful ending. This is one of those books that distorts time and seems to go on forever but end so quickly at the same time. I just love it.
This is a great book, and I would highly recommend it for people who like fantasy, romance, and historical settings :D
The descriptions were lovely and they painted clear images in my head, and sustained them there, which is hard to do, considering I can hardly ever imagine settings in my head at all. The prose is readable, flows easily and elegantly, and I love it. Heather Dixon seems really fond of onomatopoeia. which, in my opinion, is actually pretty refreshing. I really like that she tries to get you to really hear what's happening around in this world. As is the case with some onomatopoeia, some of them could be confusing at first, but after a few attempts to read them out loud, I got the gist of it.
The characters were all likable--Lord Bradford, for example, is the perfect storybook gentleman. HE IS SO CUTE I CAN'T EVEN STRESS IT ENOUGH! He does so many things throughout the course of the book that just make you want to squeal and jump up and down in happiness. Him and Azalea are one of the cutest if not the cutest couples in the book (yes, there are more pairings!). All their meetings were so enchanting and charming and riveting, even when they weren't supposed to be. It certainly made the book more enjoyable and fan-girl worthy.
He's not the only romanceable gentleman, though. If I told you now who the others were, it'd just give stuff away, so for now, read the book and find out yourself! It'll be an awesome journey. Trust me.
I liked Azalea, although there was one thing about her that I didn't like: That she was so detached from her father, showed hardly any respect for him or his feelings, and flagrantly disregarded any rules he had for her. Sometimes she would have flashes of insight where she felt a pang of sympathy for the King, but most of the time she just goes back to "What a terrible father" afterwards. However, since (and I hope this doesn't count as a spoiler) she and her sisters DO make up with him in the end, and they even attempt to take Mourning seriously after (about time!), I forgive her, and all the the ties and conflicts and issues I had with the book were resolved, hence the five stars.
She was caring, independent, brave, spirited, and got things done. What more could you want in a heroine?
Since there are twelve sisters in total, you would think they're all hard to keep track of (they were, at first). But soon as you read more and more you realize that there's actually an order to their names, in alphabetical order from eldest to youngest: Azalea, Bramble, Clover, Delphinium, Eve(ning Primrose), etc. I like how they kept with the flower-theme with the names, and it made them more memorable.
Her sisters all had distinct personalities, which is hard to pull off when you've got so many characters like in this book. Although sometimes it seemed like Heather Dixon was trying too hard to fit them all into scenes, most of the time everyone's screen time was just right.
The King's character development, and Azalea's and Lord Bradford's and everyone else's, was done beautifully, in my opinion. I just loved learning more about them and their world, which is one of those historical settings that you don't know what time period it is exactly, but it's reminiscent of olden days with touches of modern times (like the Bartimaeus Trilogy). The family's going through mourning and the grieving process together that inevitably pulls them together whether they know it or not is just great to watch. I love the family values and moments.
The explanations for magic ("Magic is a lot like science, actually"--one of the lines that convinced me to buy this book) were great, and the fantasy touches (like a magical, enchanted tea set and sword) added the right amount of magic to the story and setting.
With all this going on, you'd think it was too much in just one book, but trust me, it's not. The story, setting, and characters all unfold perfectly, and everything together makes this book one of the best I've read all year.
Reading this book was like a never-ending, beautiful journey that I wholly enjoyed taking. It seemed to span on forever and ever, and when it did end, it seemed like there was still something that could keep going on, even though there was a beautiful ending. This is one of those books that distorts time and seems to go on forever but end so quickly at the same time. I just love it.
This is a great book, and I would highly recommend it for people who like fantasy, romance, and historical settings :D
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