"Princess of the Midnight Ball (Princess, #1)" by Jessica Day George

5 out of 5 stars

Read September 10 to October 29, 2012

Pages: 280
Published: January 20, 2009
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens

I discovered this book around the time that I found Entwined by Heather Dixon. Because of that, I ended up reading them back to back. Because of that, I think I kind of compared the two to each other. They both have the same idea and come from the same story, so I had to take a step back and try to not compare them to each other so much.

The story is about Rose and her 11 little sisters.



I'm still taken aback about how there are 12 kids. It kinda freaks me out. So many diapers...

Anyways, the girls are cursed to dance in a castle underground every night for years and years. They have to dance with their suitors, who I'm guessing are supposed to be young adults. I just think it's creepy that a grown, mature man is dancing with a young child who is not old enough to think about marriage.



Every pedophiles dream!

The king is desperate to learn the truth, but his daughters can't tell him. So he decides to have princes from different kingdoms to find where the princesses go at night. But all the princes end up the same. Dead.

A new gardener comes to work at the palace and thinks he can learn the secret. Galen, a soldier from the kingdoms army, persuades the king to let him find the truth. The princesses think he will end up like the other men. But Galen has something that the others didn't. Magic. And the ability to sew! Rose doesn't want him to get hurt, as she starts to have feelings for him.

Galen is able to follow the princesses down to the Kingdom Under Stone and help them escape. After they safely escape from the King, Galen kills him and a few of the princes before catching up with the girls. He also manages to lock all the inhabitants in the kingdom so no one can be taken down there ever again.

Rose and Galen marry after he saves the princesses from dancing every night until they marry the princes. They all live

happily

ever

after.

THE END

Rose
The oldest of the 12 princesses, and with their mother dead, she sometimes acts as the younger girls mother. When their father wants a prince to figure out the princesses secret, he offers Rose's hand in marriage to whoever can discover the truth. For a main female character, she seemed pretty strong. Definitely not a Bella!!

Galen
A former soldier who comes to the palace to become a gardener. When he finds out that no one can discover the princess's secret, he decides to find it for himself! And unlike all of the other men, he is successful and marries Rose after the girls are free from the King Under Stone.

King Under Stone
The King of the underground palace who made a deal with the girl's mother. He would let her have 12 daughters, if she would go to the palace every night and dance. Galen and the princesses kill him and some of his sons, so they become free from the curse given by him.

Overall, this book was a great remake of the original story! It wasn't until a little while after I read this did I find out that there were two more books to this series! And I can't wait to read them!