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This is a fairly straightforward retelling of “The Twelve Dancing Princesses.” Eighteen years ago, Queen Maude made a deal with The King Under Stone. For one favor she would dance for him for twelve years. For another she would dance for another twelve years. When she dies before the twenty-four year contract is up, her twelve daughters, who Under Stone hopes to wed to his twelve sons, are forced to finish out the contract.
Galen is the son of a soldier and lost both parents in a war that’s lasted most of his life, and which he finished out living with the camp followers. (Normally people only think or prostitutes when they think of camp followers, but this was actually an entourage with women who provided all sorts of services to the army, such as food and washing, and did also include prostitutes.) Now a twelve year veteran of the war who’s fought in many battles, he returns to his mother’s home town in search of her family, and gets a job as the assistant of his uncle, who is the castle gardener. He soon falls in love with the oldest princess, Rose* and learns that the princesses have been wearing out their dancing slippers every few nights, and continue to do so even after Rose catches pneumonia, which eventually causes all the princesses to get sick. Having acquired the normal tools for the tale before reaching the castle, he volunteers to try to solve the mystery after all the princes who tried and failed died on their ways home, and the princesses themselves became more ill and miserable.
Galen is nice and resourceful and heroic without being annoyingly so, and does a good job o straddling the line between being motivated because it’s the right thing to do, and being motivated because he likes the girl. His scenes with the youngest princess, Pansy, are also almost too adorable. Because there are twelve of them, the princesses don’t really get a chance to be as developed, but what we do get is pretty good. Only a few (primarily Rose and Pansy get a chance to stand out as characters, but all get enough room to get to be distinct in one way or another.
I’ve always liked the tale, though, because it’s a tired old soldier and a spinster princess, so reading about them as teenagers does cause the story to lose a bit of its charm for me. It’s still pretty enjoyable, though. One other thing is that Galen knits (knitting used to be a “men only” thing) and this becomes an important aspect of the story in interesting ways.
*This resulted in a romance that initially largely consisted of him staring longingly up at her window and her pretending not to stare longingly down. At 15, I would have thought it the most romantic thing ever. At 28, I was really hoping they’d also do some actual talking. Thankfully, they did.
Galen is the son of a soldier and lost both parents in a war that’s lasted most of his life, and which he finished out living with the camp followers. (Normally people only think or prostitutes when they think of camp followers, but this was actually an entourage with women who provided all sorts of services to the army, such as food and washing, and did also include prostitutes.) Now a twelve year veteran of the war who’s fought in many battles, he returns to his mother’s home town in search of her family, and gets a job as the assistant of his uncle, who is the castle gardener. He soon falls in love with the oldest princess, Rose* and learns that the princesses have been wearing out their dancing slippers every few nights, and continue to do so even after Rose catches pneumonia, which eventually causes all the princesses to get sick. Having acquired the normal tools for the tale before reaching the castle, he volunteers to try to solve the mystery after all the princes who tried and failed died on their ways home, and the princesses themselves became more ill and miserable.
Galen is nice and resourceful and heroic without being annoyingly so, and does a good job o straddling the line between being motivated because it’s the right thing to do, and being motivated because he likes the girl. His scenes with the youngest princess, Pansy, are also almost too adorable. Because there are twelve of them, the princesses don’t really get a chance to be as developed, but what we do get is pretty good. Only a few (primarily Rose and Pansy get a chance to stand out as characters, but all get enough room to get to be distinct in one way or another.
I’ve always liked the tale, though, because it’s a tired old soldier and a spinster princess, so reading about them as teenagers does cause the story to lose a bit of its charm for me. It’s still pretty enjoyable, though. One other thing is that Galen knits (knitting used to be a “men only” thing) and this becomes an important aspect of the story in interesting ways.
*This resulted in a romance that initially largely consisted of him staring longingly up at her window and her pretending not to stare longingly down. At 15, I would have thought it the most romantic thing ever. At 28, I was really hoping they’d also do some actual talking. Thankfully, they did.