Entwined by Heather Dixon

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.

LOVED this retelling of the twelve dancing princesses. I wasn't sure I would because I LOVE Jessica Day's George's book. There is room for both.
Azalea is the oldest princess in a poor kingdom. Her mother dies and makes Azalea promise to watch over her eleven other sisters. Their castle has a bit of magic left over from the reign of one of the kings.
The girls love dance because it is a connection to their mother who taught them to dance and so the girls love to dance. But they aren't allowed to dance during mourning. Azalea tries to keep their spirits up by secretly dancing in the ballroom but someone catches them and stops it. The author adds tons of different dances and steps that I don't know so I skimmed these parts.
Enter Mr. Keeper who isn't dead but isn't alive and isn't a zombie either.  Thanks to the leftover magic, the princesses can dance on Mr. Keepers pavilion every night. Unknown to them, he exacts a price.
Entwined has mystery and romance as well as a great story and characters.


Rating: PG
L: None
V: Fighting; scary dead guy
S: Kissing


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"...beaming from learning a new step, or how to balance on just their toes, or when Azalea tucked them into bed, their cheeks flushed and smiling.
"Sometimes i wake up," Flora said one morning, "And I wonder if it's even real."
"If feels like a dream, "Goldenrod agreed, sleepily.
Mornings came much too early, and after the girls had groggily dressed, they stumbled to breakfast late. They mended slippers over their porridge, or in the afternoons in the cool cellar. The slippers became more tattered each day, and Azalea had to back them with extra fabric from old tablecloths, because the satin frayed so. They couldn't last much longer, Azalea knew, but she would sew her fingers raw to make them do. She had to immerse herself in the silver forest, in the dancing, if only for on more night.
And though she wouldn't dare admit it to anyone, she wanted to see Mr. Keeper again.
He hardly ever spoke to her or any of them, other than to welcome, bow them in, and wish them a good night when they left, but the essence of him lingered. When Azalea spun, spotting her head as her skirts billowed around her, she could swear she glimpsed his midnight eyes watching through the lattice, or at the entrance, but when she turned about again, she saw only rosebuds. his sleek movements mesmerized her, and she..."