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Wildwood Dancing

Click Here To Purchase From Amazon Wildwood Dancing

Author: Juliet Marillier

ISBN: 9780375833649

Wildwood Dancing follows the lives of five sisters in medieval Transylvania, as seen through the eyes of middle sister Jena. Unknown to their doting father the five girls, each month on the night of the full moon, leave their cozy bedroom in the castle to travel to the Other Kingdom. The girls spend each full moon dancing through the night with the fairies and other fey creatures of this enchanted realm. But the girls fairytale existence is suddenly shattered. Night creatures have been allowed to dance as the festivities, and the oldest sister falls in love with one of them. While Jena tries to convince her sister that only tragedy can follow such a relationship the girls Father falls ill while traveling far away. Suddenly the girls find themselves under the care of their brutish cousin Cezar. Besides controlling their day to day lives Cezar has a fanatical hatred of the Other Kingdom and has sworn to destroy it if possible.

Before reading Wildwood Dancing I was already familiar with the award winning fantasy novels of Juliet Marillier. I'm happy to say that Wildwood Dancing, her first young adult novel, is as entertaining as her adult books. Marillier combines several traditional fairy tales with a big dose of imagination in Wildwood, and the result is a book that both adults and teens will love to read. The fairytale aspect of it creates some endearing characters and pulls you right into the story,  but the more mature themes of the book (true love, good vs. evil) is what keeps you reading on. From a historical perspective the book is engrossing simply for taking place in rural Transylvania and including so much of the countries folklore in the overall plot. It is a rare whimsical look at the unique mythology of the region that most people know simply for its ties to vampire stories.

The book has a few unforeseen plot twists, though overall many readers, adult and young adult alike, may find it a bit predictable (to be fair most fairytales are, aren’t they?) but the beautiful story of Jena and her sisters is engrossing enough to make up for it. Wildwood Dancing is another fine book by the author of The Bridei Chronicles    

The above review was contributed by: Renee Mallett:  Renee is a  published journalist, reviewer, and creative writer, freelance editor, and author of several non-fiction books. To read more of Renee's reviews CLICK HERE 

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