Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier

genre: young adult fantasy

I love retold fairy tales that twist many old stories into one new one. In Wildwood, we meet Jena who goes out dancing with her sisters in another world, a world that she trusts but whose power is deeper and farther reaching than she can imagine. Set in the deep forest of Transylvania, Jena feels responsible for the safety of her sisters and the creatures of the wood when suddenly everything she loves seems to be at stake.

So, I started listening to this one last summer, on a long drive to and from Chicago, but when my ipod died a sad death, I was stuck in the middle of the story. For some reason, I wasn't grabbed enough by the beginning to rush out and get a copy to know how it ended. That's really the reason it gets 4 stars instead of five.

When I finally got my hands on a copy of the book, I was glad that I finished it. I love that I listened to part of it first, because I knew how to pronounce all the wonderful names and places - the heady Romanian influence over the whole story makes it feel dark and mysterious, which I liked. Fairy Folk and Night People are different sides of the same coin and when you meddle with one, you meddle with the other, with sometimes disastrous results. Jena is a character with a lot to learn and her stubborn pride makes for some tough decisions and not a little bit of hard-earned humility.

True love. Mysterious castles. Frog friends. Sisterly love. I enjoyed this read muchly. (if you want to know how to pronounce those wonderful names, go to the glossary in the back before you start reading, you'll be glad you did!).