Princess of the Silver Woods (Princess, #3)

Princess of the Silver Woods
Jessica Day George
336 pages
Release: December 11, 2012
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Source: NetGalley
★★★★☆

You can read the Goodreads summary here.

Princess Petunia, the youngest of twelve sisters, is about to head out on a journey to visit a friend but to do so she must pass through the woods where some "wolves" are rumored to be around, stealing from the wealthy.  When Petunia does finally make it to her destination, she realizes she's not there for a friendly visit; it turns out she was summoned by an enemy determined to reinstate an old curse.

This is going to be a short review, because when I found this title on NetGalley I didn't realize is was the third book in a trilogy.  This wasn't a problem at the beginning of the novel, when I felt confident i knew what was going on.  I really, really enjoyed the first half of the novel.  But in the second half, Petunia's sisters are (re)introduced and I knew nothing about them and their back story from the first two novels.  It left me a little confused, but this is entirely my fault.  Princess of the Silver Woods was extremely well-written and enchanting.

Jessica Day George does a great job with world building in this novel.  The series is based off the fairytale The Twelve Dancing Princesses, which is one of the best fairytales, in my opinion, to retell.  George's world is filled with kingdoms and stately characters, which are great fun to read about.  There was also a little hint of Robin Hood and Little Red Riding Hood, as well.  Really, if you're all about fairytale retellings, this would be a great series for you to pick up.

Four stars!  If the first two novels in this series are as enchanting as Princess of the Silver Woods was, I just may have to go back and pick those up.  If you're interested in this book, I highly recommend starting with the first two in the series so you've got the whole backstory in mind.  And look at the covers, they're so pretty!