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The Princess Curse

by Merrie Haskell (Goodreads Author)

3.86 of 5 stars 3.86 · rating details · 1,307 ratings · 307 reviews

In the tradition of Gail Carson Levine, Karen Cushman, and Shannon Hale comes a magical debut that weaves favorite fairy tale elements into a fabulous new story starring an irrepressible heroine.

Hardcover, 328 pages

Published September 6th 2011 by HarperCollins

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Jun 22, 2011 Rae added it

Reveka is a delightful heroine whose observations made me laugh out loud. Wonderful, detailed world-building. The tension and plot build slowly and steadily, which worked fine for me, and I hope younger readers will give it the chance it deserves because it pays off. This book does one of my very favorite things, which is to introduce an unsympathetic secondary, who through deft characterization, I gradually learn to respect and even like.

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Mar 25, 2013 Misty rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: retelling, folklore-myth-fable-fairy-tall-tale, juvenile-ya, cover-appeal, own, michigander, signed, dragons, historical, sci_fi-fantasy, read-in-2013

Initially: I realized today at work that I wouldn't be coming home and reading this today because I finished it last night, and that made me sad. There is no surer sign of a 5-star book for me, so yeah, I friggin loved this.

Review:

I feel like I've been talking about this book non-stop for all of 2013. And really...I kind of have. Every now and then there are books that come along that you expect to like, and hope to love, and that is enough. But sometimes, you pick up a book, and you're pretty c...more

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Jul 03, 2011 Laura rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011-mt-bookpile

What a great blending of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" and "Beauty and the Beast"! Set in Sylvania, an Eastern European country places near the borders of Turkey, Moldova, Hungary and Transylvania, Reveka's life has changed from studying in a convent to being the herbalist's apprentice in a castle. Here, she tries to win the dowry promised by the Prince to the one who solves the curse his daughters are under: why do they have bloody, blistered feet every morning, why do those that see them at...more

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Aug 09, 2011 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: jfantasy, 2011-copyright, j-fiction

A mix of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, Beauty and the Beast, Sleeping Beauty, and Greek mythology - all set in Eastern Europe at the time of Vlad the Impaler. And it works! Good for 5th/6th grade fans of Karen Cushman and Gail Carson Levine

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Feb 18, 2013 Shanshad Whelan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Another take on the 12 dancing princesses with a little of beauty and the beast and Persephone thrown in. The beginning part of the story is fascinating and I was really enjoying tracking our young protagonists adventure . . . then at a point about two thirds the way through everything suddenly shifted and the bottom seemed to fall out of the story. I have to wonder if this is the first book in a series, since the whole thing felt . . . unfinished at the end.

I liked a lot about this one . . . bu...more

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Mar 30, 2013 Yune rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult-fantasy, fairy-tale, mythology

I have broken my own curse of mediocre YA fantasy!

I avoided this one for a while because it was described for me as "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" set in Romania. This is not a particularly favorite fairy tale of mine, and (like many fairy tales) it has been retold to death without much original variation.

I wish the Romanian bit had been emphasized more than the fairy tale. Even before the story begins, a brief glossary (with 8 terms) is presented with definitions such as:

zmeu (dzmeh-you): in a

...more I have broken my own curse of mediocre YA fantasy!

I avoided this one for a while because it was described for me as "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" set in Romania. This is not a particularly favorite fairy tale of mine, and (like many fairy tales) it has been retold to death without much original variation.

I wish the Romanian bit had been emphasized more than the fairy tale. Even before the story begins, a brief glossary (with 8 terms) is presented with definitions such as:

zmeu (dzmeh-you): in addition to being a type of dragon with a humanoid shape, zmeu is also the Romanian word for "kite" (as a kite flies like a dragon)

Not only was this intriguing, but some mix of the heroine and the writing snared me on the second page, though:

Armas, maybe, I could lie to. Armas, maybe, I could trick into mercy. But with Pa, there would be no chance to lie. Or even to stretch the truth into a pleasing shape.

Reveka is an herbalist's apprentice in the castle where the princesses mysteriously have holes in their slippers every morning, although they're securely locked in a tower every night. As Reveka puts it exasperatedly, "It's a curse of shoes and naps."

The dangerous part of the curse is that people who try to figure out what's happening to the princesses at night end up either falling asleep--permanently--or disappearing entirely. At first Reveka's interested in earning the dowry promised to the solver of the curse (she wants to buy her way into a convent, where she can run her own herbery), but when people she cares about start slipping under the curse's collateral damage, she becomes determined to help them. It's a pair of rather practical and then emotional motivations that I appreciated, in place of the empty valor of some dutiful prince. You see other characters change too, and show surprising depth.

Reveka's skills with herbs play a large part in the story, and they were integrated quite seamlessly, I thought. Even when the story veers away from fairy tale and into myth, her character and abilities held so true that I didn't feel disoriented at all, just delighted to see how she would manage in a different set of circumstances. I'll just say that the Greek gods are invoked in a spell not for mere color.

I was quite happy with the first half of the book, even though it looked to be on track as your usual medieval fantasy, and delighted with the second half and how it raised tumult with various assumptions made in the first. I've read on the author's website that she'd like to pursue a sequel, which I'll look forward to, but I found this book quite enjoyable by itself.(less)

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Oct 21, 2012 AnonymousBookCritics rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, female-protagonist, humorous-at-times, mg, mystery, fairy-tale-remix

5 stars
Originally Reviewed 4/30/12

Twelve princesses suffer from a puzzling—and downright silly—curse. Ridiculous though the curse may be, whoever breaks it will win a handsome reward.

Sharp-witted Reveka, an herbalist’s apprentice, has little use for princesses, with their snooty attitudes and impractical clothing. She does, however, have use for the reward money, which could be her a position as a master herbalist.

But curses don’t like to be broken, and Reveka’s efforts lead her to deeper myster...more 5 stars
Originally Reviewed 4/30/12

Twelve princesses suffer from a puzzling—and downright silly—curse. Ridiculous though the curse may be, whoever breaks it will win a handsome reward.

Sharp-witted Reveka, an herbalist’s apprentice, has little use for princesses, with their snooty attitudes and impractical clothing. She does, however, have use for the reward money, which could be her a position as a master herbalist.

But curses don’t like to be broken, and Reveka’s efforts lead her to deeper mysteries. As she struggles to understand the curse, she meets a shadowy stranger (as charming as he is unsettling) and discovers a blighted land in desperate need of healing. Soon the irreverent apprentice is faced with a daunting choice—will she break the curse at the peril of her own soul?

Enchanting and funny, Merrie Haskell’s debut novel is part “The Twelve Dancing Princesses,” part “Beauty and the Beast,” and wholly original.

This is probably one of the better blurbs I’ve seen so far. Right away it tells you which fairytale you’re going to mainly be dealing with while acknowledging how silly the premise of it is. The story itself however is far from silly. The princesses are cursed to dance all night, but the real world keeps moving, the princes in other countries that they’re betrothed to won’t marry them because of the curse (the one time they tried to marry a princess off, her husband-to-be fell into a coma-like state that he could not be woken from). In fact, there is an entire chamber in the castle FULL of people that have tried to break the curse, that have hid away in the princesses’ chambers to see what happens, that are unconscious and slowly dying. Not to mention war is practically on their doorstep as their small country is right in between two larger, more powerful ones.

And that’s all in just the first 1/3 of the book, before Reveka even gets a chance to really figure out what’s going on, find the source of the curse and then try to fix it. I agree that it’s part Twelve Dancing Princesses, part Beauty and the Beast, but there is also a fair amount of Persephone’s tale thrown in there as well, and it all works beautifully.

Read the entire review HERE.(less)

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Oct 03, 2012 Lauren rated it 3 of 5 stars

What’s with all the books with cliffhanger endings that don’t mention they’re the first in a series? This is the third or fourth book I’ve read in the last year that goes “oh, and, while we’re on the last page, just in case you thought everything was going to be resolved – no, here’s a bombshell!” I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: as a reader, I want to know if I’m signing up for a book or a series. It’s like Gilligan’s Island, only the Skipper and Gilligan knew it wasn’t going to be a...more

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Oct 03, 2012 Monica! rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012, you-go-girl, how-all-stories-should-begin, the-sparkles-mean-its-magic, ust-ftw, hark-a-questing-beast, i-love-you-for-your-cover, skin-of-a-killer, youre-not-from-around-here

Okay guys, you know me. I loathe books that set themselves up for sequels. Or trilogies. Or I WILL JUST WRITE UNTIL I HAVE WRUNG EVERY LAST PENNY OUT OF THE DEEP BROODING VAMPIRE LOVER GENRE.

But this book needs a sequel and there doesn’t appear to be a sequel and my soul is weeping.

Weeping, I tell you.

Because this was a really solid, really enjoyable book! And even though it was this crazed mishmash of stories—The Twelve Dancing Princesses, Hades and Persephone, Beauty and the Beast—everything...more

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Sep 07, 2012 Barbara Gordon rated it 4 of 5 stars

The story is based on the Twelve Dancing Princesses. Haskell has set it in 'Sylvania', an invented country wedged in with Transylvania, Romania, Moravia and so on, and has made decent use of the history, folklore and culture. Our heroine is a 13 yr old herbalist's apprentice, daughter to a mercenary soldier who has served under Vlad Tepes and others. Her father, an expert in sapping (digging under fortifications), has been hired by the prince.
The princesses are a mixed lot, legitimate and illegi...more

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Jul 29, 2012 Fell4 rated it 3 of 5 stars

Recommended to Fell4 by: Hannah

Shelves: library-read, a-type-of-fantasy-subtrope, retelling

I want to know what comes next. To me, the whole first half of the book--not three fourths of the book!--were not doing anything for the plot and little for the characters. I dislike how the author introduces characters only to basically throw them away and not develop the characters fully. To be fair, the author came up with very interesting, deep, and (at least simi-)deep characters. THAT'S WHAT MAKES ME SO MAD! I like those characters and want to know more about them! Please don't introduce t...more

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Jul 18, 2012 Lisa rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult, ya-2011, tag-2012-13

Reveka is a thirteen year old apprenticed to an herbalist in the Eastern European land of Sylvania. Her father is in the employ of the Prince who has a big problem. Although he has twelve daughters, he has no male heir and this no line of succession making him politically vulnerable. Additionally, his twelve daughters have been cursed and mysteriously appear each morning in tattered, often bloody, slippers. Any one who has attempted to follow the princesses to decipher the curse ends up in a per...more

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Jun 13, 2012 Kendra rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is more of a JH book than YA, but I'm trying to branch out and read more things for younger audiences. Okay, so I have already read 3 other books that deal with the premise of 12 princesses cursed to dance all night (the story itself is a classic Grimm's fairy tale. The other titles I've read are Princess of the Midnight Ball, Entwined, and Wildwood Dancing though there are only 5 girls that time)so I wasn't sure what to make of another book with the same idea. However, this is a completely...more

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May 31, 2012 Simcha Lazarus rated it 4 of 5 stars

Two popular fairy tales are seamlessly blended into one charming and magical story in The Princess Curse.

Thirteen year- old Reveka is new to the kingdom of Sylvania where she is apprenticed to the local herbalist while her father works at the palace. Shortly after her arrival Reveka learns about the Prince's daughters, who are under a mysterious curse that leaves their feet bloody and blistered each morning. No one know what goes on each night behind the locked doors to princess's rooms and anyo...more
Two popular fairy tales are seamlessly blended into one charming and magical story in The Princess Curse.

Thirteen year- old Reveka is new to the kingdom of Sylvania where she is apprenticed to the local herbalist while her father works at the palace. Shortly after her arrival Reveka learns about the Prince's daughters, who are under a mysterious curse that leaves their feet bloody and blistered each morning. No one know what goes on each night behind the locked doors to princess's rooms and anyone who attempts to find out ends up in a deep sleep from which they never wake up, except for those who disappear completely. Many princes have arrived in Sylvanie in the hope of breaking the curse and marrying a princess, but they are never heard from again, leading to political tension and distrust between the kingdoms.

When Reveka learns about the generous reward being offered to whoever can break the spell, she becomes determined to be the one to accomplish this challenge. With the money from the reward Reveka can gain some independence and build an herbary of her very own. Though when Reveka discovers that her friend's mother is one of the sleepers, and that she will die if not awakened soon, her struggle to find the cure takes on a new urgency. Reveka will do whatever it takes to save the lives of the innocent bystanders caught up in the spell, even if it means sacrificing herself to the frightening creature behind it all.

If you haven't already guessed it, The Princess Curse is a retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, with a young girl as the protagonist. For the most part, the story stays true to the original fairy-tale, until Reveka solves the mystery, at which point some elements of Beauty and the Beast creep in. The combination works well together though due to Revek's young age there is only a hint of romance and the promise that it will develop more fully once Reveka is a bit older.

I'm not usually tempted into reading Middle Grade books but I just couldn't resist trying this one out when I saw it at the library, and I'm glad that I did. Even though it was a bit younger in tone than what I usually read I didn't have any trouble getting caught up in the story and I fully enjoyed spending time with its smart and feisty heroine.

Once I finished The Princess Curse I rushed online to see if the sequel was available yet but unfortunately it seems that it's not even a work in progress. This was very disappointing as The Princess Curse begs for a sequel and I'm really looking forward to meeting an older Reveka, and for that promised romance...

But Ms. Haskell does have another book scheduled to be released next year which takes place in the same world and which has a very enticing title, Handbook for Dragon Slayers. It sounds like fun, and given how much I enjoyed The Princess Cure, I will undoubtedly be picking it up.(less)

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May 22, 2012 Kathryn rated it 5 of 5 stars

I LOVED this book.
I picked it up expecting yet another slight and amusing riff on the theme of girl-with-21st-century-attitude-stars-in-retelling-of-classic-fairytale-set-in-unspecified-yet-still-annoyingly-historically-inaccurate-medieval-kingdom.

Instead, I was blown away by Merrie Haskell's impeccably realised and researched world - the 15th century principality of Sylvania, (a country so convincing I was quite shocked to discover in the Author's Notes that she made it up!)whose Price - lackin...more I LOVED this book.
I picked it up expecting yet another slight and amusing riff on the theme of girl-with-21st-century-attitude-stars-in-retelling-of-classic-fairytale-set-in-unspecified-yet-still-annoyingly-historically-inaccurate-medieval-kingdom.

Instead, I was blown away by Merrie Haskell's impeccably realised and researched world - the 15th century principality of Sylvania, (a country so convincing I was quite shocked to discover in the Author's Notes that she made it up!)whose Price - lacking an heir and desperate for alliances to preserve his country's independence from it's rapacious neighbours - is prevented from marrying off his twelve daughters by a very inconvenient curse which not only causes them to wear their shoes to rags each night, but responds to any attempt to separate or remove the princesses from their tower bedroom with floods and earthquakes.

Enter apprentice herbalist and accomplished liar Reveka, a commoner recently transplanted to Castle Sylvian by her father, an ex-soldier. (Nice allusion to the Brothers' Grimm Twelve Dancing Princesses there.)Reveka's interest in the princesses' curse is at first solely motivated by the reward money, (which will buy her the chance to one day run her own herbary) but once she discovers the princesses' aren't the curse's only victims she becomes increasingly determined to break it, especially once she realises that the peace and stability of her new home rests on discovering the princesses' secret.
However, there are no easy fixes here and freeing the pricesses from their nights of dancing results in anything but a happy-ever-after.

This book was excellent in so many ways, but the best thing for me was that Merrie Haskell has that great and rare gift of knowing her world so well that she DOESN'T FEEL THE NEED TO EXPLAIN EVERYTHING. The characters know their own stories, customs and history, so we, the reader don't have to, and, while this book resolved the mystery of the princess's curse, Haskell has left many tantalising loose ends and unexplained mysteries, (amongst them the back-story of her gorgeously sympathetic Demon King) leaving me in desperate hope for a sequel.
In the meantime, I'll have to resort to googling Romanian fairy tales.

(less)

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May 15, 2012 Jim rated it 4 of 5 stars

The story is set in the fifteenth century in the fictional Romanian kingdom of Sylvania. Reveka is an apprentice herbalist, though thanks to her studies, she’s as skilled and knowledgeable as her master, if not moreso. She’s determined to break the curse on the twelve princesses and use the reward money to gain a position as an herbalist for an entire abbey.

For those unfamiliar with the fairy tale, the twelve princesses disappear every night, returning in the morning exhausted, their shoes worn...more

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Apr 10, 2012 Jill Furedy rated it 5 of 5 stars

This one leapt right to the top of my picks for young readers...of which I am not one. Way too old for this stuff, but I loved it anyway! I had seen this title mentioned a couple of times, and as I love fairy tales and the 12 dancing princesses story was a favorite growing up, I had to read this one. I wasn't expecting what I got. When I opened it to a glossary of Romanian words, I realized there was going to be a lot more to the fairy tale I knew. A little further into the book, I realized thi...more

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Feb 10, 2012 BAYA Librarian rated it 4 of 5 stars

Although Reveka has only been an apprentice herbalist at Castle Sylvania for a few weeks, she is already determined to break the mysterious curse that plagues the king’s daughters each night. After all, she can use the reward to buy her own herbary at any convent in the world. But as she investigates the conditions of the spell, Reveka must decide how much she is willing to sacrifice in order to do so. This twist on the classic Twelve Dancing Princesses tale begins by casting a female protagonis...more

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Jan 30, 2012 Lisa Rathbun rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was an enjoyable take on the fairy tale "The Twelve Dancing Princesses" with a nod to "Beauty and the Beast" as well. I liked the main character a lot, and some of the images were very arresting, like what the sleepers do every night. At times the story did seem to move slowly, but the fairy-tale lover like me will be more than willing to keep reading in order to find out what's happening. Also, I was disappointed that the princesses were not very likeable with one exception. I prefer a ver...more

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Jan 17, 2012 Jessica Rosenzweig rated it 5 of 5 stars

i loved this book with all my wealthy being,
its about a girl who is a herbal apprentice and she is 14, so she isnt old enough to get married yet....she does.....she meets the lord of the underworld and he falls in love with her, in exasperation, he says that he will kill her pa, but she offers him herself, as his underworld bride, so he takes he to his castle in hopes that she will be comfortable, well she isnt, and she isnt his true queen until she eats some of his food, well she isnt sure t...more

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Dec 30, 2011 Nightmist rated it 4 of 5 stars

To tell you the truth I loved it. It was really amaizing, great plot. It obsorbed me till the end. But I wasnt too fond of the way it ended... Dont get me wrong, it was a good way to end it, I mean normally these kind of books end with "... and they lived happily ever after". or something similar. But I thought it ended too abruptly, many things that were introduced in the book either, just dissapered without explanation or do not finish their story. For example: After Reveka found out that King...more

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Oct 31, 2011 Brooke Johnson rated it 4 of 5 stars

The Princess Curse is a fantastic read, mixing the fairy tales “The Twelve Dancing Princesses” and “Beauty and the Beast” and a little bit of “Sleeping Beauty”, complete with dragons, underworld princes, and a nation on the verge of war. I love reimagined fairy tales, so I knew I would enjoy this book when I first heard of it. And the best part is the fact the main character is not anyone particularly important. She’s not a princess, or a warrior, or a witch. She’s an herbalist.

Reveka is a thirt...more

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Oct 24, 2011 Rachel Neumeier rated it 5 of 5 stars

Okay, full disclosure: I know the author.

But!

What I did not know when I ordered her novel, which just came out (at last!), is that it’s a Twelve Dancing Princesses retelling and a Beauty and the Beast retelling (to a lesser extent, though). What a great idea! I wish I’d thought of that! Plus, if she’d asked me to name my two favorite fairy tales, well, there they are. (Really. My favorite version prior to this was Robin McKinley’s short retelling in The Door in the Hedge.)

Plus the Eastern Europe...more

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Oct 11, 2011 Sara rated it 5 of 5 stars

The Princess Curse by Merrie Haskell is a retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses with a few other tales sprinkled in. Reveka a herbalist's apprentice is determined to solve the silly curse of the castle that makes the princesses ruin their dancing slippers nightly. Revka wants the prize money from solving the mystery so that she can buy herself a place in a convent so she can become a herbalist. Revka soon finds that the curse is not as silly as she once thought and is swept into a world she...more

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Oct 06, 2011 Jaime Lee rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2011, ya, witches-magic, like-a-fairy-tale, fantasy

"The Princess Curse" is a wonderful tale that mixes old school fairy tales with mythology and modern wit. The heroine of the story is Reveka, a young apprentice who enters into a kingdom where the 12 princesses of the castle have been cursed by sleeplessness and shoes that are forever wearing through each night. This is a direct parallel to the Grimm fairy tale that is easily recognizable. However, since the mystery of the curse is uncovered from Reveka's perspective, it has a fresh feeling. Mor...more

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Aug 23, 2011 Trishnyc rated it 4 of 5 stars

I picked this up expecting a quick, easy and light read. Instead, I got a surprisingly well thought out and interesting story that pulled together different fairy tales and did it very well.

Thirteen year old Reveka is a herbalist apprentice who has set herself the task of curing the silly curse on the twelve princesses. Every morning, the princesses wake up exhausted, shoes in tatters yet seeming not to have left their room. No one can figure out why this happens and though many have tried to fi...more I picked this up expecting a quick, easy and light read. Instead, I got a surprisingly well thought out and interesting story that pulled together different fairy tales and did it very well.

Thirteen year old Reveka is a herbalist apprentice who has set herself the task of curing the silly curse on the twelve princesses. Every morning, the princesses wake up exhausted, shoes in tatters yet seeming not to have left their room. No one can figure out why this happens and though many have tried to figure it out, they have been rewarded by being put into a deep sleep that slowly kills them. Reveka is new to the town and because of this does not harbor the prerequisite fear and dread the situation requires. All she cares about is breaking the curse so she can get the huge reward being offered by the Prince to free his daughters from their fate.

But as Reveka begins to understand the nature of the princesses' ailment, she realizes that this is a much bigger problem than she had expected. Along the way, she discovers friendships, loyalty and the depths of sacrifice she never knew she was capable of. She begins to grow from a girl who is only interested in the reward because it will allow her to escape her current life, into one that that truly cares about the town and its inhabitants. When her friend gets poisoned and ends up in the deep sleep, Reveka furiously races to find an answer to the puzzle.

As much as I enjoyed this book, I did begin to notice a pacing problem after chapter 22. The story became slow moving and though somewhat interesting information was being passed on, I did not find it as compelling as the first half. Also the end of the book was not very satisfying. I wanted to see a clear picture of what would happen to this remarkable girl. There was an attempt at a resolution but one that would only be okay if there is another book to follow. In fact, I am really hoping that is the case cause I want to see what happens with Reveka.

I'm not sure I would recommend this book to anyone younger than fifteen because there are some themes here that seem a bit more mature than the ten and up recommendation that the back of the book suggests. For example, the prince having illegitimate daughters and the way he acquires these illegitimate daughters seems a tad mature for this age group.

I really enjoyed meeting and getting to know Reveka.

**Review copy received from Amazon.com's Vine Program.
(less)

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Aug 16, 2011 Melissa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fairy-tale-retelling, favorites, forced-arranged-accident-marriage

Wow I can't believe my luck.When I picked this up from vine I didn't have high hopes. I thought this would be a sweet retelling of a classic fairy-tale simple and to the point. I got a book I couldn't put down and a world I was drawn into and a character I admired and loved! Granted I am a lover of fairy-tale retelling.This is much more then one fairy-tale and the book is not even done. It came to a nice conclusion but I need the rest! I don't want to wait! I couldn't believe this was a first ti...more

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Jun 29, 2011 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 5th-grade, 6th-grade, junior-high, girl-main-character, loss-of-parent, fantasy, fairy-tale-retelling, mythological-influence, romance, medieval-era-high-fantasy, self-discovery

Very impressive blending of the Grimms' tale of the twelve dancing princesses, the Greek myth of Persephone going into the underworld, and the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale. Reveka has just entered into service as an herbalist's apprentice in Castle Sylvian, and is determined to break the curse upon Prince Vasile's twelve daughters, whose shoes are in tatters every morning as if they have been dancing all night. I loved the pacing and tone of the beginning of the book, set at Castle Sylvian, a...more

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Jun 14, 2011 Kristen Jorgensen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mock-newbery-2012

3.5 to 4 stars

This book is a great rendition of the 12 dancing princesses, and I found it rather original. Even if it reminded me quite a bit of Princess of the Midnight Ball by Jessica Day George. Truth be known I prefer George's version a little better, but this story is not without its own twists in tale, by taking a detour from the traditional fairy tale with a change in perspective and story involving a tiny bit of the ever popular one-girl-in-love-with-two-perfect-men plot mingled, a littl...more

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Apr 13, 2013 Abigail rated it 5 of 5 stars

A retelling--although it's more than just that--of "The Twelve Dancing Princesses," an old fairy tale which seems to be enjoying something of a vogue in the past few years. This one is from a non-princess/enchanted dancer viewpoint. Princess of the Midnight Ball, by Jessica Day George (published in 2009), and Entwined, by Heather Dixon (like Haskell's book, published in 2011) are some other recent retellings of this story. Wildwood Dancing, by Juliet Marillier (published in 2007) also has elemen...more

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Quotes from The Princess Curse

“Stay in the boat, I told myself, watching them walk up to the pavilion. I'll just stay in the boat. I won't go anywhere near that creature.
But in spite of that wise warning, I climbed out of the boat.
Fine, stretch your legs, I told myself. Just don't follow them.
But of course, I followed them.
You are without question your own worst enemy, I scolded myself, even as I tiptoed after them.” — 15 people liked it

“Did I never explain to you about love, Reva?' Pa asked. I gave him a look, and he laughed uncomfortably. 'I guess not. Let me put it in a way you'll understand. Love is like stinging nettles. Only they prick from the inside out, starting at your heart and bursting on around. It's worse when it gets here'--he rubbed the bridge of his nose--'then your vision goes a little strange. But eventually the nettles stop stinging--once she agrees to kiss you. But they start right back up again when she agrees to marry you--'
'Pa,' I interrupted, 'that's not love, that's fear.'
Pa shook his head, looking off admiringly in the direction where Lacrimora had disappeared. 'Same thing, in my case.” — 9 people liked it

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title link	preview: The Princess Curse
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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9588207-the-princess-curse?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1299897431l/9588207.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9588207-the-princess-curse?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Princess Curse by Merrie Haskell[/url]

The Princess Curse

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