I have just found my favorite book of the year. Granted, we’ve still got twenty-one days to go until the year is over, but a book would have to bend over backwards to please me more than “Wildwood Dancing” did. Think, the twelve dancing princesses, the frog prince, and “Twilight,” all mixed up in one, and you’ll have a pretty good idea what this book is about.
Jena is the second sister of five. Her oldest sister, Tatiana, is lovely, as is her next youngest sister, Iulia, but Jena herself is rather plain, with bushy hair that never will stay in control. She has a pet frog and can hear his thoughts, and this is another mark against her, in society’s eyes. But she doesn’t care anything about society.
She and her sisters have a secret. Every full moon, they go through a portal in their bedroom and visit the Otherworld. There they dance with dwarves, gnomes and fairies, to return home near dawn, exhausted. But one night, things change when the Night People attend the party. Rumored to live on the blood of other living things, they are ghostly white and enigmatic. Tatiana is drawn toward a tall thin young man named Sorrow, even though Jena does everything in her power to keep her sister from spending time with him.
Meanwhile, back at home, the girls’ father has gone away on a healing vacation, hoping a change of air will cure the disease that ails him. Cousin Cezar has taken over the accounts and soon the household, ruling with an iron fist the girls can’t shake. When he announces his plan to cut down the forests surrounding the house and ruin the homes belonging to the Fair Folk, Jena knows she must go to the Otherworld and warn her friends, but with Cezar watching, how will she be able to do it? And when will her father come home and make everything right again?
This book has a great plot, wonderful characters, two incredible romances, and a conclusion that will make you sigh. If you like fantasy, if you like vampire stories, if you like well-written fiction, this one’s for you.
(This book was published in 2007 by Alfred A. Knopf.)
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