A review by reynoldsreads
Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier

adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

4.5

Twelve Dancing Princesses mixed with the Frog Prince and vampires!

Jena’s father is departing for warmer climes for the winter to recover from his illness, leaving Jena and her four sisters to look after their Transylvanian castle, Piscul Dracului, on their own. Luckily, due to their father’s unorthodox methods of raising them, the girls are more than capable of taking care of business matters as well as housekeeping and running the estate. And although they will miss their father terribly, his absence will make it a lot easier for them to hide their secret trips to the Other Kingdom to dance the night away with the Fair Folk.

But their neighbour and cousin, Cezar, sees things differently: as an excuse to seize control of Piscul Dracului and an opportunity to destroy the Other World in revenge for the death of his older brother ten years ago. And with the arrival of the mysterious Night People at the monthly revelries, Jena has her hands full trying to prevent both her worlds from collapsing.

There is so much to love in this book! The fairytale magic woven into Transylvanian folklore made for such an interesting and intricate world filled with a wide variety of characters (perhaps bordering on too many?) that laid the foundation for a rich, fantastical, gripping story. I will say, though, that I wish we had gotten a lot more closure at the end, because it felt like some of the storylines dropped off or tied up rather abruptly after so much build-up. Still, I would definitely recommend this one!