Princess of Glass (Twelve Dancing Princesses)

Had I not received this book during the last week of school, it's quite likely that I would not have been able to read it for months, because my students would have taken it from me by force and refused to return it. (Honestly, they nearly came to blows when they saw it on my desk). My girls that read Gossip Girls wanted it just as much as the girls who read Warriors, which is, I think, saying something. And having read the book, I'm happy to say that my students' anticipation would have been rewarded with a fine read.Princess of Glass is more a companion that a sequel to Princess of the Midnight Ball; though some of the characters are the same, the story is brand new. Freed from the curse of the King Under Stone, Princess Poppy and her sisters have each been sent to a different kingdom to foster peace between the nations. Poppy has been sent to Breton to stay with relatives, including her cousin Marianne. Prince Christian of Danelaw has also been sent to Breton, and along with Dickon Thwaite, Marianne's suitor, the four young people become fast friends. Another force is at work, however, and when a beautiful young woman in glass slippers appears at a ball and entices all the men, Poppy will be forced to use both her knitting needles and her dancing slippers to save her new friends.Jessica Day George has again rewritten a fairy tale and made it into something new and entirely refreshing. The elements of the original are all there, but the result is fresh instead of predictable. The characters, especially Poppy, are delightful, and my students will like this book as much as I did. I doubt this book will spend a single night in my classroom once school starts in the fall. Fortunately, Princess Poppy has many more unwed sisters. I can't wait to read their stories.

Audience: YAGenre: Fantasy, Fairy Tale RetellingLength: 272 pgsRating: *****Review: Princess at the Midnight Ball had been on my list for a while and I read it almost two years ago without realizing there were more! PRINCESS OF GLASS came on sale for Kindle about a week ago, so I went over and bought it. I loved it even more than the first one. I loved how Poppy was strong and capable and smart, how she figured stuff out and connected things logically! And yet she's so fabulously flawed too. Perfect. Again, while the main characters like Poppy and Prince Christian are fantastic, the side characters really shine too. Dickon, Marianne, Roger, and Elanora all come together to make the book amazing. One reviewer complained about Elanora's story taking over the main plot, but I disagree. All the plots and subplots worked perfectly together.Try this. If you like fairy tales, read one of my favorite Shannon Hale books, FOREST BORN, the 4th Book of Bayern.Read this review and more at [...]

Another sweet fairy tale retelling by Jessica Day George. This one is Cinderella, but the fairy godmother is not quite so benevolent, and "Cinderella" is not quite as easy to label as she is in the fairy tale. Princess of Glass focuses on Poppy who has traveled to another country in order to foster better relations between the kingdoms of this world. There is some sort of plan to arrange marriages between nations in order to move toward this goal, but Poppy does not seem to really be interested in these plans. She avoids dancing at all costs, not surprising, considering what occurred in the last book of this series. Instead, she spends her time at the balls sitting at the card tables with the men, wowing them with her ability to win all rounds against them. Christian is a visiting prince who becomes friends with Poppy and seems to be interested in moving that relationship to the next level. However he gets sidetracked by the entrance of the mysterious Lady Ella at a grand ball. He is immediately smitten with her. And it isn't just Christian. EVERYONE is affected by her, except for Poppy who is wearing a ward against enchantment. It turns out that Lady Ella is actually the maid Ellen who is actually Eleonora, a girl of privilege who was forced into servitude after the death of her parents. Eleonora is able to attend the ball and gain the attention of all in attendance thanks to the assistance of her "godmother", a not-so-nice old woman who is actually a mean-spirited witch bent on taking away Eleonora's free will in order to correct a mistake she made in her earthly life. So the race is on to free everyone from the effects of the spell and get Eleonora out of the hands of her "godmother."My thoughts:Poppy is definitely a stronger heroine than her sister Rose was in the first book. She is witty and courageous as she attacks the problems she faces. I really did like her as a main character. Christian, on the other hand, is weaker than Galen was in book one. Christian spends a good portion of this book in a love sick stupor due to the influence of the spell placed over all those in Lady Ella's presence. This does weaken him as a character quite a bit. However, I really did enjoy him and rooted for him to find true love with Poppy. The secondary characters were good as well, and I thought that all of them were able to find their own Happily Ever Afters as well.The ending was a bit too easy, in my opinion. Everything just worked out too nicely for everyone. How were they able to escape from the Corley so quickly, and what is preventing her from getting to them again? It never was explained very well, so the ending seemed a bit rushed to me. I would have liked a little more exploration into the consequences of Eleonora's actions, but this isn't a book that is meant to do that. It doesn't ruin the book, but it was enough to keep this one from getting five stars from me.This is a simple story with a simple love story and a simple conclusion. There are not deep themes and layers that will keep you up at night thinking about it long after you have finished the novel. But that is okay. Sometimes it is nice to just read a cute, light and sweet book for fun that leaves you happy at the end. That is what this book was for me. I did enjoy it even more than the first book in the series, probably because I liked the character of Poppy. I still recommend this for fans of Happily Ever After stories with nice characters to bring the story to life. Recommended for all readers, ages twelve and up.

I loved this story. It was so different from the story of Cinderella that I kind of forgot it was a retelling, it's more of a reimagined Cinderella. I was very cleverly written as well. It was intriguing and unique.

From one of my favorite authors comes a new fairy tale with enough familiar elements to lull us into the false idea that we think we know what's coming next. There's a princess. There's a glass slipper. There's a fairy godmother, and a handsome prince. But that's where the similarities to Cinderella end. In PRINCESS OF GLASS, Jessica Day George has created a delightful and compelling story that is all her own. Poppy made her first appearance as one of the twelve dancing princesses in PRINCESS OF THE MIDNIGHT BALL, and now she takes center stage as a spunky princess who once again must face enchantments galore. It's a good thing she has a little experience under her belt!I loved this book. If you like getting lost in the pages of a well-written fantasy/fairy tale, put this one in your To-Read pile!