Twelve princesses dance a dangerous dance and compete for a deadly prize.
A Dance of Silver and Shadow by Australian author Melanie Cellier is a retelling of the beloved fairytale The Twelve Dancing Princesses, It is the first book of the Beyond The Four Kingdoms series, which is the sequel series to The Four Kingdom series. If you have not yet read that series, I suggest you do, while the new series can be read on its own, the world-building of the previous one is amazing and you will get a good idea of why the characters are the way they are, besides it is always fun to know what has happened to previous characters, so when you read this series later, you will get their life updates.
When Princess Liliana and her twin sister set sail for new lands, Lily hopes to find adventure and romance. But the people of Marin live under the shadow of a curse—one powerful enough to destroy entire kingdoms. To protect them all, Lily and eleven other princesses are forced to participate in a mysterious and secret tournament.
Lily spends her nights competing in a magical underground realm and her days unraveling the dangers of this new court. Although she needs the help of the Marinese prince, Lily knows she can’t let herself grow too close to him. There’s no time for romance when the duchy is about to fall to the encroaching darkness and the winner of the tournament faces a terrible fate.
But Lily and her twin have a secret advantage. Lily grows increasingly determined to use their magical bond to defeat the tournament, save the princesses, and free Marin. Except she might have to sacrifice true love to do it.
In this reimagining of the classic fairy tale, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, there’s a lot more at stake than worn-out dancing slippers.
As a retelling this book was great, it had a lot many similarities to the original tale, and at the same time, a new story was created. This book set the base of many other fairytales such as Ice Queen, and The Little Mermaid amongst others, these will be taken up one after another as the series goes forward,
The plot was interesting with many tense moments, a point when all hope seemed to be lost, and many surprises.
We meet Lily and Sophie for the first time in The Princess Companion book 1 of The Four Kingdoms series where they are little girls, now obviously their childhood and life till A Dance of Silver and Shadow have shaped who they are. So, to the people who have read that book, this book will be a better experience than those who have not.
Lily, is an overprotective sister and is used to being the person who protects, the person on whom people rely which is a courtesy of emotionally detached parents. Now, so many young girls around her have to take part in this tournament, including Sophie, Lily’s protective instinct, and the ‘hero’ complex
make a lot of appearances. She and Sophie are very dependent on each other, for support and companionship, they have always been considered a unit, I’m not sure whether I can label their relationship as codependent but Lily slowly figures out her individuality throughout the book.
Codependent or not, their relationship is beautiful, it was one of my favorite parts of the book, their love for each other and the sacrifices they are willing to make for each other, everything is beautiful.
Jon, the love interest, he is someone who always puts his responsibility to his land first, so when love strikes he finds himself caring for someone and prioritizing someone over his responsibility.
He reminded me of Frederic from The Princess Search. The romance was cute, it just felt a bit rushed at the start, especially if we compare it to Melanie’s other books. I will admit there were a few giggle-worthy moments.
There were 10 other princesses in the competition, I liked most of them, a few of them were annoying and whiny but I guessed their being that way was because of the curse that was slowly spreading through these new lands.
The romance was clean, there might have been a kiss or two, the language used is clean as well and there is some action so a tweens and up rating.
Overall, 4 stars, a cute romance, and an interesting plot, with an abundance of sisterly love and sacrifice. It is totally re-readable.
I’m really excited for the next book, which is a Beauty and the Beast retelling. A little word of advice if you have not read the 1st book do not read the summary of the 2nd book, as you will find out who won the competition.
Yours,
A Fellow Bookworm
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