Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier

I picked up this book because I've read other books by this author, the Sevenwaters trilogy and Wolfskin and Foxmask, and I enjoyed both the author's writing style and subject matter in those books, so decided to give this a chance. And it was good. It's set in a medieval (ish) Romania and is a retelling of the fairy tale the Twelve Dancing Princesses (and possibly another but to say which would kind of spoil it). Five sisters are given the privilege of being able to go to the fairy realm every full moon for a night of dancing with faeries and dwarves and trolls, and the like.
 
Near the beginning of the story, the girls' merchant father goes away on business, and he has poor health which causes the girls to worry throughout the novel about their future. When he goes he leaves the financial situation of the household to the second daughter, and narrator, Jena, and this is somewhat uncommon behaviour as women were not usually doing business at that time in Romania. Over the course of the book her male cousin forcibly takes more and more of her responsibility away from her and patronizes her and her sisters. That's basically the set up, and I think to go more into the plot might ruin it a bit, so read the book to find out what happens I guess.
 
Jena had a very practical and down to earth grasp on the world, and while I appreciated this quality in her, more towards the end of the novel it frustrated me a bit that she was so stuck in her practicality. Not frustrated in a bad way really, but a frustrated that makes you just want to shake her for her obtuseness. I was only this affected at one point in the novel though, for the most part I liked her.
 
One thing I kind of didn't like about the novel... the close your eyes, stick your fingers in your ears and yell lalalala because you like the rest of the book part of the novel was at the endish of the book, Jena's older sister Tati's relationship with the guy she liked. She fell in love with one of the night people, which would be similar to a vampire I guess. And I have nothing against who she chose or how they interacted with each other, but with the way she reacted at the end of the novel because she of their uncertain future. It was very 'romantic' and not so much practical... but this was a minor annoyance and I didn't have to focus on it too much because there were other things going on, and the writing was well done.
 
I enjoy books by this author because she writes well, as I've stated, so the words flow nicely, almost to the point of having an air of sophistication around them, but it's an easy read. Also, the author knows what she's talking about subject matter wise. She seems to be well read mythologically, and retells the story knowledgeably. It's a believable rendition of a classic fairy tale, and it's done by a really good author. I say give this one a go