Review - Princess of Glass (Twelve Dancing Princesses, Book 2) by Jessica Day George (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy
Size: 272 pages
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Release Date: February 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1599904780
Stand Alone or Series: 2nd book of Twelve Dancing Princesses series
Source: Bought for Kindle
Rating: 4/5 stars

This is the 2nd book in the Twelve Dancing Princesses by George. This book features Poppy and I actually liked it even better than Princess of the Midnight Ball. It is a wonderful and sweet fantasy read; it loosely retells the story of Cinderella. The third book in this series, Princess of the Silver Woods  is scheduled to be released in December of 2012.

Princess Poppy is unhappy and when an opportunity comes up to participate in a royal exchange program she is happy to do so. While in a neighboring kingdom Poppy begins to develop a tenuous relationship with a Prince. Things gets complicated when her maid Ella is tricked by the evil Corley and ends up vying for the Prince’s attention.

This was a sweet and simple read. If you enjoyed Princess of the Midnight Ball you will enjoy this book as well. I loved that this built on some of the elements in the first book.

I actually enjoyed this book even more than Princess of the Midnight Ball; it is a creative and engaging retelling of the Cinderella story. It involves a lot of the same elements but with a twist. There is an evil fairy godmother, molten glass slippers, and of course a handsome prince and a beautiful princess.

Poppy is the sister that features in this story, and she is a lot of fun. She absolutely abhors dancing, because of the events in the first book, but dances exceedingly well. She is more of card-shark than anything. She is also witty and smart, and very good at investigating the mystery surrounding Ella.

The Prince, whose name I am blanking on right now, was your typical wonderful Prince. He falls for Poppy hard and of course is respectful and supportive of her...at least when he’s not being bespelled by the Corley.

There are lots of descriptions of the beautiful clothing the characters wear. Many of the characters are matched up with each other, making for a large dash of romance in this book as well. So definitely a kind of girly read.

The Corely made for a delightfully evil villainess. Her obsession with all things glass was intriguing and I enjoyed her back story as well.

The story was an easy, engaging read. This is a clean read that’s suitable for all ages; although I would recommend middle grade and older.

Overall a solid fairy tale retelling. This isn’t a heavy read, it is mostly light and sweet. Poppy is a plucky heroine that is fun to read about and easy to engage with. There are some creative twists on the Cinderella fairy tale in here as well. If you love retold fairy tales and princess stories you will enjoy this book.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
- 150+ Books Reading Challenge
- TBR Pile Reading Challenge