Book Review: Wildwood Dancing

Wildwood Dancing, Juliet Marillier

This was a very INTERESTING book. Set in Transylvania, it is about a family of 5 daughters who live in a castle next to a wooded area. Each night of full moon, they open a portal to the other world where they dance the night away with fairies, gnomes, dwarfs, and all other kind of mystical creature. No one knows they go on this adventure every full moon, and they have done it for a long time, 9 years I think. Jenica, the 2nd oldest, is telling this story. She found a frog when they first started going to the dancing glade, and Gogu has become her best friend.

When their father becomes ill, and must spend the winter in a milder climate, Jenica takes charge of the family's merchant business, the family estate, and anything else that arises; but the overbearing power hungry cousin Cezar decides that he must be the one to take over and challenges Jenica's ability to do anything .... he believes women aren't capable of making rational decisions (which infuriates Jenica ... and Gogu for that matter). As the story progresses, several real problems arise, and Jenica is forced to try to figure out how to save her sister from a doomed true love, how to save the family castle and land from a power hungry cousin, and how to save her own best friend Gogu.

This book was good. I thought it was interesting how the author wove a story around the Transylvanian folklore and at times, couldn't put the book down. (it took me a while to read this though, because I got side tracked re-reading Twilight) I would definitely recommend this book ... it has no bad language or anything that wouldn't be acceptable for even teenagers to read.