Review: Princess of the Silver Woods by Jessica Day George

Princess of the Silver Woods by Jessica Day George

Hardcover, 336 pages

Published December 11th 2012 by Bloomsbury USA Children's Books

Source: ARC, NetGalley
Buy the book:  Amazon : B&N : Goodreads

From Goodreads:

When Petunia, the youngest of King Gregor's twelve dancing daughters, is invited to visit an elderly friend in the neighboring country of Westfalin, she welcomes the change of scenery. But in order to reach Westfalin, Petunia must pass through a forest where strange two-legged wolves are rumored to exist. Wolves intent on redistributing the wealth of the noble citizens who have entered their territory. But the bandit-wolves prove more rakishly handsome than truly dangerous, and it's not until Petunia reaches her destination that she realizes the kindly grandmother she has been summoned to visit is really an enemy bent on restoring an age-old curse. The stories of Red Riding Hood and Robin Hood get a twist as Petunia and her many sisters take on bandits, grannies, and the new King Under Stone to end their family curse once and for all. 

The reader hits the ground running right from the beginning of this book. I thought this was a good thing until I realized I had no idea who half of the characters were. We're introduced to Petunia and her "wolf" right off the bat. These two are written well and really make the story like they should. They are extremely likeable and I found that I connected to them easily. Unfortunately, the other characters weren't so lucky with me. The sisters and their respective suitors were distant and sometimes aggravating to me. This is why I would probably read the other books in the series to get a better understanding of Petunia's story, but in no rush to learn about these others. 

Adding to that frustration was the fact that magic just appeared here and there for no reason to me. However, this is when I realized that this was actually the final installment in the series. Everything finally made sense after that. After researching the series a little, I finally settled into the storyline once again. There were still incidents and actions that happened seemingly random, but the story managed to hold my attention right till the end. The perspective on the fairy tale was unique compared to many others I had read and I actually enjoyed this one the most.