Title: The Goose Girl  (The Books of Bayern #1)

Author: Shannon Hale

Publisher: Bloomsbury 2005

Genre: Fairy tales

Pages: 400

Rating:  5 / 5 stars

Reading Challenges: Telling tales; Mount TBR; Fall into Reading

How I Got It: I own it!

She can whisper to horses and communicate with birds, but the crown princess Ani has a difficult time finding her place in the royal family and measuring up to her imperial mother. When she is shipped off to a neighboring kingdom as a bride, her scheming entourage mounts a bloody mutiny to replace her with a jealous lady-in-waiting, Selia, and to allow an inner circle of guards more power in the new land. Barely escaping with her life, Ani disguises herself as a goose girl and wanders on the royal estate. Does she have the pluck to reclaim her rightful place? Get ready for a fine adventure tale full of danger, suspense, surprising twists, and a satisfying conclusion. The engaging plot can certainly carry the tale, but Hale's likable, introspective heroine makes this also a book about courage and justice in the face of overwhelming odds. The richly rendered, medieval folkloric setting adds to the charm. Anne O'Malley

I was wary at the beginning of this book.  I haven't had much luck with retellings of fairy tales.  They've been way too shallow with uninteresting characters and predictable storylines.  I just wasn't loving them at all.  And then Shannon Hale comes along and renews my faith in fairy tales.  She crafts a beautiful growing up story of a shelter princess betrayed and left to fight on her own.  I loved Ani (or Isi) and her fight to survive.  I grew to love the other workers.  I especially loved Finn and Enna.  Great characters!  Even though I figured I knew the ending, the story still kept me on my toes until the very end.  I'll be sure to grab the other books in the series for next year's reading.

Books of Bayern

• #1 The Goose Girl
• #2 Enna Burning
• #3 River Secrets
• #4 Forest Born