The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

I just keep getting lucky! It has been a long time since I read a book that I didn't enjoy. I really like a wide variety of books and I love that! I can read a sad book and enjoy it and then turn around and read a fun, fairy tale sort of book and totally love it too. This book was so much fun! It is a Grimms Brother's fairy tale but I had never heard it so it was all new for me. I couldn't put it down! Go pick it up today!

Here is a synopsis and reveiw for you courtesy of Amazon:

Heidi Anne Heiner (SurLaLune Fairy Tales.com)

This review is from: The Goose Girl (Bank Street College of Education Josette Frank Award (Awards)) (Hardcover)

Debut author Shannon Hale succeeds wonderfully with her first novel, "The Goose Girl." A retelling of the moderately well-known tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, she reinvents the story for a modern audience.

Ani, a crown princess, learns at an early age that her special gifts are not those valued by her queen mother and her future subjects. She is eventually sent to marry a prince in a different kingdom, but along the way is overthrown by her lady-in-waiting. Ani becomes a servant, tending geese, while she searches for a way to return to the marriage and throne that is rightfully her own.

Hale has reimagined the story in such a way as to give us a strong, if flawed, heroine with a conscience. In this book, the reader isn't left wondering how a princess could allow herself to be displaced so easily from her birthright. We are also given a magical reason for Ani's successful sojourn with geese. Ultimately, Hale's prose is the book's greatest asset. Ani and her world are vivid creations, ready to be shared during a long, quiet read.

If you enjoy fairy tale novelizations, such as those by Robin McKinley and Donna Jo Napoli, this book will make a great addition to your bookshelf. If you simply like historical fantasy, forget the fairy tale, this novel will also please. Royalty, deception, intrigue, treason, and redemption make up a story that doesn't obviously derive from a fairy tale.