"The Midnight Dancers"

So this is #4 of the fairy tales retold:

(This cover is different then ours too...it looks weird...hmm...)

This is The Midnight Dancers by Regina Doman. This book is based after The Twelve Dancing Princesses, so, again, the plot is predictable, and, though this is my least favorite of the five she's written so far, I still like this one.

This book now switches from the life of the Briers plus Bear and Fish, to one of Rose's best college friends.

Paul Fester, medic, solder, juggler, and ninja is planning a fun summer of juggling at a festival in Maryland, when he gets pulled into the life of a family whose 12 mostly-teenage daughters have some problems. They're strict Christians but seem to have trouble reconnecting with their dad. Their Dad can tell that something is up but can't quite tell what. So he asks Paul Fester if he can figure out the mystery.

Rachel Durham is the eldest daughter of Colonel Durham. She and her sisters share the secret of freedom. While moving around the furniture in their room, they found a hidden door leading to freedom—freedom from their church, freedom from their parents, and mostly, freedom from their “daytime lives”.

Paul finds out the secret easily, but can’t tell Colonel Durham until he convinces the girls to tell him themselves—something that’s not going to be easy.

Rachel is having the time of her life. The door leads to the Durham’s private beach where the girls like to swim. But swimming soon gets boring, and they have to find some other way of amusement. Rachel convinces some friends from her school to come and give them boat rides and soon convinces them to explore a mysterious island not far from the land.

Paul continues to follow the girls, and when they get in danger, rescues them from the shadows.

Rachel finds out what Paul’s doing and gets mad...No, she doesn’t get mad; she gets furious. She’s willing to tell her dad a lie that could cost Paul his career and maybe even send him to jail.

Barely saved from catastrophe, Paul tries to warn the girls not to keep going to the island, but they ignore him.

Rachel thought everything was perfect, but then...well...what used to be just a secret turns into something that could endanger everyone’s lives.

A couple of quotes:

The Durhams-

“The problem is, our family has no life outside of this church,” she said aloud as she came into the basement, hauling a load of laundry,

“Tell me about it!” Prisca agreed. “My gosh, it’s like were enslaved to this group of people!”

“The pastor’s personal slaves,” Miriam minced words. “It there’s a job to be done—‘oh call those Durhams. He’s got plenty of kids—he can spare a few!”

“‘Your daughters are so capable,’” Rachel quoted, pressing her hands to her breast. “‘They have been such a blessing to our church.’”

She was referencing the last church anniversary, where the pastor’s wife had stood up before the congregation and praised the Durham family. The girls had been singled out as models of hard work and zeal for God, which had thoroughly embarrassed them, mostly because Rachel thought it wasn’t true.

“They don’t know anything about us,” she said. “For all of the ‘sharing’ and ‘testifying’ that goes on, they don’t really know what any of us likes, or wants, or cares about.”

Prisca tittered. “If they found out what we really wanted, they wouldn’t like us very much, would they?”

Rachel gave a bitter smile. “No, I doubt they would.”

Paul Fester-

He seemed to make a decision, and bent over her again. “Perhaps it’s better for you if you struggle,” he whispered, and she yelped and tried fruitlessly to move away from him. Then she heard an extra beat to the music—the sound of feet softly landing on the stone near her.

“Let her go,” a measured voice said.

Rachel’s heart leapt. Michael twisted around to see who had spoken, and the Rachel had a clear view. A masked man in black stood there, his stance defiant and ready.

“Who are you?” Michael swore.

“Let her go,” Paul’s voice came calmly through the mask.

“Daddy’s hired bodyguard?”

“I said, let her go.”

“Get off my property.”

Paul took a step forward and put a hand on Michael’s shoulder. “Not until—”

Michael turned suddenly and threw a roundhouse punch at Paul’s face, releasing Rachel’s arms. What happened next was almost too quick for Rachel to comprehend.

Even though this isn't my favorite, it's still good...so definitely don't skip it!

Ok. So now for my ratings:

Strength of plot: ****

Strength of characters: ****

Overall rating: ****