Entwined by Heather Dixon (now Wallwork), a retelling of “The Twelve Dancing Princesses” fairy tale, was one of my favorite books I read in my youth. So when I learned that she had written another fairy tale retelling, this time after “The Nutcracker” and “The Pied Piper,” called Enchanted Sonata, I wanted to read it.
Long story short: it’s not as good, but it’s still entertaining. I don’t know how I would feel if I read this as a member of the younger target audience, but I don’t think it would measure up regardless, because the elements I still love in Entwined (familial bonds, a wide and charming cast of memorable characters, slow burn romance) weren’t featured or done as well in Enchanted Sonata.
I did really enjoy how the music of the Nutcracker was interwoven throughout the story and how she made it into magic. That’s absolutely adorable. And enchanting.
Another thing I really appreciated was that the narrative wasn’t afraid of calling out the protagonist for being silly or of embarrassing her for the sake of growth. And of course Heather gave us a healthy, non-toxic romance that probably serves as a good example for children reading this, though I will say I wasn’t captivated by it. It’s still sweet, but we learn that Prince Nikolai basically viewed it as pre-arranged by the fairies, and I felt like Clara’s development was a little rushed. And, like, he’s an 8-foot talking plastic toy–human blend and she’s getting all blushy because of his goofy plastic smile and his plastic paddle of a hand—BUT that’s only minorly distracting and ridiculous, so kudos to the author. I was trying to imagine a movie adaptation of this, though, and I think they’d have to really lean into the human side of the nutcracker to make it work.
But the Nutcracker and Clara did bring out the best in one another and shared a good sense of humor. The humor overall was decent. The Nutcracker had some good one-liners, and the scene with the booming voice of the Mother Superior did make me laugh.
But oh goodness, there were a lot of grammatical errors and editorial mistakes. It could have done with another once-over before publishing.
Overall, cute, sweet, entertaining. A charming little filler read. But nothing memorable for me.
