Entwined by Heather Dixon

This was such a wonderful story.  It is definitely only for chiks, but it is such a father/daughter book.  It's romantic and fun but at the same time all about family and that special relationship that is between fathers and daughters.  It started off a little slow but the story really grew on me and about midway I didn't want to put it down until I was done.  It wasn't the absolute best book I've read where specifics are concerned.  The story was pretty vague on details.  Like the exact time, or the setting.  There are no descriptive details as far as "where" this castle is, but the castle and grounds are described in the story.  It's almost a little weird how much I enjoyed reading while at the same time wondering about these details.  There is a queen and king who have 8 girls. The very beginning of the story the mother dies and the lives of the girls is thrust into turmoil.  This story is in a time period where rules where strictly enforced and there was a code of conduct that was adhered to or there would be consequences.  When the mother dies, the family is in mourning, which entails closed drapes, absolutely no color other than black for clothes, no visitors, no going outside and definitely no dancing.  This story is all about the girls surviving this year getting to know there father, which they were never close to.  They never even called him dad or father, it is always Sir.  But over the year they get to know eachother better and their father has even figured out a way to get around the "mourning" rule so Azalea the oldest can start scouting suitors.  After I was done reading this one and was really thinking about it, there was a lot of things that left me saying, "I wonder why I didn't notice that while I was reading..."  Heather Dixon wrote a good enough story to keep you wanting to read more to find out what happens without being too vague.  It was a fantastical wonderful book though.  I would compare it to the Penderwick books.  Happy Reading!