Midnight Masquerade

‘Midnight Masquerade’ by Marcia Lynn McClure is a clean historical retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses.

Evony Elorietta knows many secrets. She knows why the twelve princesses of the kingdom of Abawyth are so tired and have blistered heels every morning. She knows where they go every night, but she doesn’t know why. Evony works for a cruel seamstress named Agnes Teche. She sews many dresses for very little money at the shop. Dresses which are worn by the princesses as they dance the night away. Dresses that are not delivered to the castle, but to an inn in the woods!

King Standwood has made an offer to the princes of the surrounding kingdoms. The man that figures out the mystery of the sleepy princesses, will get to choose one of the princesses for his bride. The problem is that the last prince who came, sleep for straight three days!

One day, a young man comes to town and his horse almost tramples Evony. Being the gentleman he is, he helps her home when he learns that she has injured her ankle. Evony, with her ten-year old brother Mikol and six-year old sister Tressa, live with the widowed Miss Lovie Wiggin. For whatever reason, Evony feels that she can trust the young man, even when she finds out that he is Prince Stavos Voronin of Ethiarien. And he is in town to try his hand at uncovering the mystery of the princesses. So Evony tells Stavos that first he must journey to the inn in the woods to see what he can find out, before he heads to the castle.

Stavos takes Evony’s suggestion and stays at the inn at night and visits with her during the day. He feels that there’s more to Evony and her siblings then meets the eye. Especially when the younger sister calls her brother Mikol, but Evony introduces him as Michael. It seems that the sleepy princesses aren’t the only mystery in this town! Who is Evony really? How does she know so much about what’s going on? And what is a beautiful young lady like her doing in a seamstress shop and still single?

As you can see, McClure likes to use some unusual names for her main characters. This is a great story and wonderful of the fairy tale. It comes in book and e-book formats.