The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale

The life a Princess isn't always glamorous; at least in Crown Princess Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee of Kildenree's case. Barely days after her father's death Princess Ani finds out that she is to travel to a far away to marry. But during the journey she is ambushed by half of her traveling company and is forced to run for her life.

Days later she finds herself at the palace working as a goose girl, Her attempts to contact the king thwarted, and her ex lady in waiting and best friend Seilia parading around as Ani. Realizing how much danger she is in with the enemy so close to her, she decides to lay low. She watches her former allies as they enjoy their lives of highly ranked court officials. But what they do not know is that Ani has a special power brewing inside her. All she has to do is find a way to use it to save herself.

The Goose Girl was one of my absolute favorite fairy tales when I was growing up. So when I saw this book at my library I tried reading it but I couldn't get past the first page. I was seriously disappointed. Now two years later I came across the audio book and decided to give the story another try. Needless to say I got through this one and was very happy that I gave it another go. I found that Shannon Hale's version of The Goose Girl was more of an extension of the original story rather than an alteration. I liked the whole concept of Animal Speak, People Speak and Element Speak (i think), it was all very magical to me. This made the story very appealing in my case. Shannon Hale rewrites a very beautiful fairy tale and has manage to make it her own. I hope to read another very soon.