I don't know about you, but I love unique fairy tale retellings, and Erin Craig's debut became an instant favorite. A dark Gothic horror retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses's this one was eerie, haunting, dazzling, glittering, and beautiful.

Meet Annaleigh she is second oldest of twelve sisters who will inherit Highmoor Estate, located on one of several islands on which live the People of the Salt. Since she was born, each of her sister's have, over the year's, succumb to mysterious, dark and terrifying deaths; and now only she and five others are left. Others on the island, have said that her family is cursed. But Analeigh doesn't believe her sisters' deaths were accidental or that she is cursed, and soon embarks on a quest to prove it when she investigates the death of the last sister to die, Eulalie. In the midst of this quest, she and her sister's discover a portal that can take them to anywhere they want to go, and they all dream of dancing the night away at beautiful glittering balls. But are theses trips really all they appear to be? Is Analeigh's family cursed? Were her sister's death's accidental or is their something more sinister and magical afoot?

Analeigh was a curious and beautiful and historically grounded character that had a mission and in the end achieved it. Though I do believe that her main love interest, Cassius, took her away from the main mission and made her not as believable in the end. I also think their relationship went just a bit to much into the territory of insta-love which was a bit off putting.

I really loved this story and the atmospheric, haunting, beauty studded setting really drew me in and didn't let go. Craig's ability to create beautiful prose by taking a place and describing it in such a way that it almost feels like it becomes a character in the book, is a true gift. I also loved the mythological elements of this story too. It's reliance on Irish, Greek, and other types of mythology added so much to the story. I also loved that even though the People of the Salt lived on several islands, the Highmoor Estate felt like a castle and the family of sister's were the rulers with the house and the surrounding land being passed down to each of the sister's in order of age as more and more died. You don't see matriarchal societies much in YA literature and it really worked well here. But what was at this novels heart was, it was a story about family and relationships. Analeigh had such a desire to get her family out of the routine of being around a constant environment of death. And while some of the sister's had become accustomed, and dare I say numb to it, her desire to better her and her family's life by seeking closure really won me on this story.

Overall Craig's novel was filled with dazzling and beautiful details.The setting was spooky and haunting and the rendering of this classic story was unique. Please Pre-order and put on your TBR lists today if you love beauty studded and romantic balls, shimmering dancing shoes, grand and spooky houses, mysterious portals, ghosts, and midnight trysts. Thank you to Edelweiss and Delcorte press for the Digital Review Copy in exchange for an honest review!

My rating 4 out of 5 shimmering stars to this jewel!