(And also, there are only four. That's a little more achievable to review one-by-one.)
Although this is a book of Bayern, the story opens in the neighboring country of Kildenree, at the birth of our protagonist, Crown Princess Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee, or Ani, for people who don't like needing to take deep breaths just to say someone's name. Ani is a sickly baby at first, but the arrival of her somewhat magical aunt helps her take to life. Ani's aunt teaches her about birdspeech and communicating with horses, which doesn't please Ani's traditionally minded mother. Before long, the aunt is sent away and Ani must learn how to be a proper crown princess.
Ani doesn't take to crown princess-ing, though - she's shy and fearful of screwing up, and she doesn't believe she can compare to her forceful, smooth-tongued mother, especially since her mother has the gift of people-speaking, according to Ani's aunt. People-speaking allows folks to get what they want just through the power of using some carefully chosen words, and Ani's mother isn't the only person in Kildenree who can people-speak. Ani's lady in waiting, Selia, also has the power.
Regardless of how good she is at people-speaking, Ani believes that one day, she will be the next queen of Kildenree - it's her right as firstborn. Upon Ani's father's death, however, her mother makes the announcement that Ani's little brother Calib will be king, and informs Ani that she has been betrothed to the prince of Bayern as part of a peace treaty. Ani isn't pleased about this, but she realizes that she doesn't have any other options and decides to go along with the plan. She and her retinue - a group of guards and Selia - will have to travel for months through the forest that separates Kildenree and Bayern, which is both terrifying and exciting to Ani, who has never been outside the palace walls. The journey seems to be progressing along smoothly-
-until Selia betrays Ani.
Selia has always been jealous of Ani's royal status, though she's made sure Ani hasn't noticed, and she's managed to convince a few of Ani's guards to support her in her quest to assume Ani's identity. They begin to slaughter the guards who remain faithful to Ani, and Ani has to flee into the woods, wounded and alone. Ani wanders around in a daze before finally passing out in the yard of a Bayern woman named Gilsa, a Forest dweller. Gilsa and her son Finn help nurse Ani back to health and allow her to go along with Finn into the capital city for marketday, where Ani plans on trying to find a way back home.
Of course, things don't really work out as planned. Ani's long blonde hair and her accent instantly mark her as Someone Not From Around Here, and she has no concrete ideas on how to actually get out of the city undetected - after all, if Selia finds her, she'll kill her. Ani can solve her hair issues by hiding it under hats and headscarves and her talent for mimicry helps her fake a Bayern accent, but the getting out of Bayern problem proves the most difficult. She ends up getting to see the king of Bayern as he hears complaints, and he helps her find a job as his goose girl, which will enable her to save up some money over the winter and buy a place in a trade caravan back to Kildenree next year. It's not really what she was hoping for, but it's not the worst that could happen.
Goosekeeping is hard, but Ani - now going by Isi, to keep her identity a secret - really takes to it after a few months. She learns how to speak goose, and she makes her first real friends in Enna, Razo, and the other animal keepers. Her fellow goose keeper, Conrad, doesn't take as much of a shine to her, but they work out an unsteady truce after a while.
Ani also meets Geric as she's out in the pastures, another palace worker who's in charge of guarding the young prince. They get off to a bit of a rough start, since both of them are hopeless at social interactions, but after a while, they start developing feelings for each other.
At least, until Geric sends her a note saying he can't see her anymore.
That's a setback for Ani, but it's not quite as traumatizing as her repeated close calls with her traitorous ex-guardsmen, who are still on the lookout for her in Bayern. They almost capture her one night, but she manages to run back to Gilsa's and pass out in her yard again. (I can't imagine Gilsa wants Ani to keep this foolishness up.) While recuperating at Gilsa's, Ani discovers that her lead guardsman, Talone, is alive and staying with another Forest family. Talone was fiercely loyal to Ani, and he's willing to help her go back into Bayern and finally reclaim her title, especially now that rumors are flowing about Selia's plans to wage war on Kildenree in order to keep her treachery secret.
Ani, Talone, and Finn travel back to the animal keepers' housing in the city, where Enna (who accidentally came across Ani with her hair unbound one night and thus learned everything) has already told the rest of the workers Ani's story. They're all on her side as well, and thus the plans are set for Ani and her "yellow band" to travel to the impending wedding of Selia and her prince and plead their cause.
The only two snags: Selia's already given the king a backstory where she claims Ani is the treacherous waitingwoman, and Geric's not who he said he is. Geric is actually the elder prince of Bayern, and he seems to be willing to leave Ani at Selia's mercy.
Until the tide turns, that is.
As I said above, I looooove this novel. The story itself is compulsively readable, and its language is both fairy tale-esque and easy to understand, probably in part because it's technically a children's novel. (Personally, I say screw age ranges, but I get that some people don't like reading things that are "too young.")
The characters are what really make this novel shine, however. Ani starts the story naive, immature, and powerless, but she grows to understand that her own talents are just as useful as more outwardly-practical ones, and she becomes dedicated to ending the injustices the citizens of the Forest face as she sees how hard their lives can be. Ani also learns that her aunt's stories about wind-speaking weren't just stories - once she's given the tools, she learns how to understand and shape air itself, which is so incredibly cool.
The side characters are all wonderful people, too. Enna is a firecracker, Razo is goofy and genuine, and Conrad is not the one-sided angry young man he could so easily have been in a lesser story. Their influence (along with Gilsa, Finn, Geric, and Talone's) helps Ani really discover what it means to have friends standing alongside you and a home you want to protect.
If you're looking for a story that incorporates both the dark and light aspects of fairy tales as we know them into one cohesive, fantastic narrative, I can't recommend The Goose Girl enough. The writing style and the characters are real standouts, and we get to follow them into more adventures as the series progresses, so don't worry about getting attached just to watch your favorites be ripped away from you a la GRRM. Five stars and all my highest praise.
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