The Goose Girl introduces us to the world of Bayern, which is your basic fairy tale setting with kingdoms and princesses and giant gaps between the nobles and the commonfolk.
Princess Anidori-Kiladra Talianna Isilee is the firstborn daughter of Kildenree, a smaller kingdom separated from the much larger Bayern by mountains.
Ani is raised by her aunt, who teaches her how to speak to birds and other creatures. The aunt says there are three types of speakers: people-speakers (basically charismatic manipulators), animal-speakers and nature-speakers (very rare, these can speak with the elements).
Ani forms a bond with her horse Falada and they can communicate telepathically. Her odd ways separate her from the rest of her family and draw negative attention from her mother. After her father's untimely death, Ani learns it's her younger brother that will be groomed to rule Kildenree, not her. She's being shipped off to Bayern, to marry their firstborn son in an alliance move. The Bayern have cut a pass through the mountains and a marriage alliance will help ensure Kildenree's safety.
On the long journey to Bayern, the elements of the original fairy tale unfold. Ani loses her mother's handkerchief with its three drops of blood and quickly realizes it was a simple token with no magical powers of protection. She is supplanted by her lady-in-waiting, the vicious, scheming Selia, who is a master people-speaker. Most of her guards side with Selia, except a few, who are killed, and Ani flees without Falada.
She eventually finds her way to a house, where she's given rest and clothing by a woman and her son. The son takes her into the city on marketday and she approaches the king and is given a position as a goose girl. Her plan to reveal the plot against her is thwarted by the presence of Selia at the supplicant hearings and Ani's main goal is to find Falada, so she figures working for the palace will be a good start. Being skilled with languages, Ani has mastered the Bayern accent and she completes her disguise by hiding her blonde hair and dyeing her eyebrows with root juice. The Kildenreans are all fair, while the Bayern and surrounding folk are dark.
Ani slowly learns to be an excellent goose girl, while trying to learn more about her new surroundings. She finds Falada, only to see he's gone mad. She befriends Enna, a Forest girl who will star in the second book in the series. She also meets Geric, one of the prince's guards who comes to her field to see her day after day.
Her cover is eventually blown and the traitorous Kildenreans know she's in the city. Falada is killed and Ani pays for him to be given a decent burial, only to learn that in Bayern that means taxidermy. So she has to look at his head mounted near her fields every day. During her visits to Falada, Ani realizes she also is a nature-speaker and her connection is with the wind.
After enduring two attacks by the traitors, Ani is gravely wounded and finds her way back to the Forest home of the woman and her son. There she learns that the main guard that had been on her side, Talone, survived and is living nearby. Reunited with him, they plot to reveal her identity and stop Bayern from attacking Kildenree. This plan has been set into motion by Selia, who's going to destroy Kildenree in order to hide her treachery.
Ani, Talone and Finn, the son of the Forest woman, return to the city and recruit more help from Enna and the other Forest-born workers. They approach the palace and learn that the wedding is taking place a few days' ride to the north. This separation was a bit odd. There wasn't really any reason for it. I felt they could have gone right into the action rather than stretch it out for no reason. So Ani gets horses thanks to a note from the old prime minister and steals one of her dresses from Selia's room. She poses as her own younger sister, there to attend the wedding. Of course, nothing goes smoothly. Geric is revealed not to be the prince's guard, but the eldest prince himself. Selia uses her people-speaking powers to thwart Ani's every explanation. And all of Ani's aid are forced to wait outside while she has to try to do this on her own. The king and Geric leave her with the traitors, who naturally reveal their plans out loud as all good villains do. Then the king and Geric burst out from behind the throne, where there was a secret space. A battle ensues and all the traitors are killed except Selia, who was asked earlier what the punishment for treason in Kildenree was. Ani knew it was banishment, but the wicked Selia amped it up, stating it was to be thrown naked into a spiked barrel that would be pulled by four white horses. Little did she know she'd be naming her own death.
Ani and Geric love each other, no one of note on the good side is killed, Ani single-handedly stops the war on Kildenree, and she points out several injustices in Bayern. So all is well that ends well.
This is a nice expansion on the tale of the Goose Girl, which isn't exactly the longest or most complex fairy tale. I don't think the other books in the series have anything to do with any particular tales. I always enjoy Hale's work, though I've only actually reviewed one thing here, so I plan to cover all four of these and then Princess Academy, too.
