The Goose Girl

I have read 2 1/2 hours and 110 pages this week.  I am reading The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale.  I predict this book to be very good, and it has been good so far.  I am excited to get really into this book and the story.  Shannon Hale is my second cousin, so it will be fun to see her writing skills and ideas in her book. So far, this story is about a crowned princess of the land of Kildenree named Ani.  I can already connect to Ani.  We have the same birthday, and I dislike formalities as well as she does.  Her aunt tended to her until the age of five and taught her to speak with birds, which is unusual and frowned upon by her Queen mother.  Ani is now sixteen, and after the death of her father, her mother tells her she will be leaving the kingdom to marry a prince of another country she has never met before.  All the while, Ani's younger brother will step up in line to become the crowned prince.  Against Ani's desire, guards and her maiden accompany her through mountains and forests to the new kingdom.  A little more than halfway through the trip, Ani's maiden, Selia, turns on her, along with half the guard. Selia is fed up with Ani and her job as a maiden.  She attempts to kill Ani and steal her identity so she can arrive in the new kingdom as a princess.  Ani escapes however, and her guard dies protecting her.  She wanders through the forests until she reaches a house with a woman who takes her in.  Her son and Ani go into the city and Ani lives there tending to the king's geese.