Review by Booklist Review
Ell, stuck as a subservient and abused maid to her evil stepmother and stepsisters, can only dream of escape. Her luck turns up when Prince Bayard comes looking with a glass slipper that just so happens to fit her--even though she's not his mystery true love from the ball. As the prince whisks her away to the palace, Ell thinks she can make a quick escape and be free, but her growing affection for the prince and mounting distrust of his friend Duke Maxim hold her back. And the longer she stays, the more excuses she finds to hold off on her glorious escape. As she's pulled into the courtly drama and an ongoing war with the fairies of the nearby forest, she finds that as nice as royal life is, it's not at all what she was expecting. Calella, who previously wrote the swashbuckling riot The Final Curse of Ophelia Cray (2024), swings into fairy-tale territory here and has come up with an original and intriguing plot twist on Cinderella.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Cinderella is a liar. In this fairy-tale retelling, Prince Bayard D'Harcourt of Holbein arrives at the door of Ellain DeBrun, places the glass slipper on her foot, and whisks her away from her cruel stepfamily. Ell doesn't confess that she didn't attend the ball and has never met the prince. Their engagement is announced--she's to wed Bayard in just three days. At court, lonely Ell makes friends for the first time since her father's death, but she faces new dangers. Duke Maxim D'Arcy, Bayard's best friend, knows about Ell's lie, but he can't expose her without risking his own secrets. The ill-tempered King Alaric is waging war on Fairyland, burdening the peasants with its costs. He also despises his son, regarding him as cowardly and spineless and speaking scornfully about Bayard's inability to recognize people's faces (his prosopagnosia isn't named as such in the book). Meanwhile, Ell's stepfamily still seeks to destroy her, and Maxim quietly plots to prevent the marriage. With war threatening Holbein and her position precarious, Ell must save herself and the kingdom. In this version of the story, Ell is spirited and has a strong sense of self-preservation. Her abusive past makes her deeply empathetic toward the commoners. Quick-thinking, kind, and resilient, she will earn readers' affection as she carves out her own path for survival, offering "Cinderella" a much-needed 21st-century update. Main characters present white. A clever and spirited twist on a classic tale. (note to readers)(Fiction. 13-18) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
