1682. The king sends out an invitation to all the maidens in France: their presence is requested at a number of balls and events that will be held in honor of the dashing Prince Louis, who must choose a bride.
– GoodReads
My Review
First off, let’s take a moment to admire this pretty cover.
Alright. Now onward we go.
This was a fun and VERY cute read. Like it was so sweet my teeth may have hurt. It gave me some vibes from Disney’s last live action remake. (Brandy is forever my Cinderella tho) It had a lot of the same aspects that I liked from that version and then its own twist.
There is no magic aside from the magical cover. This was certainly a twist I didn’t consider in the retelling! It’s historical fiction set at Versailles and I’m here for it. As I’ve stated before, I do love historical fiction.
This was easy enough to get through, the pacing is steady our author sets the stage and then releases the ‘bachelorette’ competition and core part of the story.
Adorable. As I keep saying; so cute. I do agree with what other reviewers have said, I just felt this was a much younger YA book. In truth I would be thrilled to give this to my spawn who is 11, I think she would love this. And it’s not all rainbows and roses, there’s some heartache and grief, just enough to balance it out.
The characters are probably what turn out to be lacking in the end. The setting? Superb. The plot? Intriguing. The characters? Shallow, not as in ‘vain’ but as in I do not get the depth to them that I want especially given their personal circumstances.
That and our dear Cinder was just so painfully oblivious that it actually hurt to read a certain scene in the orangery which I will not spoil. But reading it I was like ‘HOW HAVE YOU NOT CONNECTED THIS.’ It was a little over the top and pulled me from the moment and a couple of smaller incidents similar happened enough that it just was slightly baffling at times.
The story is at its heart true to the more modern fairytale of Cinderella that we know and love.
3/5 Cups of coffee for this sweet historical fiction take on Cinderella, I would definitely recommend this to younger YA lovers. Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for my honest review.
The Caffeinated Reader 