~POTENTIAL SPOILERS~

Honestly, I'm disappointed I didn't like this one more, and even more disappointed that I don't have very much to say about it. Me and Cinderella retellings have an interesting history, with most I've read being either very meh or terrible. I'm not even opposed to the idea of fleshing out the stepsisters to give them more agency and personality, as long as it doesn't happen at the expense of Cinderella, and since this is Disney, I knew that wouldn't happen. However, that doesn't make this an interesting book. Nor does the fact the shortness and simple style of writing meant I flew though it make it engaging either.

It's not bad. There's definitely some good things here. I liked the depth given, especially to Anastasia, possibly foreshadowing her attempt at finding love again in the movie sequels? And how they're just as much victims of Lady Tremaine's abuse as Cinderella is, and the fact that they always were sorta mean and frosty even before the events of the movie. I liked the gradual decline of their spirits until the very end when they lose everything and finally snap, becoming who they are in the movie.

However, I felt a lot of the story and characters weren't fully developed. It was too short of a story that introduced things then wrapped them up just as quickly. The characters felt too stagnant and flat, I couldn't really feel for them. This book would've benefitted from more chapters just to give more weight to the girls and their lives. They very quickly become happy in their secret lives and just as quicky lose them so I couldn't feel for what they were going through.

This book was also not marketed or marked as being a prequel, so there was a lot of things I was confused by, such as Cinderella being younger than her canon age and not actually referred to as Cinderella, which was confusing. This is Disney and Disney says her name is Ella but only in the live-action, while in the animated movie, she's Cinderella the whole time. This book is obviously a prequel to the animated movie, so why isn't she called Cinderella the whole time? I also wondered if the debut was the ball in the movie, where the secret lives the sisters had were during the movie...etc. So much confusion I'd have been spared from had they said from the getgo this was a prequel and not set during the movie's events!

Again, there's stuff to like. Giving the girls a backstory, more personalities, foreshadowing their eventual endings, as well as giving more reason to why they'd hate Cinderella so strongly, that's all good. However, the short length ultimately leaves the plot feeling rushed and the characters flat. Definitely not the worst version of Cinderella I've ever read, not by a long shot, but it's not great either. It's getting put very firmly in the 'meh' category.

I’m not sure what I expected going into this as I haven’t read any books from this author. I can appreciate her writing style, and would consider reading another book from her.

The first half of this book felt so slow and just a chore to read. In fact there felt like too much filler that never pays off later in the book. If you plan to pick this up, prepare yourself!

While I enjoyed the connections it shared with the movie, it ultimately felt like I was reading about completely different characters. Though I love the concept of Villain origin stories, Serena Valentino does it better with her “Villains” series.

That being said, the second half of this book was very well-written, easy to fly through, and the step-sisters are much more like their movie counterparts. The finale and epilogue is where this book shines, and makes the rest of the book worth the read.

I read everything Disney I can find (and pay). I discovered this book by accident on Amazon and had to pre-order it right away and I was actually quite surprised that they managed to deliver it so soon after the release date. I have to admit that I wasn't entirely sure what kind of book this was gonna be. I guessed it was some sort of origin story, but I was curious what would make it different from for example Disney Villains. So, the book came in and I started reading almost right away.

This book is in a way heavier than I had expected it to be. The writing style is a little tricky when it comes to that. It's easy to read, there are no complicated words used, I flew through the book with ease. But the themes in this book are quite dark in a way. Especially because this is indeed an origin novel which means that the book ends where the first cartoon actually starts. So, as a reader you know there's no happy ending.

I think this book is really showing in an impressive and heartbreaking way how hard life for girls used to be. We're not there yet, but it was a lot worse than it is nowadays and this book tells us all about it. We see two girls with dreams. Different dreams. Dreams fitting their personalities and how they look at life. And we already know that both their dreams are not allowed to be in a world where a girl's duty is to mary well and get babies.

So, basically this book has a sad start, a happy middle and then a sad ending. And knowing that the ending is gonna be sad and that the girls are not gonna get what they want makes reading the middle part so hard. We see them being happy, we see them being genuinely trying to be good people. Of course, they do say a mean thing once in a while and they're afraid to speak up, but still. I was rooting for them. The author made me LOVE them. The ending therefore really broke my heart.

3.5