A Sea of Stars

An interesting retelling of the fairytale classic Cinderella. I very much enjoyed the nods to the original fairytale, such as the prince suggesting the girls cut off their toes to fit in the glass slipper, as well as the classic themes twisted on their heels, such as that the prince is a bratty gold-digging fortune hunter and Isabella (our Cinderella) is a young spoiled girl with an unexpected character arc.

The writing was pretty good, though the descriptions and narration were far better than the dialogue, which was slightly lacking. The book was rather dull for the 160 pages in the middle, because nothing really happens, excepting foraging for food and sewing. Once the ball storyline is mentioned is when the whole book starts to pick up, most of the twists are thrown in and acted upon, and the characters are fleshed out. So that is when I started to enjoy the book and not just tolerate it. Overall, I'd recommend it for a once-over, but beware of the slow beginning.

Two things noted that have no affect on the rating: The cover is waaaaaaaay off concerning the characters and the story. None of the clothes look remotely like what they would be wearing, let alone all the make-up. Jane (the brunette) is 15. That cover model looks to be between 18 and 25. Ella is 13, and her cover model appears to be a bit older than that. Anyways, it is just a bit annoying, is all. And then, in the book, Maude, who is younger than Ella and was even younger than she is now when this event took place, once tried her father's riding boots on and they were too small for her to wear. Now, unless her dad was Tom Thumb, I can't think of a single young and slightly malnourished girl whose feet cannot fit into her father's boots.