“Cinder and Glass” Book Review

“Cinder and Glass” is a retelling of Cinderella that is set in Versailles, France in 1682. For the first half of the book, the story follows the familiar tale of Cinderella. The main character, Lady Cendrillon de Louvois loses her father shortly after his marriage to her new stepmother. Life with the stepmother and stepsisters becomes terrible and Lady Cendrillon is left living in the attic and working as the maid in her once loving home. However, in the second half of the book Lady Cinder (as she is known in the court) has managed to catch the prince’s eye at a large ball and she is invited to be courted by the prince. However, the catch is that she will be courted along with a large group of other girls. In this “Bacheloresque” style courting, there is plenty of plotting and secrets to go around!

The book is young adult, and any reader looking to pick this one up should know that. It is written in that vein and should be enjoyed from that viewpoint. With that being said, the book itself did have some high points and low points as well. The tale of Cinderella is well known, so the author does do a great job of taking this familiar story and making it her own. She gives life to these familiar characters and does that extremely well. The development of the stepmother and stepsisters was handled beautifully and as a reader my disdain for them grew as the story moved on.

However, the book felt extremely disjointed to me. It was almost as if it were actually two different books. The first being the main retelling and the second being a new story featuring the familiar main character. The second half of the story did not really seem to flow well and was similar to reading “The Selection.” The idea of multiple women fighting to win the love of a prince did not particularly sit well with me and I would have preferred a stronger main character who understands the absurdity of that scenario.

I also felt like this story missed the mark in regards to the fairy godmother character. She did not have a large role in this book and it felt like she should have been more present. Her character’s storyline did not feel well thought out and almost like an afterthought just trying to fill the requirement of placing her in the story.

Overall, I did get through the entire book and was entertained but this would not be at the top of my list for recommendations.

Recommendations: Skip this one unless you really enjoy Cinderella retellings or if you enjoyed “The Selection.”