Month: July 2019

This was cute!

This is a Cinderella retelling but with a bit of a twist. We follow the story of Elle who lives with her step-mother Catherine and her twin daughters Cat and Chloe. Elle works on a food truck and is a hard-core fan girl for a classic sci-fi show called Starfield that she grew up watching with her father, that is about to be readapted into a new blockbuster movie! Darien has just cast as the lead character in the new Starfield and has to judge a cosplay contest at the ExcelsiCon that Elle has decided to enter.

Darien I actually quite liked that he wasn’t just a typical young Hollywood actor. He also had a lot of issues in his life and obstacles that he had to deal with on his rise to fame. I liked that we delved at lot deeper into his past and how everything unfolded with Brian. Having his timeline run concurrently with Elle and seeing how the texts connected them was super cute and really had me invested in the plot.

For the majority of the book Elle just got on my nerves. Letting Catherine and Chloe walk all over her and just bowing down to them and not doing anything about it. Just accepting all of the horrible things they do to her and not trying to fight back at all. I honestly can’t stand female main protagonists that have no backbone. I realise she has had to live and cope with them for years and this is her way of dealing with all of the manipulation, but I needed her to be stronger and fully snap back at them and take charge. Sage was the one who stole the dress back from Chloe; Darien was the one who stood up to Chloe at the ball. Elle had maybe one scene where she opened up to Catherine, but she cried through most of it and it wasn’t really enough. There wasn’t really any conclusion to that part of her life, she kind of just ran away from them.

Other than that I really enjoyed the rest of the book. The pacing was quick and the overall premise I thought was a unique take on the classic Cinderella tale. Sure it was a little tropey at times but it was entertaining and fun and exactly what I needed in the middle of this read-a-thon!

⭐️3/5 Quick, fun, cute read, I was just left a little unfulfilled!