*SPOILERS AHEAD*
Its 200 years after Cinderella found her prince, but the fairy tale is over. Teen girls are now required to appear at the Annual Ball, where the men of the kingdom select wives based on a girl’s display of finery. If a suitable match is not found, the girls not chosen are never heard from again.
Sophia’s character was likeable. She wasn’t like a new all-time favourite or anything but I appreciated her for what she was. She’s very spirited and grounded in her beliefs and won’t be compromised by what the societal expectations are of her, even though it is very dangerous. I think she was still just a little naïve in her approach, not listening to reason and just flying off the cuff with no plan at the start. I think over the course of the story we see her evolve and become a lot more patient and willing to see other perspectives than her own.
I would have liked to see Sophia and Erin’s relationship a little more before the opening scene if that makes sense. We are just kind of thrust into the story and we see Sophia bearing her soul to this girl get rejected and then the next girl that comes along Sophia falls for her. Sure we see her battling with her emotions and she has to go and say goodbye to Erin closing off that relationship but I just thought her rushing into the next romance was unnecessary. I don’t think she needed to be in love with Constance at all, it didn’t really add anything to the plot and I think I would have liked it a lot more if she was just friends with Constance and didn’t just write off Erin.
I thought the concept of the story and the retelling aspect to be compelling; I just thought the execution was a little underdeveloped. I would have appreciated going a lot more in depth with all of the characters and their backgrounds. I felt it was a little lacking in the atmosphere of the story, it was quite bleak and one dimensional for me. I never really made a connection to anyone I just kind of along for the ride.
Overall I just think the novel as a whole read a little younger. The characters are all pretty juvenile and one dimensional. The twists that were thrown in were entertaining but still predictable. There was nothing in there that really took me by surprise and shocked me in any way. I appreciated the diversity in the characters and the topics that were discussed but I wasn’t wowed in any way by this story.
⭐️2/5 didn’t love it, kind of average…
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