A Cinderella re-telling that gave me more than I was expecting!

This Cinderella is a heroine that endures a lot, battles her own demons and comes out on the other side stronger and wiser. It's probably just as dark as the original story from the Grimm brothers. Eleanor, or Nora, is a likeable character who wants to figure out who she is. Her journey however is far from being easy, and she will need to choose if she can live with the consequences her choices or not.

The plot is dark but solid and it develops nicely. It was a fun read that I recommend it for those who like darker fairytale retellings!

Thank you for the opportunities to read this book. I have attempted it on a number of occasions but unfortunately I haven’t been able to get into it.

Thank you, NetGalley for letting me read this book. It is by far one of the best Cinderella retellings I have ever read. Finally, an author acknowledges the whole shoe thing in a tasteful way. Jack and Nora along with all the rest of the characters are captivating in their own unique way and I actually rooted for all of them. It was great reading Jack and Nora growing up from kids to the older teens they become. And that ending had me crying it was so sweet.
If anyone likes books with blood magic and fantasy in a Cinderella retelling then you have to read this book.

*I was given an ARC in exchange for an honest review but I ended up getting to it late.*

I certainly didn't expect so much from this book! A dark retelling of Cinderella, this is full of emotion, mystery, and magic. Admittedly the beginning was a bit slow, but when it got going, it really got going. I don't know why this isn't better known when it's so good.

The plot is strong. I guessed a lot of it, but I guess everything anyway. If you like retellings, Robin McKinley, or dark faerytales you will love this book. The characters are deep and unique. My only complaints is that Bess does altogether too much whispering (to the point of it being ridiculous) and that the era feels more 1700s than medieval. All in all, I'd definitely recommend.

I tried realllllyyyy hard to finish this book several times, but I just could not get into the storyline. I do love a good retelling and I was super excited to read this book.
This book is a very dark and disturbing version of Cinderella, full of mental and physical abuse. I just could not get into the constant brow beating and tormenting anguish of the MC. I did make it about halfway, but I could not make myself continue.
The storyline was promising at first and different than an all-out Little Cinder Girl copy. The plot just fell flat and was uninteresting.
I did love the cover and thought it was beautifully done. That was just about all that I liked about the book. I do appreciate the opportunity to read and review this book. I apologize that could not like it more.

A dark, creepy Cinderella retelling.

DNF at 10%. It's not a bad book i guess i just knew as soon as i started it, it wasn't for me.

I always find retellings to be rather enjoyable, but they don't always deliver - sometimes they are just too similar to the originals by Andersen or the Grimm's or even to the Disney remakes but other times they have enough of an original flare to make them highly enjoyable. And this one delivered.

A stunning retelling of Cinderella, Nora works in the kitchens living with her adoptive family, her parents are dead and the family she works for hates her more than anything. But her life changes when she discovers her father has lived in the main house her whole life, finding this out she begins to question everything - why was she thrown into the kitchen? Why is magic forbidden in the house? Why has she inherited only a silver-bladed knife from her mother?
When a royal ball is announced, Nora must decide what she really wants and whether she is willing to lose every thing she loves to get it.

I found this to be a very fast paced book, A LOT happened in the first 4 chapters and in a book of 18 chapters I did feel slightly swamped by everything that happened. But I also found that to be a huge positive when it came to this book, I couldn't put it down as I was constantly hoping to find out what happened next, and I wasn't disappointed.

Nora the main character, showed few signs of character development until the very end of the book, and seemed to believe she was entitled to an awful lot. This I found hard to deal with while I was reading but as it was a fairy tale, it is to be expected. But because of this, I found it hard to relate to Nora and had a hard time understanding the choices she made, However I am VERY different personality wise and not every book can relate to everyone. My favourite character was Jack, a kitchen boy who worked with Nora and her family along with his mother. Jack was very down to earth and seemed to be Nora's Jiminy Cricket at times. Also in my head he was gorgeous...

As I said previously I had been worried that this book would be too similar to other Cinderella stories but nope. The Kindred (those who could do magic) that were featured in this book were like nothing I have ever read in a Cinderella retelling and with them the whole story, although taking points from the original took a very different path from most that I have read.

I really enjoyed the description used in the chapter featuring market, very well written and reminded me a lot of the description Morganstern used in The Night Circus (another book I really enjoyed).

Molly Lazer was a former associate editor at Marvel Comics and worked on books such as Fantastic Four, Captain America and the New Avengers. These facts surprised me as I saw no parallels between Owl Eyes and the Marvel Comics.
Overall this was a classic fairy tale with Lazer's own personal twist and I enjoyed it greatly.
I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys fantasy or fairy tale retellings, or both.

A fun, captivating, dark at times fairy tale retelling. I love retellings and this one based around Cinderella really did it for me. I liked the characters and was very invested in them. I particularly liked that Owl Eyes was dark reminding me of the Grimms work.

Amazing, just... amazing! I ploughed through this book in a couple of hours because I was just so hooked and engrossed with it. It has a hint of being a Cinderella retelling, but with a much different ending, and a few more surprises thrown in there along the way. It really was an amazing adventure with Nora.

This is a book that I would recommend to anyone who loves a good fairytale retelling. Suitable for teens and young adults (I have a feeling I know a few 11 year old girl who will love this book!).

An enjoyable re-imagining of Cinderella told with grittiness and a distinctly gothic feel. While still a fantasy tale, this feels far more contemporary in many respects. More a story about a search for identity and your place in the world. This worked especially well in terms of the MC, Eleanor's, agency - she had far more of it than most Cinderella characters. Thoroughly enjoyable.

Link will go live 04/18/18

As I have a particular fondness for fairy tales that lean in on the darkness that was inherent to many of the originals, I jumped all over this title when I saw it pop up on NetGalley. But, while the darkness and world building did deliver, I was overall left underwhelmed with this new entry to the vast world of Cinderella stories.

For the good: the story delivers on the essentials of what is laid out in the book description above. This is indeed a Cinderella story, but nicely twisted on its head so as to not simply be another rehashing of a very often rehashed story. I enjoyed the tension that was built throughout the story between Nora's desire to uncover the truth about her family and herself alongside her realizations of the good things that have made up her life as is. As it's mentioned in the description, the scene early in the book when she is thrown in the ash covered room plays for particularly good effect throughout, and her ongoing struggles with the fallout of this event are repeatedly hit home. She was, after all, a very young girl when it took place.

I also enjoyed much of the world-building, but here also is where my criticisms begin to come to play. The world of Colandaria sounds like an intriguing place, with an interesting magic system and a history of wars between it and its neighbors. However, none of this is fleshed out or explored in any meaningful way. Instead, details are sprinkled here and there on the periphery of Nora's tale, but never quite enough to give me a solid sense of place or investment in the world's effect on the plot line that was unfolding.

The plot was another stumbling block. While things do pick up towards the last third of the book, the action itself felt very stilted. It's hard to really put my finger on what exactly the problem was. The writing is solid enough, but things seemed to simply progress from one event to another and I was just kind of...there. Every once in a while a few pages would grab me, like the aforementioned scene in the ash room, but then the book would fall back to mundane details for pages on end.

Most of my problem probably lies at the feet of Nora herself. She was simply not an engaging protagonist to follow through this story. Her arc is laid before her, but as she moved through it, her character itself wasn't one whom I became invested in. She felt very flat, and I had a hard time pinning down any attributes to her as a person. Was she feisty? Reflective? Shy? Ambitious? I couldn't tell you. Instead, she simply moves through the book, and we move with her. But, as we are seeing this story through her eyes, I was never sure how I felt about it because it was never clear what lens Nora was using herself.

This, in turn, colored my perceptions of the other characters. While some of them seemed to have interesting parts to them (Jack, in particular), because Nora read so flat herself, her views of these others also read as fairly flat. A story like this really lives and dies on the strength of its lead, and my lack of investment in Nora spread easily to those around her.

While I did like the twists and turns the story took, particularly the ball itself, I also wasn't a huge fan of the romance in this. Simply put, there just wasn't enough of it. This is a very subjective point of view, however, as I can also see how the lack of romance could be a plus for other readers. I, however, always like a solid romance plot line in my fantasy, particularly in my fairy tale retellings that are, often, inherently romantic tales on their own.

Overall, I was pretty disappointed with this read. There wasn't anything bad about it, per se, but I just couldn't seem to care. I found myself often putting the book down and having to force myself to pick it up again. If you absolutely love Cinderella stories, particularly ones with less of a romantic subplot, this may be the book for you. But, all in all, my recommendation is a solid "meh."

Rating 5: A dull main character ultimately polluted what might have been an interesting retelling of "Cinderella."

Owl Eyes is a modern retelling of Cinderella. It has a darker tone to it rather than Disney's retelling--which helps it embody a true fairytale. From the very beginning, I was swept into the story through the world building and the strong voice of our protagonist, Nora. It did take awhile for the story to pick it, but once it did I was a goner. I was completely immersed in this dark, magical tale. The setting was set up beautifully, and amazingly detailed. The characters were extremely developed which is a feat that should be applauded. Oftentimes in debut novels some characters seem a bit flat, but they were wonderfully developed in this story. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves retellings of classic fairy tales!

Owl Eyes is a modern retelling of Cinderella with an underlying darkness that embodies a true fairy tale. The sanguine Disney retellings that have become embedded in public memory fail to capture the grimness of a proper fairy tale. Lazer delivers a story which has the pace and presence of a traditional fairy tale. By doing so, it has share faults of a classic fairy tale - shallow side characters, light world-building, and a stunningly quick march through the concluding action of the story. 

The writing is crisp, clear, and efficient. The story is familiar without losing the reader's interest.

The characters are stock, fairy tale characters with predictable behaviours and emotions. Nora, the protagonist, does not make herself likeable. Instead, she tells her story with all the difficulty of being a young adult in a twisted world.

The world is interesting, but we see very little of it. Lazer has the opportunity to explore this world through Jack's (Nora's sidekick) eyes in future stories. 

I enjoyed this story as a quick read on a stormy night. Thank you to NetGalley and Fire and Ice YA for providing an eARC for my review.

I didn't like this book but it isn't for a lack of trying. I read it from beginning to end. I put the book down and picked it back up but it was slow, the characters weren't appealing the overall plot didn't leave anything to be desired. I just was not into this book at all.

I began this story thinking I was really going to enjoy the premise. The first few pages really got me intrigued, it sort of reminded me of another version of Cinderella. But, as the story went on, I had a hard time following as it felt like the story did not have a very good flow. Sometimes it was difficult to determine who was speaking and the characters seemed to lack depth. Not for me.

A reinvented Cinderella story-- with evil stepsisters, an evil stepmother, a prince, a lost shoe... etc, etc.

While Owl Eyes did have some new additions (an awful and absent father), it lacked depth, and the pacing was all out of sorts. I wish that Nora had a better developed personality, and I wish that Jack had any personality at all. The world in which they lived, old school and fantastical, was also not explained fully.

Overall, a fun, but incredibly flimsy, read.

Title: Owl Eyes: A Fairy Tale

Author: Molly Lazer

My Rating: 4 Stars

What it's about:

Nora is adopted by kitchen servants after her mother passes away during childbirth. She lives her life waiting on an important family, and wishing she knew more about her parents. One day she realizes that one of her parents might be closer than she thought, he might even be someone she cooks for every single day.

What I liked:

I liked that this was a different kind of Cinderella re-telling. It's darker, harder, than the Cinderella we all know.

While there isn't a fairy godmother or friendly mice, there is a magic system that Nora uses to her advantage a time or two.

What I disliked:

The ending seemed rushed to me, it was fast passed so maybe I just got through it quickly, but I wish there were more to the ending. It seemed abrupt to me.

I wish we had gotten to see more of this world and the magic systems in place, explore it politics and get to know minor characters. This is a world where I could see a lot of great stories taking place.

Overview:

I enjoyed reading this book. I flew threw it, I finished it in 2 sittings. Thanks so much to NetGalley for the opportunity to read this early.

I had zero expectations when I requested this title as the author was unknown to me and there were no other reviews at that point. I was very pleasantly surprised to find this book to be an absolute delight to read.

It’s clear from early on that the story is a re-imagining of a Cinderella but with a deliciously dark and sinister side. The protagonist, Nora, grows up living and working alongside her adoptive parents in the kitchen house of a large state. She’s teased and tormented on a regular basis in various ways by the big house occupants, both the daughters of the house and by the cruel lord and lady. As Nora pursues the mystery behind her family history, we’re taken into a world with an interesting magical system and a serious twist on the traditional fairy tale romance. I loved the underlying sense of danger and unease as well as the creative take on the themes of identity, empowerment, destiny. Molly Lazer’s writing is beautiful and compelling.

If I had one complaint it would be that I was not completely sold on the romance element in the story which I felt fell a little flat. The pace was also a bit uneven at points, which worked ok overall but it did feel like it dragged slightly at one stage and then was rushed at the end. But on the whole these are minor criticisms which did not detract too much from my overall enjoyment.

I received this title as an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A special retelling of the Cinderella story, this is the story of Nora, a young girl banished to the servants quarters since before she can remember. Working alongside her adoptive parents she serves the Lord of the house, his second wife and their daughters, but she is forbidden to enter the main house, and must keep out of sight. Intrigued to discover that her father lived in the house, she disobeys this rule and finds herself severely punished. As time goes on the mystery of her parentage still haunts her, and she gradually discovers the truth, along with a very dark and bloody secret that seems likely to change her life forever.
I loved the darkness of this book, and the way it took the more magical elements of the Cinderella story and made them grimier, more gritty and definitely more disturbing.The world building and systems of magic used in the story are very interesting, so much so that I would like to know more about them, the lack of more background development is one of the few flaws I could find in the book . The character of Nora is a really compelling one, vulnerable yet strong and spunky at the same time, and determined to uncover the mysteries of her origins, even on pain of death. I don't want to spoil the ending, all I can say is that I loved it, and it was truly in keeping with the character of Nora as she grew and developed through out the book .