Member Review

I have a weakness for those stories that debunk already established fairy tales. Unluckily this was not the book for me. The framework of the story is good and the idea of a reality with a cinderella like character based four centuries ago was interesting along with the short introduction to fairy tales themselves. 

The narration is also well done and the passage of time adds layers to the lead characters. The story is a different take on the various fairy tales that all of us have interacted with at one time or the other. The majority of the tales have had a damsel in distress who is rescued by a man. The current trend of animated retellings have tried to shake that stereotype. This version does the same thing. There is no rescue imminent and Lucinda  our 'cinderella' has to make the best of her hard life. She starts off extremely naive with life teaching her multiple hard lessons. It has a realistic spin in it and that is where it lost me. Unfortunately , I like a bit of happiness to be present somewhere within the spine of a tale. I found the despair filled life of hers hard to read along with all that she has to bear, but that is probably just my weakness and it might suit people who are willing to try different books.