Step into a dark retelling fairytale that you would soon regret being a part of. A desperate young girl Eleanor lives in a time where woman are mainly objects to be used, thrown away, no questions asked. To succeed as a "lady" you need money or married to a higher class to be considered part of the community. Sadly, Eleanors parents are dead as well as her loving guardian Mrs. Pembroke who promised to always take care of her financially and socially. Now she is back in the lower ranks fighting to survive in a mans world, hiding from the now guardian Mr. Pembroke who has an eye for young girls. In desperation a "fairy Godmother" appears but not the typical one you read in stories. No, one with deep black holes as eyes and a smile that you'd want to run away from. 7 wishes have been given to Eleanor and in return her soul. Will Eleanor, clever as she may think she is be able to make the right wishes? Will she be able to have her happily ever ending?

Throughout the book I desperately wanted Eleanor to leave and start a happier life. If only it was so easy. If you enjoy a darker storyline with surprises and a character that's questionable in motives, I'd check out The Shadow in the Glass.

When Eleanor Hartley was a young girl, her guardian, Mrs. Pembroke, was priming her to be a lady of society. However, all her prospects came apart when Mrs. Pembroke died and her husband, Mr. Pembroke, became her primary guardian. Overnight, Ella was relegated from lady to servant is forced to scrub the same floors on which she once stood tall. To escape the pressures of her laborous life, Ella hides in the library and reads about magic and freedom. One day, Ella finds a copy of Faust and as she cuts her finger on the pages, a woman appears to offer her a classic faustian bargain: seven wishes to change her life in exchange for her soul.

First off, I was really pulled in by the premise of this book. There's a wealth of Cinderella retellings out there, from other cultural interpretations to screen adaptations. It's rare to see an original take. I also really appreciated that historical accuracy of the times. As a reader, I felt truly immersed in the world Hardwood was depicting, from the clothing all the way down to the gender norms and socio-political strife.

With that said, I had some issues with the way violence against women was used as a plot device. While I found the twist on "evil step-mother to evil male guardian" to be an interesting one, the constant threat of sexual assault among a cast of characters full of minors honestly left me a bit shaken. The fact that the women in Hardwood's society were not just victims or survivors but perpetrators of the system didn't sit right with me and I'm not sure what kind of message it sends. Lizzie, a fellow maid in the house, sends other, younger, maids to be abused by Mr. Pembrooke just to spare herself. Mrs. Fielding, covers up the operation and gets rid of every maid who falls pregnant with Mr. Pembrooke's child as a result of the abuse, sending them away with no money and no character reference which would enable them to obtain another position. Charles's fiance seems to have no understanding of the economic or social conditions of the country where she is born and is both physically and emotionally abusive towards Eleanor because she sees her as a threat. I'm not sure what the purpose for so much violence and hopelessness was but it may have gone over my head.

I liked the way that Hardwood emphasized Eleanor's constant struggle for power in a situation where she seemed to have none. I found that made her a much more interesting character than the original Cinderella. I do wish that there was a more complete ending. I'd like to know what became of Eleanor and her soul.

Thank you to Harper360 and Netgalley for providing me with this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Shadow in the Glass is a very dark retelling of Cinderella that is nothing that you expect it to be. It is an incredible page-turner that keeps you guessing until the end. This version of the classic tale is set in Victorian, England and the characters (the prince, the fairy godmother, and even Cinderella) are all not what they seem. Although the stories are different, this novel gave me a similar feeling with the House of Salt and Sorrows, where things may appear to be one way, but there are endless twists and turns.

Eleanor “Ella” Rose Hartley is our “Cinderella” as she became the foster child for the Pembrokes at Granborough House after she was orphaned. Mrs. Pembroke treated her as a daughter and, even though she was not of status, as a lady of the house. After Mrs. Pembroke passes, Ella’s life is turned upside down and she is now forced to become a maid in the house. Mr. Pembroke is a much darker individual than Mrs. Pembroke as he has his eye on the younger maids. She begins the story as naïve where everything will eventually work out as long as she believes. Slowly, she becomes more and more morally grey as she knows she has to take action to get what she wants and to protect those she loves.

To escape her reality, Ella goes to the library using a key that she obtained from Mrs. Pembroke. Reading transports her to new places around the world that she believes she could never visit. One day, a woman appears to her in the library and gives Ella a chance to change her future. The woman offers Ella seven wishes in exchange for her soul. The soul will only be given after the seventh wish has been completed. As Ella is desperate and does not fully comprehend any potential consequences, she agrees. Ella makes her first wish and then continues to discover both the power and consequences that come as a result. Honestly, I was disappointed in Ella’s first wish as it was a fairly small one. To me, if I already made the bargain, my first wish would be to “go big or go home” and wish for stars. Even if it did not all come true, at least I would have given it a chance.

The novel itself is divided into seven parts instead of shorter chapters, which can be difficult to start and stop reading at certain parts if you read the novel in multiple shorter sittings. For me, I read this in two sittings (one through three and then four through seven). I feel that although smaller chapters would help create “stopping point,” the overall flow of the writing worked well as the story slowly became darker and darker. Although it is a retelling similar to the original tale (not Disney), the material itself feels incredibly original and you sometimes forget that this is a retelling. The time period comes across in so many ways and fits the story. The was women are treated, especially those without status, was extremely well done as they would love to stand up for themselves, but then their entire lives would be ruined.

Overall, the reader finds themselves in Ella’s quest for power. She tries to use her circumstances to gain power as she believes that is best for everyone. Her emotional journey with each wish was captivating as you can see her personality grow and change throughout. The side characters were amazing and you find yourself invested in their futures. I do wish that there was an epilogue to figure out what happened to some of the side characters, but I liked the ending to the story and felt it fit the novel well. Ella was a fantastic character that you both rooted for and questioned and I loved the way the author wrote her to become very compelling. Harwood created a very enthralling tale and I would love to read more from this author in the future!

**I give a special thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Harper360, HarperVoyager, for a copy of this thrilling ARC to read. The opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.**

This book is really hard for me to rate because I enjoyed the overall theme of the book and it was a fast paced page turner but I didn't really enjoy Ella as a character. She didn't use her wishes in the way that would benefited her the most and while at the end you understood her decisions in the moment it made you really dislike her. The writing was done beautifully and I'm glad I was able to read it! Thank you Netgalley and Harper360 for the ARC but all of the opinions were my own.

I was not able to finish this book due to the imagery in this book. It was quite graphic and unsettling for me.

I don't recommend making a wish with this fairy godmother.

This was quite an interesting twisting of the Cinderella fairy tale with the story of Faust. Ella is granted seven wishes by a fairy godmother-like character but the cost for these wishes might just be too much for her to take. It also had a bit of a mystery interspersed throughout the entire story.

It took me quite a while to get into this story but I did enjoy the aspects of the wish-giving and how each wish Ella makes has its consequences. Each one becoming darker and darker as the story progresses. But what do you expect when you make a bargain with the devil? My favorite part of this book was definitely the ending. It was suspenseful and an interesting twisting of the Cinderella story. I especially loved the epilogue. I just really wish the rest of the book was as good as that ending.

*Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.*

Thank you to Harper 360 and NetGalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The Shadow in the Glass is a dark retelling of Cinderella set in Victorian times. When I read that description, I knew that I wanted to read this book immediately. Fantasy books are my absolute favorite genre. Thank you again the publisher for giving me the opportunity to review this book ahead of its release date!

The plot of the Shadow in the Glass revolves around Ella, a 17 year-old maid working for her cruel, lecherous stepfather. The head servants hate her and dismiss her. Her savings have been stolen. Her best friend has left her. Plus, her stepfather is starting to make advances toward her. Her only comfort is in reading books in secret. Here is a quote from the opening pages that shows her love for reading:

"Eleanor set down her candle and surveyed her subjects. Damp equatorial rainforests, steaming in the heat. Versailles, glittering in the dark like an Earthbound star. Verona – Juliet on her balcony, sighing into the darkness. It was a perfect night for poetry: she could stretch out her legs and whisper sonnets into the slow, hot silence."

One night, as Ella is reading in order to escape her dire circumstances, she notices a new black book. While she is reading it, a fairy godmother suddenly appears in the room. Here is an excerpt from Part One

"When she opened her eyes, there was a woman sitting opposite her.
The woman’s light brown hair was pulled back into a neat bun, threaded with silver. She was middle-aged and plump, not short, not tall. Her printed calico dress looked soft and clean. The woman would’ve looked perfectly ordinary if it hadn’t been for her eyes. They were all black, like holes through her face.
‘I do hope I’m not disturbing you,’ she said, her voice gentle and almost familiar."

The fairy godmother offers her seven wishes in exchange for her soul. As anyone who reads stories about fairies know, fairies will try to trick you, and fairy bargains don't often work out in your favor. The book is about the wishes that Ella makes and how you have to be careful what you wish for. I couldn't stop reading this book. I had to find out what happens to Ella, and I ended up finishing the book in one day. With action, romance, and fantasy, this book had the perfect plot, and I enjoyed reading it so much. Just a warning to faint-hearted readers: a lot of bad things happen to Ella. Some readers may characterize this book as "grimdark." It reminded me a lot of Zack Snyder's film Sucker Punch. If you're not afraid of the dark and often wish for more morally grey characters, then you'll enjoy this book!

Overall, The Shadow in the Glass is an engrossing, fantastic dark retelling of Cinderella. I highly recommend it for fans of fairy tale retellings like those by Sarah J. Maas. If you enjoyed the excerpts above or if you're intrigued by the description, I highly recommend that you check out this book when it comes out in May!

3.5 stars

I have never seen a fairy tale retelling quite like this.

A combination of Cinderella and Dr. Faustus, The Shadow in the Glass is an intense depiction of a girl who desires nothing more than to rise above her station and will do whatever it takes to get it. When a mysterious, dark woman offers the servant girl Eleanor the opportunity to make seven wishes in exchange for her soul, the young girl vows that she will trick the spirit by not using all of the wishes. Of course, it doesn't end up being that simple and Eleanor must decide whether or not the life she has always wanted is worth the terrible cost.

I thought the concept for this was absolutely wonderful. It had just enough of the original stories to get me interested, but was also unique enough to keep me reading. I did find the pacing to be slow at parts and I wish that we could have gone deeper into the mind of our dark heroine, but I definitely still enjoyed myself. If you love twisted versions of your favorite fairytales, look no further than this book!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

While reading this book I kept thinking back on a popular phrase from the TV series Once Upon a Time. Rumpletiltskin would often tell the other characters “magic always comes with a price” when offering them a bargain. To me this seems to be a major theme of “The Shadow in the Glass”. As children we believe that a wave of a magic wand can make everything better. JJA Harwood’s story wants us to recognize the fact that there really is no “magical” solution to our problems and relaying on a force we often don’t understand typically results in more harm than good. This is a lesson that Ella, the main character, learns too late.

“The Shadow in the Glass” is definitely not your typical Cinderella re-telling. Set against the backdrop of Victorian London, Eleanor “Ella” is an orphan forced to become a maid by her depraved guardian. Yet the more we learn about her the less innocent she seems. There are numerous disturbing reports of violent childhood outburst and dark, often murderous thoughts. Ella’s “fairy godmother” bares a striking resemblance to the demon from Kit Marlowe’s “Doctor Faustus”. And Ella’s love interest, Charles Pembroke, proves himself time and again not to be Prince Charming. As a result the reader discovers a grittier, more sinister story than the one we have come to expect.

Though there are fantastical elements to this story, I thought “The Shadow in the Glass” did a great job of giving us a glimpse of both glittering London society as well as the seedy underbelly of Victorian London. As the reader we get to experience the glamour of a London ball, but not too far off there are people begging for their bread. Female servants are often at the mercy of their lecherous employers. My heart particularly broke for a character, who was raped and then fired after her unwanted pregnancy couldn’t be hidden anymore. Even worse she was seen as the responsible party rather than her employer.

Overall, I give this book a 4 out of 5. I found myself enjoying the beginning and the end of the story much more than the middle. In my opinion, that has less to do with the writing than with the fact that I found myself losing sympathy for Ella as she began to make a lot of questionable choices. Also be warned that there is a fair amount of violence and tragedy throughout this story. I will say that I thought the ending was very well done. Following the darker theme Cinderella manages to lose her slipper, but not in a way that we could possibly expect.

If you are a fan of dark fairytale re-tellings or historical fantasy then I think you’ll definitely enjoy this book.

this a great, more mature, retelling of Cinderella, with a few twists. everything has a cost after all

Gothic, creepy, and addictive retelling of the Cinderella story set in Victorian England. This took awhile for me to warm up too, but eventually had me hooked. The classic deal-with-the-devil situation that you hold out hope for the best, even though those never end well!

I was a bit disappointed by this book. A Gothic retelling of Cinderella is like my perfect book but this seemed to be missing something. The MC made decisions that were quite frustrating but in the end she grew on me. I enjoyed the twists in the book quite a bit as they were extremely predictable. My biggest issue I think was the pacing. The story started off promising but it quickly slowed and dragged didn't pick back up until about the 60% mark. The book was interesting for the most part and I was very interested in the plot and the romance.

This book is a unique and dark twisted retelling of Cinderella with a bit of mystery and magic, and I loved every page of it.. I would have no idea that this book is the authors debut novel.. It drew me in from the first page and I flew through it.. I just had to know what was going to happen next with Ella, and how she was going to get what she wanted..
Ella is a wonderful character, you could feel how much she wanted her life to change, and how much she wanted to help the other women she worked with.. and how you should always be careful what you wish for..
I can't wait to see what this author writes next!

This book started off strong but slowly lost footing. I enjoyed the writing and the characters but the plot had pacing issues. The book felt too long. Definitely an interesting story worth reading, and an author to watch. Thank you to NetGalley for granting a free copy.

It's always a disappointment when the description of the blurb you read for a book doesn't live up to the story. What is thought of at first glance as a possibly darker, more gothic version of Cinderella, turns out to be just a loosely fitting version that that left me feeling more annoyed than magical.

The main character, Ella, while written to have gone through a hard life, doesn't come off that way. In a household where she knows rape is occurring, her supposed naivety is hard to believe when faced with a man's advances in another setting.

Some may say "She is just young", but this is written from a historical prospective where young woman were usually required to grow up fast. Most were married and had a child on their hip at the same age as our character's 17 years.

I really wanted to like this book that was written to be full of hardships and opportunities to overcome them, but in this case Ella kept making the same mistakes over and over again. When given the opportunity to make her friends lives better, she wishes for shoes instead and the wish of course has dire consequences. She is someone that lives in the past and becomes almost bitter by the loss of the life taken from her. It just ruined the heart of the story of Cinderella for me. So while there are parts that I like, overall it's a book I think fails as a retelling.

** Thank you to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this ARC **

Fans of dark, gothic historical fiction, you will love this one! I have read a lot of fairytale retellings (like A LOT. Probably in the hundreds by now) and I can honestly say I have neeeeeever read a Cinderella retelling like this. Cinderella with a Faustian twist? Sign me up!

Eleanor, our Cinderella in this dark retelling, has the worst, most depression life ever. Holy shit. You think you’ve read about hardship? Just wait until you’ve read 300 pages of the most depressing, grueling, agonizing life story EVER. Like GEEZ. Her life SUCKS unlike any way I can even describe and it is DEPRESSING TO READ. It’s funny because I absolutely adore regency, but all of ones I’ve read have been about the wealthy, high society in historical fiction. Seeing the other side with this book helps me realize how I really was seeing regency through tinted glasses and it honestly turns me off from the genre now, knowing that a significant amount of people back then lived the way Ella did in this book. Honestly, I needed this reality check. I’ve told so many people how I wish I lived in regency eta, but this book helped me realize that I really romanticized that time period. It really only was great if you were born rich.

Ella was an extremely morally gray character, but at the same time you sympathize with her. It’s easy to understand why she is the way she is, because her life is SHIT. That doesn’t excuse her actions at all, but like, I get it 😂

This book had me racing towards the end, forgoing sleep and walking around like a zombie the next day because I was so desperate to get to the end. Speaking of, that’s my only real complaint. The ending felt unsatisfactory to me. I liked it, but I personally prefer more of a solid conclusion. I would’ve liked more of an explanatory epilogue personally! Still, this was a solid 4/5 stars. This book is dark and depressing as fuck though guys! Be prepared!

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Voyager for sending me an copy in return for a review.

3.5 stars rounded up. I didn’t love this as much as I expected, but the author did a great job of creating an oppressive atmosphere. The development of the main character was masterful...a subtle transition from sympathetic young woman to a conniving villain.

Rating: 3.5 stars

CW: abuse, sexual assault, rape (off page, discussed on page), unwanted pregnancy, abortion/miscarriage, murder

This was not at all what I was expecting, but was so amazing anyway. A very gothic horror, Faustian spin on a Cinderella retelling. The descriptions in this book are so vivid and chilling, I'm pretty sure I got lung damage from breathing in imaginary mold, haha.

I was expecting a bit more of a Cinderella story from this book, but it's definitely heavy on the horror and less on the fairy tale. The Cinderella element (beyond her name, I mean) doesn't really come into play much until the very end of the book - but gosh, was it sure glorious when it finally did.

DEFINITELY watch out for those content warnings. I was... not prepared. This is DARK.

I absolutely adored.this Cinderella retelling. It kept my attention and the characters were relatable. I'd read another installment of given the option.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a free advance copy of this book to review.

The Shadow in the Glass sounded like an interesting book. I have greatly enjoyed Erin Morgenstern’s books and was hoping for a wonderful read. However, I was disappointed.

This book was supposed to be a retelling/reimagining of Cinderella. There are references to Eleanor’s nickname “Ella”, her current position as a housemaid and an “evil step-father”. Other than those and the final scene, the Cinderella comparisons are minimal.

Spoiler warning: I should have realized this was going to be a period piece, but I thought I could power through. Until I got to the part with the rapist old man. Who (I believe) never really got what was coming to him. He was just a creepy, nasty, old man who didn’t suffer consequences during his life. I really hate reading books that don’t punish pedophiles.

Other than that, I thought the plot with the wishes could have been explained better. I really had hoped for a twist (where it wasn’t magic causing all these things) but I was denied.

Overall, not a great or overall fulfilling read. Wouldn’t recommend unless you love Cinderella-ish stories, or period pieces set in the 1800’s.