Ari Reviews: Cinder & Glass By Melissa de La Cruz

Cinder & Glass is a retold of the classic fairytale of Cinderella. The story is set in the late 17th century in the court of the king of France. Cendrillon de Louvois the main character in the story has a lot of beauty, charm, etc. compared to the other ladies in the king’s court and she is the daughter of the king’s adviser who is well respected and favored by the king. However, Cendrillon’s perfect life will be changed and turned upside down when her father falls in love with one of the ladies at the king’s ball and marries her and gains two other daughters whom Cendrillon is taking etiquette lessons with at the palace. When Cendrillon’s father gets unexpectedly ill and dies, her stepmother takes over everything in her father’s estate and turns on Cendrillon by making the life she once had living comfortably and lavish to becoming a servant to her stepmother and stepsisters in their own household. Cendrillon becomes known as “Cinder” and tries to get through each day in her new life trying to please her stepmother and stepsisters and hopes for a chance to overcome her lonely and hard life being a servant to her new family. However, when the king announces he will be having a ball in honor of his son Prince Louis who is seeking a bride, all the young maidens in the court are invited to participate in the ball.  Cinder is determined to go to the ball as a chance to escape her hard life in her home and hopes to win the attention of Prince Louis. Cinder, however is caught in a dilemma since she has befriended Auguste who is the king’s illegitimate son and has made Cinder feel welcomed at the palace court and starts to fall for him. Will Cinder risk her chance to escape her stepmother and stepsisters in order to marry Prince Louis to be chosen to become his bride or will she choose Auguste and remain in the life that has made her miserable in order to be with Auguste as they grow closer?  How will Cinder’s fate play out? I highly recommend reading and taking this book out to seek the answers to these questions.  The book was a great retelling of this classic fairytale and had a lot of twists and turns as you keep reading throughout the book. I recommend this to teens who enjoy fantasy, historical fiction, and romance books.  I was very impressed and pleased in how the author did a great job in retelling this classic fairytale and made it into a wonderful story that stays true mostly to the original Cinderella tale.