I really wanted to like this book - in fact, I did really like the concept. But the writing felt repetitive, colloquial, and sloppy, the characters a little too obviously developed, and the plot vaguely unfinished. But, it wasn't a bad story to listen to the audiobook while biking.

Thank you Xpresso Book Tours and Giselle for the copy in exchange for an honest review

Now, who doesn't love a good fairy tale retelling? I sure love 'em, and it's clear that author Aya Ling does too (and that's not just because I read her exact words describing this in the Acknowledgements --which yes, I do read too). She provided a beautiful backdrop in Cinderella land for The Ugly Stepsister.

The story jumps right to it. Our protagonist Kat is terribly shy with boys and loves to just hide in her room with a good book in hand rather than party it up like the other girls at school. Now why does that sound so familiar?

Oh right. That's 'cause I can totally relate to that when I was around that age. As I'm sure many other readers out there can also relate to that sentiment.

Anyway, there was an immediate understanding and bond with Kat which made me like her all the more. Soon after, she falls into a completely crazy world of fairy land, but nothing seems to be working right. How does one find a fairy godmother? What's with all these corsets? And what? The other stepsister is NOT ugly? How can that be? Kat has a lot on her hands to get the story going so that the prince would fall for Cinderella in this tale. Oh, and not to mention, all these crazy antics are pure hilarious entertainment for the goblins that had cursed Kat to this fate.

I loved a whole lot of this book. Kat had to go through a lot to first just even understand how this old historical-like kingdom system worked. And then to do it all alone, with barely any help from the goblin intermediate that would pop up in her room at night occasionally to just ask for progress. She was strong and through it all, it pushed her out of her comfort zone. Talking to hot guys? Check. Facing down lords and other royalty while trying to not completely make a fool of herself? Check. Having to live with a horrible mother who only cared to find Kat a suitor? Check.

It was slow towards the middle, I will admit. I felt Ling didn't have to drag the plot out so much with all the horrid parties Kat had to attend in order to "find an appropriate suitor". And man, her awful sister! Did I want to strangle that girl sometimes? And this was coming from the point of view as the sister and NOT as Cinderella? That says a lot how much I hated her.

But overall, the story brought out a lot of greatness. Kat was an amazing girl. She fought hard for things in this kingdom that mattered only in her "normal" modern day life. It didn't matter that she kept telling herself at night that these people were only just characters in a book. She was living it and these people mattered to her regardless. Haven't you ever felt that way about characters in a book before?

And the romance. Oh my goodness. Prince Edward was swoon-worthy (of course!). What kind of Cinderella retelling would it be without a gorgeous prince? But he wasn't just a face. He cared about things that other high ranking nobles didn't. His cousin was just as amazing, choosing a profession that helped the common people. It's always good in a book to enjoy the PERSONALITIES of the hot guys the protagonist is vying for.

Alas, the ending melted me. It absolutely did. I won't say much beyond that so it wouldn't ruin a thing, but it did make sense from a writing point. I loved it; it was ingenious of course. But it was definitely bittersweet as well.

Overall Recommendation:
The Ugly Stepsister is not just some fairy tale retelling. There are so many of those already, aren't there? It's a beautiful twist of possibly the greatest classic fairy tale, and it contains such remarkable elements. With immense detail into what life would be like in Cinderella's kingdom, and a protagonist with such strong convictions to get home, this story leaves you cheering for Kat to finish the fairy tale story and crying with her when things go so horribly wrong. I love fairy tale retellings and this definitely made it to the list of books I thoroughly enjoyed.

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I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
I love fairytale retellings and this one had an entirely new concept that I hadn’t read before. The fact that she becomes the ugly stepsister and not Cinderella is really refreshing. Edward is truly Prince Charming! I would marry him any day.
I obviously resented Bianca. She is basically the fakest of the fakest.
I want to read the next book to find out what happens but I think I won’t read it any time soon. I want to take a break from fairytales for now and read a few more sci-fi’s.

*I recieved an ARC in exchange for an honest review*
*Check out the original review at http://www.confessionsofabookfreak.blogspot.com*

“Am I one of the ugly stepsisters?”
His grin grows wider.
Damn. “If I have to be in the story, why aren’t I Cinderella?”


Let’s start with the main character, Kat.

She loves her family above all. When she ends up in Cinderella, she doesn’t simply accept the way things are – and they sure are very different from today – but she wants to do something about it. She treats her servants more like people. She helps them. She has absolutely no manners, which is proved again and again. She cares. She’s a good enough character, I liked her. The way she stood up for her servant, instead of treating them like dirt, is the main reason why I liked her so much, and the fact that she doesn’t just step aside and let others deal with the wrong things in the world, but she tries to do something about it.

Then we have the prince.

He doesn’t agree with how his parents, the king and the queen, rule the country, so he tries to do something about it. He cares about the people, he wants them to be alright. He hates public events, and isn’t around a lot. He likes that Kat is different from most of the other girls.

I’ve been looking for another retelling to sink my teeth in.

That’s what really caught my attention. What happened was that I read the synopsis and thought “Wow, a Cinderella retelling! I need to read this!” Let me correct that sentence. I did not need to read it. It wasn’t bad, in fact, the writing was good, and it really was what the synopsis said it was.

That was kind of the problem. I realized sometime while reading this that the reason I loved the other retellings was because, although they were based on the fairytale (for example Cinderella), but it was still very different, which resulted in them being unpredictable, even though they were retellings.

That wasn’t the case with The Ugly Stepsister. Katherine accidentally ends up in Cinderella, and in order to get home to the real world, she has to finish the story. But, it has a little twist to it, because the prince doesn’t care much for Cinderella. Surprise there. But he is intrigued by Kat. I won’t say anything else.

The first half of the book was extremely boring.

I kept waiting for something interesting, something captivating, something surprising, to happen, but it didn’t. Nothing in this book surprised me, which is what made it so boring.

This book can be described with one word: predictable.

This is one of the worst things that can happen with a retelling. And I hated the ending. For two reasons; 1) it was predictable, just like the rest of the story, and 2) it did not make sense to me. At all. I realized it was coming, but … why? I was expecting a solution, not that. I’m trying so hard not to give out any spoilers right now, but I really want to rant about how terrible the ending was.

But, except for the ending and the predictability of the book, it was a good enough read. It’s worth reading.

I received a copy of this book from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.

I am just in LOVE with fairy tale retellings! Cinder I believe has been the latest push for these types of books but I fell in love with these retellings by reading Robin McKinley's Beauty and Deerskin. So when I saw this on netgalley(or anything like it) I request it and lucky for me I got it!

It starts off in the present day with Kat being self-conscious and not confident at all and she gets anxious whenever a cute guy talks to her. The normal teenage stuff. Then while cleaning the attic she rips the Cinderella book and gets transported into the story! Krev, a goblin tells her that she has to complete the story of Cinderella in order to go back to her modern world with plumbing and TV. She has no idea how to go about finishing the story when she is one of the stepsisters. She can't even figure out who the Cinderella is! Her troubles have only just started.

Things I liked:

The setting and the descriptions of the outfits and everything was really well done. I felt transported to another world! I would love to live in a world like that minus the nonexistent plumbing issue.
Kat starts out being annoying and the typical heroine but she grows a backbone and starts doing something about her situation. She really does grow from being a shy girl to one that is confident and strong.
Bianca is such a nasty character and I really liked how she was portrayed but I would have liked more.
The subplots that were also going on were great! It was a really interesting new take on this story! I would have liked more but this was a retelling so....

Things I didn't like:

The pace was slow. It being around 452 pages, not much was happening in most of those. It could have definitely been shortened.
It was predictable. There were some things that surprised me but it was just like an OH and not like OMG!
The end was a little weird.....I don't want to give it away but it just didn't really make sense.

I really wanted to like this book. The re-telling of Cinderella idea was intriguing, but the execution fell short.

The Cinderella parts worked well for me, but the storyline wandered off on a tangent while main character Kat tried to single handedly solve the social issues of the storybook word, without any understanding of economics. She seemed to think that reducing the hours children could work, would miraculously save their poor lives, without any understanding of the fact that would reduce the amount of money a family had, meaning the children would probably starve to death. Also it wouldn't stop them from dying in preventable accidents - which was the initial issue. You're probably wondering what any of this misinformed do-gooding has to do with Cinderella? I have no idea either.

At times it felt like the author hadn't even read over what she had written. At one point, main character Kat suggests she could act as a witness for a friend at an event. Several scenes later, when the friend mentions her being a witness, Kat is surprised as if the previous conversation had never even happened.

I may have given up on this book somewhere in the middle if I hadn't been listening to the audio version while on a long drive.

This review and more can be found at The Heart of a Book Blogger.

I love the classic fairy-tales and their retellings. When I saw that The Ugly Stepsister was a Cinderella retelling with a twist, I requested it right away, and I’m glad I did.

At first, the story was a little slow getting into, but I liked it a lot when it picked up. I love that this wasn’t just a Cinderella retelling—it’s twist made it different. Instead of our protagonist being Cinderella herself, she is one of the ugly stepsisters. Kat is pulled into the story when she accidentally ruins the book. To return home to her family, Kat must complete the happily ever after and get Cinderella her prince charming. However, while Kat tries to get Cinderella and the prince together, the prince ends up falling for Kat.

This was a new version of the story that I haven’t read before, and I really enjoyed reading it. I liked the storyline between Kat and Edward, the prince, very much. I loved how their relationship grew, and yes, I did love the romance between the two of them.

This book was funny too. Watching Kat try to adjust to this story world and all the hijinks she caused while trying was very amusing and made the book very enjoyable. The ending was little disappointing, though. I know that Kat had to eventually go home, but I would like to have known a little more.

Overall, this book was an enjoyable read. I would definitely recommend it to those who like fairytale retellings.

*This ARC was provided to me by the author through Xpresso Book Tours in exchange for a honest review.*

LOVE.

Very entertaining.
Aside from the Cinderella story, I found very interesting the way Kat cared for the social situation in the fictional world she found herself in. That girl has passion!
And the prince was so Charming ^_^

This was a unique and different way to tell this classic fairy tale of Cinderella, I was very interested and intrigued by it.

Although if I hadn't know there was a sequel, I would have been rather annoyed with the ending.