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A review by ellornaslibrary
Lost by Ron Vitale
Did not finish book.
When a book turns out to be a disappointment it's hard to continue onward, but in an effort to merit being worthy (to myself) of writing a review I continued through the pages. I'm not going to paint a pretty picture here. Instead I'll say straight up that it was really hard to make myself keeping going beyond the 10% marker (as I read the e-book version) yet I did, and it did not get any better. This story had such potential. Generally I enjoy re-tellings of fairy tales, but this one I found highly unsatisfying.
Perhaps it was the fact that it didn't stick to the rules of a re-telling. Usually when you are doing a re-telling of a fairy tale the goal is to make some changes to make it your own while keeping the general structure and not utterly destroying the tale in itself. This does the latter in every way imaginable. From altering the details of the fairy tale in the first place (we don't get to see this part just the aftermath) to destroying it altogether with the book itself. At which point you begin to wonder why it's even a Cinderella story when the story has enough elements to be something of its own in its entirety.
On top of that something that is a fairy tale is shot into a mix with the real world. Now, at times this isn't so bad to do. . . so long as you do it well. In this instance though it turned out extremely poor, and cheesy, as not only is it added with certain historical elements (at one point, as a small example, they actually mention being in a newly discovered America with a "John" who has visited the shores many times) yet at random intervals tossed into the far future. Out of nowhere you suddenly find yourself just jumping around in a way that is highly unpleasant as there's not much in the way of truly logic explanation beyond the naivete and desperation of this "Cinderella" or the manipulation of the antagonist due to naivete of the main character. Something that still does not change even as the book continues to progress toward the end of the bar. I didn't even get a sense of this as a true change in the end, honestly.
Though a lot of this could be attributed to how the story was told. When doing diaries or journals it is important to have consistency; along with a creative way to write them that is more interesting than straight story-telling. The method used here was not entertaining in the least. Some were short, some were long, some came at consistent intervals, some came at random intervals, some were not Cinderella due to magic, and some were just plain not diary entries at all. The last ones were more normal ways to write a story that doesn't consist with a diary entry in the least. When you suddenly have multiple people all writing in her book and her being able to write out stuff that she shouldn't be able to perceive or even know due to a writing view switch while passing it off as diary entries. . . it becomes rather confusing.
As a whole this book would've been far better for the elements of the story had it been written with brief diary entries then the rest in normal third person story-telling and without trying to fit in everything and the kitchen sink (so to speak). It was as though the author wanted to do everything with her by having her in this historical setting with political situations of intrigue and interest; yet at the same time instead does nothing with her. In the moments where she could've grown as a character (the naive, desperate shtick needed dropped earlier in the story) she tucks tail and runs, and again trusts people it's obviously not wise to all due to these same feelings that have been messing up her life for years already. If someone sneezed she ran, if someone made her angry she got all uppity then she ran, if someone betrayed her she got hurt (and let us not forget the pretending like she doesn't betray when she does - repeatedly) then she ran, et cetera. Some of this even came after promising starts to the character growth. It made the story lacking and the character just not important to me. I honestly did not care if she won or lost (lived or died), and I didn't feel bad for her. I honestly would've cared more to hear the story of her lady-in-wait or the Queen or anyone else other than her after a certain point.
In essence, had the character been more interesting and given more growth, the setting given some reins on broadness while also being used(instead of vastly ignored the majority of the time), and the writing style done better it would have turned out to be a better book. Usually I'm far more courteous with reviews, but in an effort to write an honest one I have done so and here it is. You can agree or disagree. I just know that I won't touch this book again, or any others in the series(as from the preview taste I got of the next book it doesn't seem after all the time that passed, and what happened in this book, she has grown as a character), nor recommend the series to anyone.
Perhaps it was the fact that it didn't stick to the rules of a re-telling. Usually when you are doing a re-telling of a fairy tale the goal is to make some changes to make it your own while keeping the general structure and not utterly destroying the tale in itself. This does the latter in every way imaginable. From altering the details of the fairy tale in the first place (we don't get to see this part just the aftermath) to destroying it altogether with the book itself. At which point you begin to wonder why it's even a Cinderella story when the story has enough elements to be something of its own in its entirety.
On top of that something that is a fairy tale is shot into a mix with the real world. Now, at times this isn't so bad to do. . . so long as you do it well. In this instance though it turned out extremely poor, and cheesy, as not only is it added with certain historical elements (at one point, as a small example, they actually mention being in a newly discovered America with a "John" who has visited the shores many times) yet at random intervals tossed into the far future. Out of nowhere you suddenly find yourself just jumping around in a way that is highly unpleasant as there's not much in the way of truly logic explanation beyond the naivete and desperation of this "Cinderella" or the manipulation of the antagonist due to naivete of the main character. Something that still does not change even as the book continues to progress toward the end of the bar. I didn't even get a sense of this as a true change in the end, honestly.
Though a lot of this could be attributed to how the story was told. When doing diaries or journals it is important to have consistency; along with a creative way to write them that is more interesting than straight story-telling. The method used here was not entertaining in the least. Some were short, some were long, some came at consistent intervals, some came at random intervals, some were not Cinderella due to magic, and some were just plain not diary entries at all. The last ones were more normal ways to write a story that doesn't consist with a diary entry in the least. When you suddenly have multiple people all writing in her book and her being able to write out stuff that she shouldn't be able to perceive or even know due to a writing view switch while passing it off as diary entries. . . it becomes rather confusing.
As a whole this book would've been far better for the elements of the story had it been written with brief diary entries then the rest in normal third person story-telling and without trying to fit in everything and the kitchen sink (so to speak). It was as though the author wanted to do everything with her by having her in this historical setting with political situations of intrigue and interest; yet at the same time instead does nothing with her. In the moments where she could've grown as a character (the naive, desperate shtick needed dropped earlier in the story) she tucks tail and runs, and again trusts people it's obviously not wise to all due to these same feelings that have been messing up her life for years already. If someone sneezed she ran, if someone made her angry she got all uppity then she ran, if someone betrayed her she got hurt (and let us not forget the pretending like she doesn't betray when she does - repeatedly) then she ran, et cetera. Some of this even came after promising starts to the character growth. It made the story lacking and the character just not important to me. I honestly did not care if she won or lost (lived or died), and I didn't feel bad for her. I honestly would've cared more to hear the story of her lady-in-wait or the Queen or anyone else other than her after a certain point.
In essence, had the character been more interesting and given more growth, the setting given some reins on broadness while also being used(instead of vastly ignored the majority of the time), and the writing style done better it would have turned out to be a better book. Usually I'm far more courteous with reviews, but in an effort to write an honest one I have done so and here it is. You can agree or disagree. I just know that I won't touch this book again, or any others in the series(as from the preview taste I got of the next book it doesn't seem after all the time that passed, and what happened in this book, she has grown as a character), nor recommend the series to anyone.