***I was granted permission to read this by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to Entangled Teen!***
***As always mild spoilers may follow***
Rating: 3stars
Pub date: 3 June 2014
Publisher: Entangled Teen
Genre: Young Adult, Romance, Historical Fiction, Fairy Tale
Format: e-ARC provided by the publisher
Status: standalone
Summary:
Being seventeen during World War II is tough. Finding out you’re the next keeper of the real Cinderella’s dresses is even tougher.
Kate simply wants to create window displays at the department store where she’s working, trying to help out with the war effort. But when long-lost relatives from Poland arrive with a steamer trunk they claim holds the Cinderella’s dresses, life gets complicated.
Now, with a father missing in action, her new sweetheart, Johnny, stuck in the middle of battle, and her great aunt losing her wits, Kate has to unravel the mystery before it’s too late.
After all, the descendants of the wicked stepsisters will stop at nothing to get what they think they deserve
My thoughts:
I wasn’t terribly pleased with Cinderella’s Dress. I don’t know what I was expecting, but it most certainly wasn’t how things turned out. Again, if I was the DNF type, this would’ve most likely been abandoned.
The cover is gorgeous and the summary promised such potential. It could have been an incredibly done retelling. Sadly, it fell short by miles.
The broken English was horrendous. It was so hard to understand. I had to reread dozens of passages trying to piece together what was trying to be conveyed.
The Cinderellalegend flip flopped between cousins and step-sisters a time or two and it bothered me. If a legend is going to be used, please use the same version consistently! And stick with the Polish name or the English one after the legend is revealed. Flipping between the two was tiresome.
For a YA novel, this had a more MG feel. It had a complex story idea, but was too simply portrayed. I also felt like it was full of filler scenes. I was far more interested in the young wartime love than the protection of the dress. It felt like more time was spent developing the romance than anything else. Even that wasn’t completely redeeming. All of the characters fell flat and failed to perform.
I loved the idea of presenting part of the story through war correspondence. I actually have a WIP iidea mulling around about that and hve for ages. However, I feel like there were letters missing. I flipped back a few times thinking I might have accidentally skipped a letter or two thanks to mischievous toddlers. I never did. There were just story gaps and quite a few.The letters were still my favourite part. Especially the letters between Johnny and Kate. I’m happy that hubby and I have our own wartime letters that we wrote while he was deployed.
I liked that the women had to give up jobs because the GIs returend home was included, but I feel it could’ve been presented in a better way. Creating that drama between Kate and Johnny wasn’t needed.
The one thing that really bothered me was the dropping of Kate’s father and brother. One is a massive spoiler, so I won’t delve into it too dar other than it was completely unnecessary. It did nothing for the story. Her brother? Just gone from the story. No more letters or mentions. It. Bothered. Me. Like. Crazy.
I will say that it was just interesting enough to keep me reading. More for finding out what happened between Kate and Johnny than anything else. The dresses were just blah. Despite being major players in the story, I feel like they didn’t bring much to the table. Kate was also rather careless with their protection. I get that a 17 year old may not be the most responsible person in the world, but still.
The second half of the book was immensely better. It wasn’t completely enough to be rewarding for sticking it out but it did redeem it a bit. The ending did feel a little disappointing. Things didn’t feel wrapped up. The mystery of the magic behind the dresses was never fully explained. I still want to know how they got their power if a friend – not a fairy godmother was responsible for them. Ah, well. An okay read. Can’t say that I would recommend it. I am definitely not investing in a copy.
About the author:
SHONNA SLAYTON is the author of the YA novel Cinderella’s Dress, out June 3, 2014 with Entangled Teen. She finds inspiration in reading vintage diaries written by teens, who despite using different slang, sound a lot like teenagers today. While writing Cinderella’s Dress she reflected on her days as a high-school senior in British Columbia when she convinced her supervisors at a sportswear store to let her design a few windows—it was glorious fun while it lasted. When not writing, Shonna enjoys amaretto lattes and spending time with her husband and children in Arizona.
The Whimsical Mama 