Review: Dark Cinderella
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 29, 2014
“Gilded Ashes” is a novella that takes place in Hodges “Cruel Beauty” world. I enjoyed “Cruel Beauty” fine but I was really wowed by “Gilded Ashes”.  This is a dark twist on the Cinderella fairytale.  I read a lot of fairytale retellings and this is my favorite that I can remember from the Cinderella tale.  Lord Anax, the prince, decides to have a ball to find his princess.  Maia is an orphaned young woman who lives with her cruel stepmother and her two daughters. (Naturally)  In this version though the spirit of Maia’s mother stays in the house and in the yard, watching over her daughter…and very protective of her daughter.  When Maia is mistreated her mother takes revenge.  Maia learns to always act happy around her mother’s spirit and learns to twist stories into having a positive spin so that her mother doesn’t hurt her step-mother or step-sisters.  Things get complicated when Maia is chosen to bring letters to the Prince from her stepdaughter.  I don’t want to give much away since this isn’t a long story, however I want to mention that I actually enjoyed this story better than “Cruel Beauty”.  This was a fantastically creepy story with an ending that I never could have envisioned.  This is very much worth reading.  I will eagerly watch for more books in this series.