Review: A Paranormal Cinderella
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 03 14, 2014
Book Review- Before Midnight by Jennifer BlackstreamThis is a story with a paranormal spin on Cinderella.  Five blood princes from different realms are brought together.  They give their blood to a magical tree that houses a woman named Eurydice.  It is her plan to find mates for the five men.  Her first prince is Etienne the werewolf.  He has been ‘blessed’ by a witch and is losing his wolf.  He has yet to find a way to stop becoming fully human.Loupe lives with her step mother and two step sisters.  She is forced to live in the cellar and skin the dead wolves that they bring her.  Once when she was approaching one of the dead wolves, it reached up and bit her and then transformed into a woman.  Loupe from then on was infected and became a werewolf herself.  She would sneak out when the moon was to be full and chain herself up in the forest.  She couldn’t let her step mother know.  They would kill her.Loupe and Etienne are brought together by three wolf cubs, a pixie and a blessing given by a witch whom knows more than she lets on.This story was fun to read.  The parallels to Cinderella were obvious but it was interesting to see what the author added to the story.  The step mother was an extremely horrible person.  She was beyond cruel to the point of pathological.The relationship between Loupe and Etienne was sweet with each trying to protect the other from the wolf they held inside.  Loupe was a great character once she grew courage and take what she wanted instead of cowering with fear.  The Pixie, however, was my favorite.  He made me laugh out loud.This is the first as there are four more princes to have stories and I can’t wait to see what happens.  I give this a 4 out of 5 for its original ideas.