Review: NOT YOUR MOTHER"S CINDERELLA
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 09 19, 2011
When I first saw this cover on Facebook, I commented that I thought it was an ad for breast self examinations, and that would be a good thing. Then I somehow bought the book on Amazon and started reading it.  It made me think about all the different times and ways in which Cinderella has been presented in my life. Naked men and satyrs and pirates never really entered into it before.My first Cinderella was, no doubt, a little Golden Book Version and in 1965 I remember my mom being really excited about a Rodgers and Hammerstein musical that was going to be on TV (CBS) with Lesley Ann Warren and Stuart Damon (you know him from General Hospital). Mom was excited about it because Celeste Holm, Ginger Rogers and Walter Pidgeon were in it. Lesley Ann Warren was a trained ballet dancer so that was going to add something. Perhaps my mother thought that would inspire me. I don't know, in ballet I always felt I had missed all the classes where we learned anything.Back then, in black and white on our thirteen-inch screen (which we had until 1972), it was magical. The music was great and I was transported. It did nothing for my career in the ballet school being taught in the fire station however.Then, in a service internship in college I interned at a state run theater and they ran Cinderella. Because it was the state we had all kinds of educational information around it. They discussed how the story was very old and they had traced it all the way to China.It certainly has had a lot of versions filmed and written throughout the years, I even saw that there is a Sin-derella from 1965. We also have the socio/psycho/anthrop-logical theories brought out of fairy tales. White knights, Peter Pan and uncomfortable shoes!What about this version of Cinderella? Queen Ella is now 31 and really horny since her Prince Charming turned into Prince Charles (ie. boring, unfaithful) and disappeared. The way she is described she reminds me of one of the Gabor sisters. She decides to hold a masquerade ball so she can find a sexual partner and incognito have sex with him.After she meets the man of her dreams at the ball but doesn't learn his name she decides to throw a second ball to find him. This time another fantasy is realized. After the second ball she realizes who her mystery lovers are. Forces, in the form of her mendacious step family in a neighboring kingdom conspire to keep them apart and bring back Prince Charming who is now a gay pirate.Will Ella and her mystery beau survive? Will Ella, Charming and his pirate lover get it on? Will Ella be cast out in disgrace? Or will they all live happily ever after?****This isn't so much a retelling as a sequel: Cinderella the Post-Charming Years.The intimate scenes are sexy even though I also found then icky. The sex wasn't terribly inventive. I had a hard time deciding if we were back in days of yore or in a post-industrial kingdom. They had a tub and bathroom with running water, but it did not seem they had cars or telephones.The book was highly predictable plot wise, although Prince Charming ending up being different than I thought he would be. It's possible I have read too many erotica books but I pretty much knew what would happen after the first 30 pages.Are there any redeeming qualities? Well Queen Ella comes off a mature,not dependent on men, and a good ruler with an egalitarian spirit. And, it isn't a retelling which was nice. The relationship between Ella and her beau is loving.I bought the Kindle version which was only $3.44. If I were to purchase a paperback I would, in all likelihood, buy something else. with the nearly $12 price tag.  Not great, not terrible. Not going to become part of my Erotica Library.