This review can also be found at Carole's Random Life in Books.

I had so much fun with this book! I haven't read too many retellings but I was quite curious about this Cinderella story. Unfortunately, I was quickly distracted by other new shiny books and this one was lost in my virtual stacks. I came across the audiobook and decided it was time that I give this book a try and I am so glad that I did. I flew through this audiobook and really enjoyed my time with it.

Kat lives with her sister and mother but she is transported to the world of Cinderella when she accidentally rips an old book. Instead of Cinderella, Kat fills the role of Katriona who is one of the step-sisters. It was a lot of fun watching her try to navigate this new world. She had so much to learn with the differences in manners, language, and fashion just to start. Kat decides that in order to get back to her world she needs to help the prince fall for Cinderella so she starts working towards this goal.

I loved Kat. I loved the way that she couldn't help but try to make the world a better place even if she didn't plan to stay for very long. Prince Edward was also quite wonderful. He couldn't help but be drawn to Kat's fresh perspective. They were really just wonderful together. I couldn't help but cheer this pair towards their happily ever after. 

The audiobook was narrated by Luci Christian and I thought that she did a great job with it. I really liked all of the voices that she used and thought that her reading helped to make the story even more enjoyable. She had a very pleasant voice that I was able to listen to for hours at a time. I wouldn't hesitate to listen to more of her work.

I would recommend this book to fans of fairy tale retellings. I thought that this was a really well-done story that offered a new look at an old tale. I do have to admit that I wasn't thrilled by how the story ended but that would be my only complaint. 

I received a digital review copy of this book from Aya Ling via NetGalley and purchased a copy of the audiobook.

Initial Thoughts
I had sooo much fun with this one! I thought that this story was really well done and it was a very nice twist on the Cinderella story that I know. Kat was such a great character and I loved the way she wanted to make the world a better place. Edward really did seem to be her perfect match. I listened to the audiobook and thought that the narration was very well done. I am not really sure about that ending but that is really my only complaint.

Wow this book was perfection. I laughed, held my breath, cried a bit, and cheered. Donnelly did such a wonderful job with this book I can't wait to read more from her. 

"Stepsister" follows what happens after Cinderella (Ella) is locked away and her two stepsisters remove parts of their feet (Tavi cutting away her heel and Isabelle her toes) and are found out by a bird singing in a tree. What follows is the two girls and their mother are shunned by their village while Ella is carried off to be married and become Queen of France. Isabelle though still has a chance to change things for herself, her family, and even France, if she can remember the girl who played pirates, fenced, and rode her horse with no fear.

I loved Isabelle. Donnelly made her feel so read. A young girl who is considered ugly and doesn't care for dresses or tying up her hair in elaborate hairstyles. She read about soldiers, generals, and conquerors and her heart yearned for more. In the time and place she is born though, she's a woman and a woman is only meant to be a wife and mother. We have Isabelle's life also being fought over a bit by three people (Fate, Chance, and an Old Magic). I loved the interplay between all of these parties and how even though they all have different goals in the end, Isabelle still manages her own path. 

Tavi was my second favorite. I wanted to read more about the experiments she was trying and loved her fighting with Hugo (a neighbor's son who is baffled and scared by both of them for being such weird women). 

Donnelly manages to imbue romance in this, but it's not the point in the story. In the end, the love story is about Isabelle and what she has denied herself for so long. I want to talk so much more about this book but it would spoiling for other readers.

I loved the writing and found myself highlighting so many passages. The flow was actually very good too. The chapters were pretty short, but Donnelly impacts so much in the story you don't realize how much you have read until you get to the end. At least I didn't.

"She did not know that this was a good thing for a girl to have, because everyone had always told her it was a terrible thing. Everyone said a girl with a strong will would come to a bad end. Everyone said a girl’s will must be bent to the wishes of those who know what’s best for her."

 

This book is all about a girl/young woman being forced into something that she doesn't want. To realize to squash parts of yourself every single day to fit in makes you stronger in a way you don't even realize when you decide you have had enough. 

 

"But an ugly girl? Ah, child, the world is made for men. An ugly girl can never be forgiven.”

 

Disgusted noise made but yeah, it's gross how many people judge by looks. You can be beautiful and have the ugliest soul around I have found. 

 

"Isabelle swallowed hard. Deep inside her, the wolf, asleep under her heart for so long, opened his eyes. She hefted her sword and stared the man down. “I say, en garde.”

 

Kick his ass Isabelle!

“The feeling that you want to own someone body and soul, spirit them away from everyone else, have them all to yourself forever and ever and ever,” Hugo said dreamily. “It’s called love.” “No, it’s called kidnapping,” said Tavi.

 

Y'all don't even know how much I laughed and loved Tavi. I want a story starring her!

The setting of this book is a France in a different time and place (Fate, Chance, and a Fairy Queen are running around in this book and somehow that seems reasonable). 

The ending made me want to stand up and cheer. Or go out and fight a scoundrel with just a sword and a shield. 

"The Stepsister Scheme" is one of the few books recently that I've stayed up until the early hours to finish. It was a lot of fun. It was quirky, original, not afraid to handle dark themes but ultimately powered by selfless bravery and optimism.

"The Stepsister Scheme" tells the tale of three Princesses who set out to rescue a handsome Prince. These are not Disney Princesses with phenomenal hair, over-large eyes and chart-topping singing voices. These are Princesses who have survived the appalling abuse handed out to them in the original Grimm fairy tales and have gone on to become resourceful, talented, dangerous women who won't necessarily get to live happily ever after.

You'll recognise the three Princesses as the story unfolds, but you won't have seen this side of them before. Jim Hines presents his Princesses with a wonderful mix of humour, tension, excitement and I-want-to-stand-up-and-applaud originality that is a joy to read.

This is a story that seldom went where I expected it to go. It was humorous, sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, but the humour was a gloss on a tale about the strength it takes for young women to survive the things that people do to them.

The Fairies in this book are the stuff of nightmare rather than bedtime stories. There is violence and cruelty and more violence. There are men in the story but they are necessary to the plot, not central to the story-telling The worst and the best characters in this book are all female and they are all formidable. 

The world-building is solid, the pacing is good, the ideas are original and the action scenes are tense and exciting. And all of this is has a big bow of humour tied around it to make you smile even when blood is being spilt.

Reading Jim Hines, I feel I've found another talent as original and energetic as Terry Pratchett, only with all the books still ahead of me.

I read his trope-twisting Sci-Fi novel "Terminal Alliance.- Janitors of the Post-apocalypse " and enjoyed it. I only discovered his fantasy novels when I was searching for something to read for the "Grimm Tales" square in Halloween Bingo over on BookLikes. Now I'm hooked. I've already started the second book in the series.