Review--So This is Love by Elizabeth Lim

 

What if Cinderella never tried on the glass slipper?

Unable to prove that she's the missing princess, and unable to bear life under Lady Tremaine any longer, Cinderella starts work at the palace as a seamstress. However, when Cinderella finds herself witness to a grand conspiracy to take the king - and the prince - out of power, she is faced with questions of love and loyalty to the kingdom.

Cinderella must find a way to stop the villains of past and present... before it's too late.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elizabeth Lim's So This is Love is yet another exciting addition to the Twisted Tales series! This story looks into what would happen if Cinderella didn't get her chance to try on the slipper when the Grand Duke came to her house. This story took me completely by surprise with the twists and insidious plots being masterminded behind the scenes! And to top it all off...our Prince Charming gets a NAME! Lol.

We open the story to Cinderella attending the ball! It was quite a treat to get her perspective on things as I felt like in the movie her time at the ball is more seen through the Grand Duke and the other ball-goers just watching her and Charming with envy. But alas when midnight strikes and her fairy godmother's magic ends, Cinderella takes off and leaves the prince with nothing but her glass slipper! What was even more enchanting, you could say, was seeing her and the prince having a conversation throughout it all! In fact, Cinderella didn't even know she was dancing with the prince! As I previously mentioned, we get a name for the prince, Charles! I first thought like our Prince Charles, but then I thought more Charming to Charles was the likelihood of the name choice.

When the Duke comes to Cinderella's house to try the glass slipper on every eligible maiden, Cinderella is kept locked in her attic room. For her animal friends are not as enchanted in this story with the ability of speech, clothes, and sneaking a key out of a woman's dress pocket! We truly see the evil of Cinderella's stepmother though when she is ready to sell Cinderella to what is basically a slave trader. Naturally, Cinderella manages to escape this fate but then finds herself alone on the streets with no home, no job, no way to support herself...until she meets Louisa, a seamstress who works at the palace and gets Cinderella a job there.

Cinderella is happy to work, as she's always been a hard worker and she finds being a personal attendant to Charles' aunt a breeze compared to waiting on her stepmother and stepsisters. We get alternate points of view in this story, Cinderella, Charles, and the Duke. You all remember him right? The skinny dude in blue who goes from house to house trying to find the girl who fits the glass slipper? Well, he has quite the story to be told here. He wasn't just the king's lackey, in fact, he's scheming! I didn't see this coming...and it's really not a spoiler as in his first chapter you learn that this dude is up to something for his own gain.

Cinderella is now caught in the middle of all this meddling and then there's the fact that all magic is banned in the kingdom, so her fairy godmother practically committed a crime in helping her and Cinderella now wants to help her in return.

This book was far more exciting than I thought it would be! Granted Cinderella was never on my top favorite Disney movies list, but I still liked it! I loved that Bruno was a character that got to stick around in this one! I loved how he helped save the day in the movie. There's also a few nods to the original Grimm fairy tale too. Even another one of their tales, The Princess in Disguise, but only in the loosest sense of the word, such as there being three balls. Really, I only thought that as both that fairy tale and the original Cinderella had some similarities back then too.

The story was quite the page turner too! I found myself starting this one midday the other day and read over half of it! I guess it helps that's is pure Disney related! I love reading these Twisted Tales as they are so much fun! I love how they stay true to the Disney movie, yet at the same time bringing something entirely new to the table. These are definitely books for the Disney fanatics. These books do truly get you thinking about the movies in entirely new ways and questioning just about everything that ever happened. Plus, getting inside the characters' heads is a real treat to see what they were thinking at pivotal moments.

What's great about this series is you can really dive in anywhere, read them in any order, or skip some if they weren't favorite movies or something like that. Each book truly stands on its own and the series is basically just connected by being in the Disney family. So This is Love was a truly wonderful read that shined a different kind of light on the Cinderella story we all know and love.

 

 

Overall Rating 5/5 stars