Cinderella III

Hosted by Irena at This Miss Loves to Read.

Before Midnight by Cameron Dokey

This is a YA story I read two summers ago or so; it's part of the "Once Upon a Time" series from Simon Pulse (who also did those amazing teen romantic comedies I love).  Dokey seems to be the driving force for the series, having penned most of the early stories although other authors have written ones as well.

This is an interesting retelling because of the elements it retains from the Perrault and Brothers Grimm versions.  There is the tree on the grave of her mother as in the Grimm version.  It is set in France and has French names, thus Cendrillon rather than Cinderella.  Her father also is alive which is always intriguing to me but he is the wicked one rather then the stepfamily.  Another addition is that Cendrillon is raised with a mysterious male ward of her father-I've never read another version where Cindy has such a close male companion (I guess kind of in Ever After).  While this is not my favorite retelling, I recommend it to people who love fairy tale retellings and Cinderella.