Saturday, November 10, 2012

Cindy Ella by Robin Palmer

Genre: romance
Series and Book #: none
Pages: 264
Summary:

Prom. The best dress. The best shoes. The best date. Cindy Ella Gold is sick of it all.
 
Prom fever has infected L. A.—especially Cindy’s two annoying stepsisters and her overly Botoxed stepmother, Cindy seems to be the only one immune to it all. But her anti-prom letter in the school newspaper does more to turn Cindy into Queen of the Freaks than to close the gap between the popular kids and the rest of the students. Everyone thinks she’s committed social suicide, except for her two best friends—the yoga goddess India and John Hughes-worshipping Malcolm—and shockingly, the most popular senior at Castle Heights High and Cindy’s crush, Adam Silver. But with a little bit of help from an unexpected source—and the perfect pair of shoes—Cindy realizes that she still has a chance at happily ever after.
 
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Cindy Ella's letter was an excellent segue into the novel. It opened up into Cindy Ella's life situation, which wasn't as extremely disturbing as the original Cinderella's, but was still terrible. Robin's muted interpretation of the original Cinderella story made it so that it was modernized but you could easily think the book was an original storyline. She didn't feel the need to make sure every single detail was neatly in order or in place. Cindy Ella was a light-hearted read with a satisfying ending.
 
Cindy Ella is suddenly in the spotlight after the publishing of her letter. The sudden attention paid to her (and not good attention) gives her the appearance of a girl trapped in an undesirable life. But Cindy Ella is not a girl who is easily perturbed. She was a strong female character who was witty, intelligent, and who didn't need magic but her own self to win the heart of the Castle Heights Prince Charming. She was sweet and caring and funny.
 
Overall, Cindy Ella was a nice, undramatic novel based on a beautiful fairytale. Robin's creation mixes the plot lines of Cinderella and her own retelling so that it there are no overwhelming similarities but it was still noticeable this was based on Cinderella. As this book was so charming, I can't wait to see what Robin has up her sleeve for her other novels.
 
The Cover: Oh, look at the shoes! But wait, where's the dress? Cindy Ella doesn't wear no dresses. She is her own determined, strong, delightful Cinderella.

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