June 20, 2014

Book Review: _Cinderella's Dress_ by Shonna Slayton

Now that school is over for the year, I have been reading more books to follow my own interest.  I was asked by a homeschooling mom to read her book before it was published through NetGallery.  It did involve getting registered with NetGallery and now involves getting emails from them with other books to read.  Booklover's paradise.  I published my review on Amazon this morning.  I am not one of those people who likes to reveal too much of the story, especially one that is well written and has elements of mystery to it as this story does.  It basically starts with the premise that Cinderella was a Polish woman who became queen after wearing a magical dress to the ball and capturing the Prince's heart.  When she is queen, she gives a loyal family of servants the privilege of being keepers of the dress when her kingdom comes under attack from the step-sisters and their husbands.  The protagonist, Kate, is in this line.  My official Amazon review is below:

I was asked to review it by Netgallery and, like other reviewers, the concept of continuing the Cinderella story through the dress caught my interest. I have to give this five stars because the story completely drew me in and I couldn't put it down.

Kate is the main protagonist whose mother wants her to become America's version of royalty, which is a Hollywood star.  Kate has different ambitions, wanting to crack the male-dominated world of department store window dressing.  And her talents seem to definitely align with her dreams.  One day, her great-aunt and great-uncle from Poland arrived unannounced at their doorstep with a big trunk.  And soon, Kate's great-aunt reveals that her family comes from a long line of caretakers of Cinderella's ball gown and wedding dress.  But is her aunt's story as fictional as the fairy tale of Cinderella seems to be?  

The author manages to weave several themes together as beautifully as Kate's great aunt tats lace, with the setting of the story in WWII.  And I love the fact that the story begins with the fairy tale, but the romance in this storyline is decidedly un-fairy tale.  What kept my attention was how she draws the characters out, little by little and how well she generally manages a lot of characters and several side stories.  Many books written for teens these days use chapter-ending cliff-hangers to keep you reading, but this book only uses that device for the actual climax.  Instead, she uses the mystery of the dress, of Kate's family background and of Kate's character development to hold our attention.

There is one development involving Kate and her aunt that is a bit jarring because it seems to come out of nowhere and a couple of minor story arcs could probably have been eliminated.  However, the strength of the story overcomes these slight problems.

I would highly recommend it for teens and tweens, but I believe that adults would thoroughly enjoy the book also.

This was a total joy to read.  This book is available on Kindle, though we are planning to buy a non-electronic version and get the author's signature.