Hello Shiquers and welcome back to Nerdy Shique Universe! Before I do my May and June Faves I have another book review for you! Don’t worry, I will make sure the faves go up this week! Let’s see what I got this time.Title: Disenchanted
Author: Susan Carol

Disclaimer: This review is based on opinion and observation of the lead writer of this blog. Please respect her thought and opinion in this review! Warning there might be spoilers!

Synopsis: This is no ordinary fiary tale where this story is based on the old Cinderella story except we meet a girl that has a hard time being swept off her feet.

We meet Ella Upton who lost her innocence at age 17 all thanks to a minstrel that had the voice of gold and charmed her heart until it was broken and never saw him again. Around the same time she loses her father and her mother at a very young age, at age 24 with a stepmother and two stepsisters, Ella has been through a lot in her life including financial hardships and have to do the chores herself until one day the Prince Florian is having a ball in order to find a bride and her best friend, Malcolm Hawkridge, persuades her to retrieve a very important orb that was taken from his grandfather who was court wizard before he was born. Before midnight at the ball, she has so many suitors which happen to be some of the royal brothers of Florian and Florian himself, along with Hiratio Crushington, she doesn’t know what to do except turn a blushing red as she waltzes around until she gets the treasure back for Mal in time for the clock to strike twelve!

Thoughts: This was a very interesting re-telling of Cinderella! I thought I never thought that I would like Ella since she is not so prim and proper that everyone expects. She is more of a person who speaks her mind with a lot of sarcasm. I did like how she took away the new hearld’s horn in the beginning of the book so she wouldn’t hear him blow it and then later he stands back so it wouldn’t get taken away from him on the night of the ball.

As I read, I almost felt like I was reading Ever After but what if the stepmother realized that they were broke and wants to marry off all three and not only that does consider all three girls’ feelings rather than just two of them like in every Cinderella story that gets told in book and film. Plus, this shows the characters more human such as seeing the stepsisters being disappointed when they are told they can’t go to the ball due to financial hardships to the stepmom wanting to have all three daughters to have a better life since she cares about them so much, and even Ella trying to sell off a prized possession to be able to afford tickets to the ball and how she actually falls for Horatio instead of a prince, which I did like in the end.

What bothers me is they didn’t explain much about Ella’s parents’ link with the king. I am not sure if there is supposed to be a sequel or not but I wonder as well why the king had pictures of her mother and what does she mean to the king really? They did explain it briefly especially with how the king was able to see her mother’s appearance in her and not only that wondering about the town’s pawn shop (I see it as one) owner knowing her father and wants to know more about the fairies that left, etc. If there is a sequel, I would like those dots connected since that got me curious after finishing the book since it did finish open ended.

What I did like the most is the gown not being the typical ice blue that you sometimes saw. I mean in the Disney movie you saw a blue ball gown and in Ever After it was a bit of a white or was it purple that Drew Barrymore wore as her character, Danielle. This gown was a transforming gown between white, gold, and silver and the glass slippers…well according to Mal they were supposed to have a Dorothy effect but never worked when she tried them. If there is another book that these shoes should be part of it.

Rating: 5 Star Pawprints Out of 5! This book took the Cinderella character to make her more of a regular person, as in taking the maid idea and make her more sarcastic due to losing the old self and having guys go after her at the ball. Which reminds me, I do like how she and Horatio interact with each other throughout the book by seeing her as trouble at first and then getting to know her and rescuing her from a trollish guy and then the romance starts from there. I am hoping there is another book because this was something I really liked. With magic, on the other hand, it does blend into the actual world but you have to have a license which sounds fair in a way! I did write my own Cinderella story but it does take the bit of what if the main character was a guy. I will tell you guys more in September when it releases. So, good one from another good author!

That is it for this review! Hope that next post will be the May and June faves as promised! Until next time!