Cinderella’s buddy, Buttons? He’s actually Robin Hood. That witch in the gingerbread house? Still eating children. Officially, this is a new version of Cinderella, but it is interconnected with so many other fairy tales. This isn’t 50 shades of fairy tales (thank the gods!) but there are a handful of scenes that managed to make me blush a little. Cinderella knows exactly what she wants and while she can’t have the prince ravish her in real life, she is an expert in dreaming about him and helping herself… ahem. That said, this story was quite a bit sexier than its predecessor. Just because you are degraded to a scullery maid doesn’t mean you wouldn’t like to have sex with handsome men, right? She is prone to self-pity (which doesn’t exactly make her likable, but all the more relatable) and she has desires like everybody else. But from the very beginning, this Cinderella felt like a real young woman.
Cinderella is the poor, common girl doing all the housework while her step-mother and sisters galivant around in pretty dresses. And they are! Remember that Huntsman from Poison? Or the despicable prince? They’re back.Ĭharm begins exactly the way you would expect a Cinderella retelling to begin. As Cinderella wished to go the the ball, fall in love with the prince, and live as his princess in the castle, so did I wish that these fairy tale novellas were connected through more than just their Grimm originals. This edition contains 15 original pen and ink illustrations by Les Edwards
This is fun, contemporary, sexy, and perfect for fans of ONCE UPON A TIME, GRIMM, SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN and more. Because reasons!Ĭharm is a beautifully illustrated re-telling of the Cinderella story which takes all the much-loved elements of the classic fairytale (the handsome prince, the fairy godmother, the enchanted mouse, the beautiful girl and, of course, the iconic balls) and puts a modern spin on the characters, their motives and their desires. I should also warn you: I have done my very best to express myself through words only here, but there comes a point when I find myself needing gifs to help me along. These stories are awesome and I’m eating them up. So yeah… I admit I picked up Pinborough’s novellas because they are blissfully short and I wanted to reach my Goodreads reading challenge goal for the year.