Scan barcode
kortirion's review against another edition
3.0
I liked that the villain's identity has shifted from the stepmother to the father, but I was a little bored by how neatly everything was tied up in the end, especially by the way all the single people ended up madly in love. I suppose it is a YA book, though.
bry_z_lee's review against another edition
5.0
This was so good I loved the plot and how the characters where developed.
ariesofblue's review against another edition
4.0
This was such a magical story, filled with love and wonder. I adored the new twist on this story, particularly when it came to the step mother and step sisters roles. I love fairytale retellings, and this one was just magical.
booksnorkel's review against another edition
4.0
A sweet little book a retelling of Cinderella where the father is the main villain and the step-mother just didn't know. Fun and sweet I wish that again this book was bigger.
For 7th grade girls on up looking for a fun re-imagining of Cinderella and what it means to be loved.
For 7th grade girls on up looking for a fun re-imagining of Cinderella and what it means to be loved.
paperbackprincess22's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
leahegood's review against another edition
4.0
This just jumped right to the front of my "fairy tale retellings" favorites list, trumped only by [b:Beauty|41424|Beauty|Robin McKinley|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1294192311s/41424.jpg|2321285]. I'd advise you not anticipate anything besides a lovely brother/sister relationship between Cendrillon and Raoul. I was kind of hoping for one and that disappointment was the only dampener on my enjoyment of the story. There was very little magical anything in this retelling. Even the pumpkin carriage was very real word (a plus for me). At its heart, [b:Before Midnight|367349|Before Midnight A Retelling of "Cinderella" (Once Upon a Time Fairytales, #2)|Cameron Dokey|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1361126273s/367349.jpg|2197767] is a story about family and love at first sight. Very sweet. And the farthest the romance goes is three brief kisses. [b:Before Midnight|367349|Before Midnight A Retelling of "Cinderella" (Once Upon a Time Fairytales, #2)|Cameron Dokey|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/books/1361126273s/367349.jpg|2197767] exceeded my expectations, captured my attention right from the beginning, and provided several lovely twists on the traditional Cinderella story.
[For those who have read my review of Ella Enchanted, "Before Midnight" is by far my favorite of the two.]
Read the full review at Leah's Bookshelf
[For those who have read my review of Ella Enchanted, "Before Midnight" is by far my favorite of the two.]
Read the full review at Leah's Bookshelf
bookhaulin's review against another edition
2.0
Same gripe here as all the others in this series; if only it was longer...
Mediocre at best at the present length, solid writing, but very shoddy world-building, flimsy character development, and a very sad, sorry excuse for a plot.
Mediocre at best at the present length, solid writing, but very shoddy world-building, flimsy character development, and a very sad, sorry excuse for a plot.
toritoot's review
3.0
There's something about the Once Upon a Time anthology series that draws me to it. I don't know if it's my deep love for fairytale retellings or how beautifully lush the original covers are or the obvious love of the source material you can read between the lines, but something draws me to these books, and I've long planned on purchasing all of them to add to my permanent book collection. So it really pains me to say this, but Before Midnight is my least favorite of the three I've read so far.
The story starts with a lot of promise. I liked the setup: the general setting, the cast of characters, the prominence of pumpkins, Cendrillon's constant effort to get something to grow on her mother's grave, how she allows her step-family to think she's a servant because of her struggle with accepting her identity, the exploration of love and friendship and the difference between the two, the focus on what bitterness will do to you, how Dokey attempted to subvert all of the original tale's tropes. But Dokey could not seem to pull it all together at the end.
For starters, the romance is bad. All of three of them, in fact. The pairings are strange and confusing and not particularly romantic and all three are somewhat unnecessary on some level. Why should I believe that just because Raoul and Pascal look alike that that somehow makes Pascal a suitable love interest? The 'meet-cute' and subsequent 'romance' are not only rushed beyond belief but more than cheesy enough to make me want to gag. I'm not opposed to love at first sight stories, but this was certainly not the way to do it.
Raoul and Anastasia serve as nothing more than an uninspired pairing, and I had zero investment in their relationship, but out of three they do still have the most actual build-up and development, and perhaps if the rest of the book had been better I could have gotten behind their relationship. As for Niccolo and Amelie, Niccolo had no business being a love interest. In fact, I did not care about him at all. He did nothing useful, and the story would have been perfectly fine without him. Or he could have just been a fun side character without any attempt at developing him further. He definitely didn't need his own romance or to have more than an inconsequential part to play in the secret twins and warring countries plotline.
The one thing I actually liked about the romance of the book was how Dokey used it to explore Cendrillon and Raoul's friendship. There was a subtle, underlying current to their friendship throughout the book that presented some truly delicious possibility, like both knew things could go either way for them, love or friendship, and it would all come down to what they both decided in the end. I, personally, was fully willing to accept the idea of them remaining friends, but if the end goal was to stick Cendrillon with a secret twin she barely knew because poorly written 'insta-love', I would have preferred she end up with Raoul instead.
In terms of the warring countries/secret twins subplot, I was genuinely looking forward to finding out Raoul's part in the story, and I even would have liked the idea of him being a secret twin if it hadn't been thrown in so hastily at the last minute. The story did seem to be hinting at the idea of Raoul being a kidnapped prince, which was an element I was all in for, and he did turn out to be a prince, but he didn't come from where I expected him to or from where I think would have suited the story more. I could have dealt with this easily if the rest of the subplot had made sense to me and worked in the story, but I Still don't know what the secret twins/warring countries plotline was meant to be about, and I don't very much care at this point.
And for a story that relies on a subplot of overthrowing a kingdom, where the hell were all of the machinations?! I get keeping the secret twins/warring countries subplot in wraps for most of the book since Cendrillon wouldn't have any reason to know about any of it with her father being absent the majority of the story. But once things started to be revealed, I absolutely expected for there to be some time spent on Developing this subplot and actually giving it some Teeth. As it is, Brabant comes across as a completely useless mastermind of a completely directionless plot to overthrow a kingdom for completely non-existent reasons. And at the end of it all, there's not even any sort of conclusion to the subplot. For all we know, these two warring countries are still warring with each other to this day, and Raoul and Pascal have become locked in an intense emotional battle only to be ended once one or both of them have run out of the will to live.
Now That would be a story.
Sadly, by the end of this book, I found a lot of the characters behavior and the overall progression of story events unbearably annoying. The last 1/5 of the book definitely needed to be longer to make room for more character and story progression. And all three of the romances should have been scrapped and started over.
I'm not getting rid of this book, because I still plan on collecting the full series, and I'll probably re-read Before Midnight at some point to see if I like it any better, but I don't find that likely to happen. For now, this is a three star story at most.
The story starts with a lot of promise. I liked the setup: the general setting, the cast of characters, the prominence of pumpkins, Cendrillon's constant effort to get something to grow on her mother's grave, how she allows her step-family to think she's a servant because of her struggle with accepting her identity, the exploration of love and friendship and the difference between the two, the focus on what bitterness will do to you, how Dokey attempted to subvert all of the original tale's tropes. But Dokey could not seem to pull it all together at the end.
For starters, the romance is bad. All of three of them, in fact. The pairings are strange and confusing and not particularly romantic and all three are somewhat unnecessary on some level. Why should I believe that just because Raoul and Pascal look alike that that somehow makes Pascal a suitable love interest? The 'meet-cute' and subsequent 'romance' are not only rushed beyond belief but more than cheesy enough to make me want to gag. I'm not opposed to love at first sight stories, but this was certainly not the way to do it.
Raoul and Anastasia serve as nothing more than an uninspired pairing, and I had zero investment in their relationship, but out of three they do still have the most actual build-up and development, and perhaps if the rest of the book had been better I could have gotten behind their relationship. As for Niccolo and Amelie, Niccolo had no business being a love interest. In fact, I did not care about him at all. He did nothing useful, and the story would have been perfectly fine without him. Or he could have just been a fun side character without any attempt at developing him further. He definitely didn't need his own romance or to have more than an inconsequential part to play in the secret twins and warring countries plotline.
The one thing I actually liked about the romance of the book was how Dokey used it to explore Cendrillon and Raoul's friendship. There was a subtle, underlying current to their friendship throughout the book that presented some truly delicious possibility, like both knew things could go either way for them, love or friendship, and it would all come down to what they both decided in the end. I, personally, was fully willing to accept the idea of them remaining friends, but if the end goal was to stick Cendrillon with a secret twin she barely knew because poorly written 'insta-love', I would have preferred she end up with Raoul instead.
In terms of the warring countries/secret twins subplot, I was genuinely looking forward to finding out Raoul's part in the story, and I even would have liked the idea of him being a secret twin if it hadn't been thrown in so hastily at the last minute. The story did seem to be hinting at the idea of Raoul being a kidnapped prince, which was an element I was all in for, and he did turn out to be a prince, but he didn't come from where I expected him to or from where I think would have suited the story more. I could have dealt with this easily if the rest of the subplot had made sense to me and worked in the story, but I Still don't know what the secret twins/warring countries plotline was meant to be about, and I don't very much care at this point.
And for a story that relies on a subplot of overthrowing a kingdom, where the hell were all of the machinations?! I get keeping the secret twins/warring countries subplot in wraps for most of the book since Cendrillon wouldn't have any reason to know about any of it with her father being absent the majority of the story. But once things started to be revealed, I absolutely expected for there to be some time spent on Developing this subplot and actually giving it some Teeth. As it is, Brabant comes across as a completely useless mastermind of a completely directionless plot to overthrow a kingdom for completely non-existent reasons. And at the end of it all, there's not even any sort of conclusion to the subplot. For all we know, these two warring countries are still warring with each other to this day, and Raoul and Pascal have become locked in an intense emotional battle only to be ended once one or both of them have run out of the will to live.
Now That would be a story.
Sadly, by the end of this book, I found a lot of the characters behavior and the overall progression of story events unbearably annoying. The last 1/5 of the book definitely needed to be longer to make room for more character and story progression. And all three of the romances should have been scrapped and started over.
I'm not getting rid of this book, because I still plan on collecting the full series, and I'll probably re-read Before Midnight at some point to see if I like it any better, but I don't find that likely to happen. For now, this is a three star story at most.
scribesprite's review against another edition
2.0
Maybe I should have read this book earlier; when I was 13 and a fresh book lover. I've read a few more Cinderella retellings since then so it's hard to give it any new twists or magic. Its got the basic framework of all the Cinderella retellings: mother dies (check), stepmother and sisters(check), and a happily-ever-after with the prince (check).
There is always something different about each retelling that I've read. In Ella Enchanted it was the curse, in Just Ella the prince isn't charming but stupid, and I could go on but that would take a while. This book goes for the dad and a war. Which sounds interesting in theory but you hardly get to see the dad and the war part isn't used as much as I would've liked. The relationship Cendrillon (Cinderella) has with her step family is different.
However, what bothered me the most was that it takes forever to get anything started. I know that Dokey writes about half the book before she gets the ball rolling but this one took so much longer. The stepmother and stepsisters don't ever appear until a quarter of the book is over and the ball takes even longer to even come up. The ball actually happens after page 150 and it lasts 2 pages, if that (the book is less than 200 pages by the way). The ball is what I looked forward to and was disappointed that it was basically nonexistent. Everything before that is basically to get everyone else to pair off (the stepsisters) and that just wasn't interesting to me. Also the words "true love" is on every other page. I'm usually okay with it and expect it from Dokey but it was a bit much for me.
This book was all right but I think there are better Cinderella retellings. I feel that I may be a bit harsh because it's such a well known story but after I finished I just thought it was...okay.
There is always something different about each retelling that I've read. In Ella Enchanted it was the curse, in Just Ella the prince isn't charming but stupid, and I could go on but that would take a while. This book goes for the dad and a war. Which sounds interesting in theory but you hardly get to see the dad and the war part isn't used as much as I would've liked. The relationship Cendrillon (Cinderella) has with her step family is different.
However, what bothered me the most was that it takes forever to get anything started. I know that Dokey writes about half the book before she gets the ball rolling but this one took so much longer. The stepmother and stepsisters don't ever appear until a quarter of the book is over and the ball takes even longer to even come up. The ball actually happens after page 150 and it lasts 2 pages, if that (the book is less than 200 pages by the way). The ball is what I looked forward to and was disappointed that it was basically nonexistent. Everything before that is basically to get everyone else to pair off (the stepsisters) and that just wasn't interesting to me. Also the words "true love" is on every other page. I'm usually okay with it and expect it from Dokey but it was a bit much for me.
This book was all right but I think there are better Cinderella retellings. I feel that I may be a bit harsh because it's such a well known story but after I finished I just thought it was...okay.