Review Detail

Aisling's mother dies when she is twelve, leaving her daughter (better known as Ash) alone with her father and cruel stepmother. Her situation quickly becomes worse, though, when her father dies and leaves his widow with a great deal of debt, which she determines to pay off by firing the servants. Lady Isobel and her daughters, Ana and Clara, are accustomed to a life of luxury, however, and so Ash becomes their handmaid- a dire, thankless task that she is excused from only when Ana is off husband- hunting in the city.

Of all the fairy tales to put a lesbian retelling too, Cinderella is the best- not because it makes sense, but because it doesn't. Other fairy tales may be sexist and rather insipid, but at least they're romantic- the traditional Cinderella is not a girl who falls in love. She's a girl who is so miserable that she would accept anyone and anything in order too improve her lot in life, and that's where Ash subverts the traditional story- the romance between her and Kaisa was believable, sweet, and made me smile.

I not sure exactly who to recommend this novel to- it's definitely a girl book, both because of the whole lesbian thing and because of the whole fairy tale thing, but I've known some guys who would like it, not to mention a ton of adult women.