Charm by Sarah Pinborough –

Published: April 8, 2015

Publisher: Titan Books

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 208 (Hardcover)

My Rating: 4.0/5.0

 

Synopsis:

The classic Cinderella story is given a sexy contemporary makeover in this wicked fairy tale featuring all the heroes and villains that we know and love: the handsome prince, the fairy godmother, the wretched sisters, and the beautiful girl.

---

One of my fellow bloggers mentioned to me several months ago how much they liked Sarah Pinborough, so when I came across one of her books I decided to give it a try. The little “A Wicked Cinderella Story” part of the title turns out to be pretty important, by the way. I didn’t know what kind of wicked we were talking about here, but when I started reading I was like “WOAH WOAH WOAH, NOT WHAT I EXPECTED”. My face was probably priceless!!

First of all, this isn’t JUST a Cinderella story. There are elements from several other fairytales woven in, which I really liked, and it made the whole story feel richer and more complex. I would love to get my hands on the preceding two books, which tie in with the story of Charm (though they can be read independently). I was surprised by how dark and hardcore some of the scenes were- especially where poor Rose was trying to saw her toe off with a kitchen knife whilst downing liquor. CRINGE. There were also a few bits that were nearing Fifty Shades of Fairytale and I honestly got a good laugh out of those.

Cinderella wasn’t exactly the poor, downtrodden step-sister that she’s made out to be by the good ol’ Disney version. She was ungrateful, jealous, and filled with malice towards her family that proclaimed love for her. Fortunately she checked that attitude, so I wasn’t totally put out with her as a main character, but she was still kind of an idiot.

Charm was a fresh, entertaining version of a classic story that gave me about 2 hours of super fun reading. I devoured this book in a single short sitting (it’s only around 150 pages). I was left wanting more of Sarah Pinborough’s reimagining and I’ll be adding the rest of these cuties to my shelf sometime this year. They also seem to be wonderful quality books with designs on the interior and attached ribbon bookmarks.