Fire and Ice is honored to be a stop on the Cinder and Ella virtual blog tour hosted by Cedar Fort publishing which runs June 1-June 3oth.
Cinder and Ella
by Melissa Lemon
Paperback, 208 pages
Expected publication: November 8th 2011
by Bonneville Books
ISBN 139781599559063
Source: NetGalley
4 stars
Synposis: After their father’s disappearance, Cinder leaves home for a servant job at the castle. But it isn’t long before her sister Ella is brought to the castle herself—the most dangerous place in all the kingdom for both her and Cinder. Cinder and Ella is a Cinderella story like no other and one you’ll never forget.
I’ll have to be honest, normally I am not a sucker for fairy tales or re-tellings of princess stories. However, Cinder and Ella kept me interested. In this version, Cinder and Ella are sisters in a family of six. Their father has disappeared since a mysterious visit from the Prince who plants seeds of discontent and darkness in the home,and their mother is a shadow of a woman who spends her days at the spinning wheel–isolated and mostly mute.
The sisters are left to fend for themselves, Cinder taking a motherly codependent role, Ella strong and silent. Ella’s identity gets somehow merged into Cinder’s and the two become simply known simply as Cinderella. Their mother forgets Ella all together and turns entirely to Cinder to care for her remaining two daughters, a vain self-centered one and a spoiled young child whiteout proper attention.
As Cinder and Ella grow weary of their daily routine, Cinder turns to the palace where she retains a job as a servant and Ella runs away. Soon Cinder is swept up into the beguiling trap of the sinister Prince and praise of the court, and eventually Ella is found,captured and brought to the castle.
Cinder must learn to discern good from evil. Ella must uncover the secret that awaits in the Prince’s secret chamber. Melissa Lemon uses the legend of the trees, a twisted fairy tale and a knight in shining armor to spin a completely new take on an age old story. While some of the characters seemed a bit undeveloped and the ending was abrupt I must say I enjoyed Cinder and Ella much more than anything else I’ve read recently. I think it would be suited for middle grade readers ages 12 and up as the content is clean. There is one small swear word and only vague references to ungentlemanly behavior by some of the antagonists. I’ll be curious to hear what moral other readers pull from this story. And, I can’t help but to wonder where the Prince is lurking…will he be back?
Thanks so much to Cedar Fort and NetGalley for the early peek plus the thoughtful discussion questions at the end of the book.
Visit all the stops on the Cinder and Ella blog tour for your chance to win a copy. Or you can go directly to NetGalley and request one yourself! To find out more about the author Melissa Lemon, please check the following links:
Melissa’s Facebook fan page
Melissa on Twitter
Melissa’s author blog
Melissa’s author page on Goodreads