Fairytale

Love the storyline, but has a super open ending which I generally hate in books ( )

So far, only Ever After, the movie with Drew Barrymore, is a “true” Cinderella story that I like. Every other adaptation requires significant changes or “enhancements” (trolls, adventure, kidnapping, curses, etc) to hold my attention and Just Ella falls into the latter category – spoiler alert – Ella doesn’t end up with the Prince. But that’s pretty evident from the moment he enters the story.

Just Ella starts after the ball, after the supposed happily-ever-after, when Ella must adjust to life in the castle and how that differs from the, relative, freedom she experienced while living out in the community around the palace. She also must contend with the fact that she and the prince don’t exactly have compatible personalities. Ella is much more free thinking and more interested in helping people that asking her new servants to do things for her or simply nodding along with everything her etiquette instructor tells her she must do as a new princess. And then, when she tries to assert a little independence, when she figures out that this isn’t the life she wants to lead, she has to deal with a prince who has never been told “no,” by anyone. Ever.
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Ella’s spunk and charisma is what made me read and reread Just Ella over and over again in middle school and even high school, and I was beyond delighted to discover, when I went to find a replacement copy in the bookstore after I started working there, that Margaret Peterson Haddix wrote two more books as companions! ( )

This one joins End of Ever After on the short list of Cinderella retellings I’ve read in which she realizes that agreeing to marry a man she barely knows is actually not the best idea.

Ella has succeeded: she has escaped her stepmother’s control and is living in the palace, about to marry the love of her life and live happily ever after! Except she’s not happy. Her “princess lessons” are boring and tedious, she’s not allowed to do anything for herself, and she barely gets any time to talk with her prince. The one bright spot in her days is the time she spends with Jed, one of her tutors, who actually treats her like a person instead of a fragile decorative ornament.

Ella’s decision to break off the engagement could prove to be a far more dangerous undertaking than she expected.

This version of the tale has no magic, just determination on Ella’s part to take charge of her own life — we love to see it! And we also love to see that she learns to rely on friends for help instead of trying to do everything herself all the time. Both are good! ( )

My very favorite Cinderella book. Strong, beautiful heroine, expected and sweet coupling. ( )