Letters by Cinderlight – Read with Me

After her governess is fired for teaching her to read, Elya writes in a secret journal to continue her lessons on her own. Though, as an unwanted scullery maid, she doubts she will ever have much to say.

But when a charming stranger answers her private messages, Elya’s world turns upside down. He calls her sweet. He calls her strong. He challenges her to come to a palace celebration and leave her abusive past behind.

Each small push reveals more risks and hidden heartache. Will the magic of their words be enough to rewrite their story together, or will it all fade away at midnight?

If you like inspirational heroines, unique love stories, and untrustworthy fae, this romantic fantasy is for you! One-click now to start the magic, romance, and heart-wrenching emotional journey!

Letters by Cinderlight is a twist on the Cinderella story based in Slavic mythology and full of magical fairies with stories of their own.

First Line:

The story I have to tell is a sad one, but it is also a mystery.
Letters by Cinderlight: A Tale of Cinderella by Jacque Stevens

Review:

I am not one to like fairy tale retellings, and I do not go out of my way to read books that do so. I find that most retellings are boring. So, when I read the blurb for Letters by Cinderlight, I almost decided not to review it. But there was something about the blurb that caught my interest. I am glad I chose to review Letters by Cinderlight. It is one of the more imaginative fairytale retellings that I have read.

I usually don’t do this, but I want to give a heads up on possible triggers. Child abuse is the big one here. Elya is abused in every way except sexually. While most of the abuse scenes are not graphic, the scene where Elya is deliberately burnt in the face by her stepmother is. It was a scene where not only could I feel Elya’s pain, but I could hear her screams and smell the flesh burning. It did trigger me, but I could get through my trigger and continue reading the book.

The other trigger in the book is bullying. Elya is bullied horribly by her stepsisters. There is name-calling, a song that they would sing to her, and they did everything and anything to get her in trouble. They weren’t as graphic as the child abuse scenes, but they could still trigger someone.

Letters by Cinderlight did take a couple of chapters for the storyline to get going. But once it did, it moved fast. There was minimal lag (mainly after Lady Mother burnt Elya’s dress and before Grandmother Lada appeared), but it didn’t take away from the storyline.

I liked that the author incorporated Slavic mythology into the book. There was talk of rusalkas (one talked to Elya at various points in the book) and domovoy. Lada, who is spoken of at the beginning of the book and shows up towards the end, is the Slavic goddess of Spring. It made the book so much more interesting to read.

I loved Charming!! He was unwavering in his support for Elya (even when she was rude to him), and he tried so hard to bolster her self-esteem up. He made Elya rethink why she was being treated the way she was. He even changed the invites so scullery maids would be invited to the ball. I didn’t see him falling in love with Elya until after telling him about what her stepmother did. His response was telling, as was his letter at the end of the book.

Letters by Cinderlight is a very clean book. There is kissing, but I expected it between Charming and Elya.

The end of Letters by Cinderlight drove me nuts. I understood why Elya did what she did. She was scared. She had zero self-esteem and truly believed that Charming couldn’t love someone like her. It was one of the saddest scenes that I have read. That isn’t what drove me nuts. What drove me nuts is that the book ended on a flipping cliffhanger. I HATE cliffhangers!!!

Letters by Cinderlight was an interesting retelling of Cinderella. It was engaging and fast-moving. This is a book that I would read again.

I would recommend Letters by Cinderlight for anyone over the age of 16. This is a clean book with only two kissing scenes towards the end of the book. But there are disturbing scenes of child abuse, with two graphic scenes involving Elya, her Lady Mother, and a candle. There are also scenes of bullying.

WWW Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted by Sam at Taking on a World of Words .

The Three Ws are:

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

Personal:

Allergies and that awful cold has been banished from the house. Mr Z was the last one to get it and wouldn’t you know, he got it the worst. He is also my one kid that NEVER gets sick. So it figures that he got laid out with this cold.

Mr. Z has his end-of-grade testing coming up. He did his math today and ELA next week. I’m expecting him to pass both with flying colors. Put it this way, he has a 96 in Math and a 97 in ELA. His GPA is 4.0.

Miss B’s end-of-course testing starts next week. She has one EOG on the 24th. After that, she’s out of school. Well, according to her she’s out of school for the rest of that week. I do plan on emailing her EC (special Ed) teacher to confirm

Because Miss R is in 1st grade, they don’t do end-of-grade testing. Instead, they see how proficient the kids are in math, ELA, writing, and science/social studies. Because Miss R’s teacher contacted me last week, I know that she isn’t proficient in writing. Honestly, I am not that worried about it. I will work with her over the summer break (I got workbooks). Considering how messed up the school year was, I am happy that she is on grade level for everything else.

BK is in Baltimore/Washington D.C. this week. I am worried about how he is going to get home with the gas shortages. He took his company car there yesterday and had problems finding a gas station. He’s hoping that by tomorrow that there will be gas.

Speaking of the gas shortage, we’re good with gas. BK fills the cars (Dodge Journey and Dodge Grand Caravan) up every Saturday/Sunday. So, we’re good for a while if I only drive when I have to. They are expecting everything to be OKish by the weekend (according to the news).

BK and I finally got to watch another episode of The Nevers on Sunday. I am really enjoying that show. But, because of the shitstorm that is around Joss Whedon, I am wondering if it will be canceled….sigh. Hey, at least I still have The Magicians and Lovecraft County.

I have stopped playing Black Desert Online. The game got boring for me. I decided to redownload Elder Scrolls Online and play that. So far, I am liking it!!

I made Slow-Cooker Savory Roast Chicken and Vegetables with garlic mashed potatoes for supper last night. It was a bust. None of the kids ate it. Miss B didn’t like the taste of the chicken, Miss R didn’t like that there were mushrooms in it, and Mr. Z doesn’t like chicken, period. I thought it tasted good….shrug. Gotta love having picky kids.

Blog

I had posted this on Monday (on the IMWAYR post) but I am going to restate it here. I am finally able to edit my posts without having to scroll through all of them. I was so excited about that and I did about 5-6 posts before closing shop for the night. I am hoping to get all my posts edited/links fixed by the end of the summer!!

Reading:

I didn’t do a lot of reading last week. As I mentioned in that IMWAYR post, I had an awful migraine that lasted two days. Then it was my birthday/Mother’s day. Then on Monday, my Kindle died (that happens when you don’t charge it….lol). But I was able to finish one book last night and I am almost done with another.

What I Recently Finished Reading:

I wasn’t a huge fan of this book. I loved what was promised in the blurb. But once Anna and Jack got the symbiont, the book got very, very weird.

What I am currently reading:

I am enjoying this book, even though it isn’t quite what the blurb promised. Yes, October is a nurse but the blurb fails to mention that she has severe OCD. That is brought on by being raised by an abusive hoarder of a mother. As for her being an Omen, October wasn’t even aware of it until the night she met her mother’s new boyfriend. Other than that, I am loving it. Von is one of my favorite characters (the scene where he is trying not to feed on October was pretty funny…mainly because of what he was saying). Mason, I am not sure of, and I do NOT like Danny. He’s a little too free with his hands if you know what I mean.

What books I think I’ll read next:

I finally have new books on my TBR list for this next week. I will have a book come off hold from the library at some point this week, so I am including it on this week’s list. The order in which I will be reading these books are NetGalley ARC, Author ARC, Library book, TBR, TBR, TBR.