Sunday, June 1, 2014

Cinderella's Dress by Shonna Slayton, A Review ★★★★

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Author: Shonna Slayton
Release Date: June 3, 2014

Book Description

Being seventeen during World War II is tough. Finding out you’re the next keeper of the real Cinderella’s dresses is even tougher.
Kate simply wants to create window displays at the department store where she's working, trying to help out with the war effort. But when long-lost relatives from Poland arrive with a steamer trunk they claim holds the Cinderella’s dresses, life gets complicated.
Now, with a father missing in action, her new sweetheart, Johnny, stuck in the middle of battle, and her great aunt losing her wits, Kate has to unravel the mystery before it’s too late.

After all, the descendants of the wicked stepsisters will stop at nothing to get what they think they deserve.

Review

I received an eARC copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. Here is my honest review.


I enjoyed this book more than I thought I would - and I expected to enjoy it very much. 

It's not exactly a fairytale re-telling.....more of a what happened after imagining. 

Kate's family is wonderfully real and normal and quirky all at the same time. I loved the relationship that Slayton created between Kate and her mother. Her mother frustrated her but there was always a sense of love from Kate towards her even when things weren't ideal between them. 

I thought Slayton dealt with the issues of women's roles well. Certainly the war brought more women into the working world and Kate's desire to find a place in it felt very realistic. And her anger at losing any headway she might have gained once the war was over also felt realistic. One thing that felt off during the book was Kate's age. I don't recall it being specified exactly. The references to school and prom make it clear that she is still in high school. And so there will certainly be immaturity there and Kate did have moments that illustrated her youth. 

I remember thinking that I was a little over halfway through the book and it didn't seem that anything could be resolved by the end - it seemed like so much still needed to be covered. I wondered if this was going to be the first book in a series. I'm still not sure. The ending did come and there was resolution; however, there are certainly people out there who still want Cinderella's dress so there could be more to the story. 
I gave this book: ★★★★

★ = I did not like it     ★★ = It was okay     ★★★ = I liked it    
★★★★ = I really liked it     ★★★★★ = I loved it

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