The Bibliophile's Bookshelf

Title: Sisters Ever After- Glass Slippers

Series: Sisters Ever After #2

Author: Leah Cypess

Genre: Middle Grade, Retelling, Fantasy, Family

Rating 4.5 stars

Review:

Meet Cinderella’s third “wicked” stepsister, Tirza. For years Tirza has lived with the guilt and shame of what her family did to Cinderella. Against the advice of everyone Cinderella, now Queen Ella, took a chance on Tirza. Queen Ella tells everyone that Tirza is good and kind, not cruel like her sisters. But when Queen Ella’s famous glass slippers go missing, there is only one suspect. Tirza may have tried them on, but she didn’t steal them. Now she has to find the real thief before she is kicked out of the royal castle. But as Tirza gets closer to the truth, she also gets closer to her sisters, who may not be as evil as Cinderella claims.

Cinderella isn’t my favorite fairytale, but I really, really loved this retelling!

It was so good, and I loved Tirza. This was a quick read and the book twisted and explored Cinderella’s story in a really unique and interesting way.

Tirza is the third “evil stepsister,” the one you never hear about because she was only five when Cinderella meets the Prince. The way Leah Cypess wrote Tirza was super fascinating. Tirza is resentful of Cinderella because Tirza thinks Cinderella isn’t as kind as she portrays herself. Tirza also doesn’t know the whole story, so this causes a lot of misunderstandings. I will say I was totally rooting for Cinderella to be evil.

Tirza also doesn’t know exactly what happened to her mother and sisters. Tirza is not the most reliable narrator for these reasons.

There was a lot of Tirza struggling with what was going on and trying to determine what was real. Really, Tirza was trying to figure out her place and who her family is. A truly captivating story.

There was some magic which was a lot of fun. The slippers were magical in this book, which I found really interesting. And how they were unsafe, and you had to be careful when wearing them.

This book also explores marriages of convenience, which I think is important for people to understand, especially as these are becoming more common in media. This book can definitely open a conversation about how maybe Cinderella married the Prince to escape her life and how that grew into love. I wish this was focused on a little more.

Ultimately, at the end of the book, Tirza has to make a big decision. Should she follow the path of her family, or should she be on Cinderella’s side? She also comes to realize by the end of this book that what she took for haughty was actually a defense mechanism, and Cinderella realized she should have tried harder pertaining to Tirza.

Glass Slippers is definitely one of my favorite Cinderella retellings. It has action and adventure, as well as family relationships and learning you don’t have to follow the path of your family!