The Bibliophile's Bookshelf

Title: The Coronation Ball: A Four Kingdoms Cinderella Novelette

Series: The Four Kingdoms #2.2

Author: Melanie Cellier

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Retelling, Clean Romance

Rating: 4 stars

Review:

Hanna knows all about hard work. For years she’s labored to complete her apprenticeship and become a pastry chef. Driven from her home once before, she’s willing to endure whatever it takes to keep her position in the palace kitchens of Northhelm.

But when she finally has a chance for all her dreams to come true, everything goes wrong. In danger of losing both her future as a pastry chef, and the man she’s loved for years, Hanna will have to decide if she’s ready to fight for herself, as well as for Stefan. – summary from Goodreads

This was a really sweet, simple, quick Cinderella retelling!

I don’t love Cinderella, but I quite enjoy Cinderella retellings, and this book is no exception!

This book follows Hanna, Hans’s younger sister who is mentioned in The Princess Fugitive.

In this book Hanna is living in Northhelm and is an apprentice to the head bakery chef at the palace. Her rival is Brianna, the noble apprentice, and the head chef clearly favors Brianna and together they make life as hard as possible for Hanna. The other apprentice also isn’t super nice to Hanna, but he doesn’t really come into play.

I absolutely love this twist on the evil stepfamily. It was really well done, and somewhat subtle, which I liked. It also provided another context for the Cinderella story to take place, which I thought was super unique and I loved it.

Melanie Cellier gets the trophy for pure, sweet, wholesome romances that have a solid foundation. There was no insta-love in sight! The romance, while quick (probably because the story was only fifty-three pages), was built on years friendship.

Stefan was such a sweet, fun love interest! All of the different characters I have read so far in this series are unique, which I love and congratulate the author on accomplishing that in such a big series!

I probably would have liked this book even more if it was longer. That was honestly the only downside to this. It was too short, and I couldn’t get as lost in the story or know the characters more because of this.

This book doesn’t really hold consequence for the other books in the series. The problems in this book haven’t had any effect on the other books, and Hanna only makes a brief appearance in A Midwinter’s Wedding. So, not crucial to read this book, but I definitely recommend it. It’s just a nice quick read, with an adorable romance! Honestly it’s the perfect book to curl up with during the busy holiday season.