Part of getting out there and rubbing shoulders with other authors includes reviewing other author’s works. I am a member of a review group over at GoodReads and recently reviewed Cinderella’s Escape by Gita Reddy.
Cinderella’s Escape offers some of the same story elements as the classic Cinderella fairy tale, but updates them to present day. The story is well written with respect to creating the world Anna Maria lived in. I could picture her basic surroundings, although details about the other characters and environments were more difficult to realize, being left out in order to move the story forward.
I found myself rooting for Anna Maria, but the ending, the escape, is the weakest part of the story. Anna Maria is an active participant in her plot to escape and that engaged me as a reader. However, she becomes a passive participant in her story when the story resolves itself, and this weakens the ending. How the ending comes about is far-fetched and I think most children will feel disappointed by it. I don’t think the added backstory in the epilogue added to the story, either. It’s a story about how Anna Maria escaped the clutches of her evil stepmother, not how the stepmother executed her intricate criminal plan.
When I was 70% through, I encountered an extra, unrelated story. I’m not sure why this story was added to this book. It felt rushed.
Both stories would be elevated to a higher level after a pass by a professional editor, as I found grammatical errors, omitted words, and logic flaws in both. Children are smart and pick up on these errors. You can find Cinderella’s Escape on Amazon.com
