Interesting take on the Cinderella story, set in 17th century Holland. Not totally sure what I think of it, good but the hype had led me to expect better.

Will be shipped to Geegal, on a trade or bookring (tomorrow hopefully!)

Sent to geegal today.

THANK YOU SO MUCH !!
Ok I started this book over and over again. i simply refused to give up on it but I don't know it just could get me hooked. Weeeeiiiiird book I say. I can't even rate it.
I first thought that it might be similar to Girl with a Pearl Earring but nowhere close!
I normally love fairy tale retellings also or maybe especially if they are told by sidecharacters but that Iris girl wasn't at all interesting.

Bookring !!!!!

1. Dani75 - Germany
2. concertina8 - Austria
3. anitakorn - Austria
4. syrinpt - Portugal
5. QueenSissi - Portugal
6. Xana - Portugal (will give it to BlossomU)

RELEASE NOTES:

enjoy !!!!!

Received today - I´m really looking forward to reading this one. I´d love to start immediately but I´ve got another bookring book to finish first.

Mailed to concertina8 on Monday.

got this through snail mail. will have to finish another book first.

update 04.04.

i finished this book over the weekend and i really enjoyed it even though it was not at all what i expected.

this sheds new light on beloved cinderella and redefines who is good and who is maybe not so good at all.


*SPOILERS*


somehow i thought this would be funny or at least amusing and in reality it is this sad story about the stepsisters that try to help cinderella (clara) out whenever they can. they even take her side against their own mother.

i found the tragic ending interesting. the book begins long before the known fairy tale of cinderella and goes beyond the "happily ever after"-concept. and apparently nobody lives happily ever after. not cinderella with her prince (even though she does get him), not iris who tells most of the story (even though she does get her prince too).

what i didn't realize was that the very beginning was being narrated by ruth, rather than iris. i don't remember if it said so or not, but for the most part of the book it was iris telling the tale, so i just assumed the introduction was done by her, as well. i only understood that it was ruth at the ending. this is a little strange, since you would not expect her to give a detailed account of anything. she doesn't speak coherently but rather makes sounds and sings throughout the book. was she pretending? was she improving/recovering? if so, wouldn't THAT have been the real fairy tale?

i think i signed up for another gregory-maguire-bookring (wicked) and now i really look forward to that one. and recently at the bookstore i saw that there's a third one out (mirror, mirror). i might want to read that too.

i have already contacted anitakorn. since we live in the same town we will try to work out a direct exchange of some sort.

thank you for sharing geegal!

(edited to adapt spelling)

Received the book yesterday from concertina8 at the Ladies Night.... Thank you....

Well, well, well... I finally finished this book... it was kind of strange to read, but nevertheless I enjoyed it, a quick read...

This gives a very new light on the beloved Cindarella story...

Thanks a lot for the Bookring...

RELEASE NOTES:

It's with me now.

Update:
This was not what I was expecting. I thought the book was much more fairy-tailish, so to speak.
Still it was a good read, especially because it was set here in the Netherlands, but not a memorable one.

And it is back home, thanks Xana and thanks so much for the surprise :) It will be shared around.

Book is not home for good yet, still some more local BCers interested on it, so sorting geographically sort, a new small portuguese bookring

1 - Xeyra ( last person to ask to join, but I can pass it to her faster than I can make it to the post office, sorry QS and Syrin )
2 - QueenSissi
3 - Syrin ( who specifically asked to be last).

Now I'm feeling guilty for sidesteping some people and getting to the top of the list, but I promise to make this book a priority, after I finish the one I'm currently reading.

I became curious about this book after I saw the Hallmark movie I believe was based on the book. As a rule, I like to read the books more than seeing the movie, though sometimes I do come across the books after seeing the film. Most times, there are lots of details lost in a movie adaptation, so I decided I would like to read this particular book.

So thanks, BlossomU, for the opportunity to read it, and I promise not to take an ungodly amount of time to finish it.

Reading this book was like finding an old friend after not speaking with them for a while, which is the feeling I have when I read a book after seeing the movie based upon it - at least when I like them both. As it was based on the fairy-tale about Cinderella, there was little surprise about its ending (we were already expecting her to get the prince, of course), though this particular tale's last chapter does not point to the happy ever after finale we're so used to see in fairy-tales. Perhaps because this story is not a fairy-tale -- it has very little of magic and much more stark realism, a well-thought, engaging and delightful interpretation of the much beloved tale of Cinderella.

I enjoyed it; it is not perfect, of course, and it takes a while for one to get used to the tense it is written in, but it gave us a different point of view to this story, showing us life through the stepsisters's perspective and giving us a portrait of them that shows them not as simple secondary characters that are cruel to their beautiful sister as the fairy-tale, in all its simplicity, shows us, but instead real, breathing characters with their motivations and dreams, desires and personalities. Iris is a delightful character to read about, intelligent and down-to-earth, but I think Margarethe's characterization was the best in the book: cunning, resourceful, with impecable sharpness and vicious in her own way, but never the outright evil stepmother we might expect. In fact, the main difference between this story and the original fairy-tale is that there is hardly any black or white and even this particular Cinderella can be capricious and annoying.

So, no, there is hardly much fairy-tale in this novel. The story is inspired by the original but it retains a uniqueness of its own, and it was a pleasure to read. As far as interpretations go, this one is a very good one, and it shows us that, indeed, those ugly, vicious stepsisters the stories tell us about were only human. I was surprised when I realized who was really telling the story, as I hadn't guessed whom the ugly stepsister in the title was referring to, but I think it was very fitting. And despite there not being any fairy godmother in the book (though there was one in the movie, minus the magic wand!), the tale had a magic of its own.

Sending to QueenSissi soon.

EDIT: Sent to QueenSissi on July 19.

Arrived yesterday safe and sound! thanks

The attention to details was very interesting and the resemblance to the cinderella story was also very interesting. It took me a long time to read it though because I wasn't always in the mood... I think I'd rather have read it in the winter by the fire :).

Traveling to Syrin!

Got it today.
Thanks for sending, QueenSissi!

Like many of the previous readers, I expected more from this book. The idea was interesting: a retale of the Cinderella story, told by the people we're taught to ignore - the stepsisters.

But as I started reading the book, I realized it was a bit different. Yes, the underlying story is the one we know, but there are so many details, so many side-stories that the Cinderella tale gets lost. Only in the last chapters of the book do we really see whose story is being told.


I guess I thought it would reflect more about what lies behind fairytales, what happens after the "And they lived happily ever after". But really, if you want to know that, than Fables, by Bill Willingham is the perfect series.

Thanks for the loan, BlossomU, I'll save it and send it back soon!

Back with me, thanks all!