Before Midnight by Cameron Dokey

As the title says it, this is a retelling of Cinderella... but it does have a few twists.

Cendrillion and Raoul have grown up together in a great stone mansion by the sea, which belongs to Cendrillion's father. Every year on their birthday they wish for something, she that something might grow and thrive on her mother's grave (where the soil is cursed due to her father's grief upon learning of his wife's death) and he that he might one day know where he came from (since all he knows is that Cendrillion's father brought him to the mansion when he was a baby only a few days old).

In a moment of desperation and anger, Cendrillion at the age of fifteen wishes for a Mother and Sisters (Two, so at least one of them might like her) who will love her and whom she can love. A few months later, her new stepmother, Chantal, and her daughters Amelie and Anastasia show up... was that a wish come true? Maybe.

We all know the basic plot of the stoy, I'm sure, so I won't go deep, I won't say the twist either because... where would that leave the fun?

I'll say that I loved it, that it surprised me and that I would read it again in a heartbeat. It starts a little slow but when it picks up it picks up and you're in for a good time. And I'll quote a passage of the book which I think sums up the book (and fairy tales in general):

"I had just told the handsome prince I had known for less than three days that I loved him, and he asked me to sit down upon a pumpkin."

This book has everything you can hope for in this book: romance, a little intrigue, magic (but not in the way one would expect!) and, most of all, happy endings.

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