So This Is Love

Cinderella never gets to try on the glass slipper. With no way to prove she is the missing princess, and Lady Tremaine's house more than she can stand, she walks out and goes to the palace to look for work as a seamstress.

The Grand Duke places her in the service of the king's sister, who is visiting the court. From that post Cinderella overhears word of a conspiracy to remove the king and the prince from power.

She also runs into a long-standing prejudice against fairies. It reaches close to home, because her own Fairy Godmother is one of them.

Elizabeth Lim's Cinderella retelling, released in April 2020, is book nine in Disney's A Twisted Tale series. It begins from the question of what happens if the slipper is never tried on. Most of the action stays inside the palace and the city around it.

Court intrigue runs alongside a slow-building romance, and Cinderella acts for herself instead of waiting for rescue. Young adult readers who like fairy-tale retellings are the natural audience.