Desperately Ever After by Laura Kenyon

 2.5 Stars

Whilst I love a good fractured fairy tale this book certainly didn't cast the necessary spell for me.  I am definitely not a feminist but even I felt uncomfortable with the preoccupation of the characters with their appearance and how others perceive them.  It is just so facile and unimportant but Conderella's whole reason to be in the book seems to be to moan about her obsession with fitting in to her iconic blue dress *gag*.  I suppose the fable of the book is about insta-celebrity and how it really means nothing blah, blah, blah BUT for me it just didn't work.

I haven't checked the publishers recommended age range for the book but it reads very much like a sauced up tweenager book rather than YA and I would imagine that is the main audience this is aimed at - I would be shocked if it is supposed to be a novel aimed at adults.  Dialogue is mostly stilted and unrealistic, especially as these women are all supposed to be so close to each other there is no real feeling of connection between them from their interactions.

On the whole I feel like if you are interested in the whole Cult Of Celebrity then you would probably really enjoy this version on what happens after the marriage.  If such things more or less leave you cold then probably best to avoid this one.

This review has been a long time coming.  I actually read this book between the 11th and 13th July 2020 so my memory is a bit foggy about all the plot lines.  Fortunately, I have a notebook where I jot some initial thoughts on the book and an overall ranking so between the book blurb and that I did have a reasonable handle on what I thought at the time of reading.