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Once upon a Dance

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Dom is an aging house-android, toiling away for the cruel and ungrateful owners of an inn. He secretly dreams of freedom, friendship, and love. When an inn guest offers him the chance to attend a grand masquerade ball, Dom jumps at the opportunity. For a few precious hours he enjoys a level of independence he had never imagined—and the company of a handsome and kind prince of industry.

Until the clock strikes midnight.

70 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 7, 2023

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About the author

Kim Fielding

184 books1,313 followers
Kim Fielding lives in Oregon and travels as often as she can manage. A professor by day, at night she rushes into a phone booth to change into her author costume (which involves comfy clothes instead of Spandex and is, sadly, lacking a cape). Her superpowers include the ability to write nearly anywhere, often while simultaneously doling out assistance to her family. Her favorite word to describe herself is "eclectic" and she finally got that eighth tattoo.


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5 stars
84 (39%)
4 stars
74 (34%)
3 stars
50 (23%)
2 stars
3 (1%)
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2 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews
Profile Image for Sheri.
1,418 reviews206 followers
March 18, 2023
Apparently, there's nothing Fielding can't tackle...and conquer!
I loved this "Cinderfella" take in space.
Dom is lovely and I was relieved he was gifted his HEA. Even if we don't get to see it.
Another couple dozen pages with a glimpse of his future and I would have been over the moon.
Alas, I was charmed and enjoyed every bit we got.
Well done Kim, well done!!
Profile Image for QuietlyKat.
711 reviews21 followers
March 8, 2023
A short sweet Cinderella reimagined. I liked it, as expected from Kim Fielding.

Thankfully Tin Box Press, not DSP.

3+ stars
Profile Image for Achim.
1,325 reviews89 followers
May 24, 2023
It was such a perfect start for a sci-fi retelling of Cinderella. We get all the iconic parts of that fairytale in a new package with Fielding's tinge of melancholy. I loved the first half introducing Dom, the butler and housekeeper android of a former top B&B style hotel located on a moon in some far away galaxy. Dom's an older android and as neglected by the current owner as the residence he's bound to. He's such a sweet man and much more than the machine everyone seems to believe he is. There are dreams and longings but he has no delusions about getting them fulfilled or delusions about his near future. That is until that day he meets what would be Cinderella's fairy godmother. She offers him the chance of his lifetime by being able to leave the house, flying to the party everyone wants to be and mingle with “real” humans. What could he do other than accept, even if it might be his last hooray if he's not back before midnight.

While the first part was a perfect mélange of a well-loved fairytale and slightly sad space opera with the prospect of becoming a romance, the second half fell flat and wasn't able anymore to hold the diverging pieces together. Suddenly the Cinderella icons like the escape before midnight, the glass slipper, the prince's search and rescue … didn't feel right or plausible in the sci-fi setup and the expected HEA was much more a HFN and rushed. If it would have been a Kim Fielding romance she surely added a prologue but obviously fairytales can't have prologues.
Profile Image for Kim.
Author 184 books1,313 followers
Read
February 6, 2023
Charles Perrault in spaaaaaace!

I love fairy tales, I love sci fi, and I love mixing the two genres together. This is my latest indulgence, a Cinderella tale set on a distant moon far in the future.

According to Wikipedia, the earliest known version of the Cinderella story was recorded about two thousand years ago, and the version many of us are familiar with was published in 1697 by Charles Perrault. This tale has staying power! I think it's because its themes of drudgery-with-hope-for-freedom-and-love are so universal. And I think they translate well to an intelligent android toiling away in a sci fi setting.

I hope you have fun with this version!
Profile Image for Manfred.
804 reviews49 followers
March 23, 2023
This was short and nice but honestly a little disappointing, especially the end was quite meh... Maybe 2.5 stars
Profile Image for Grace.
3,422 reviews221 followers
September 11, 2023
I thought this was a lovely sci-fi Cinderella retelling, with a really fascinating bit of world-building and some lovely characters. The world was interesting enough that I wish we'd had more time in it to learn more, but it was quite a satisfying snack all on its own.
Profile Image for ⋆。°✮ Lucy InTheSky ✮°。⋆.
1,214 reviews278 followers
April 21, 2023
This was a really original retelling of Cinderella.
2.9⭐

Dom is a Cinderfella in this story, he's a domus, meaning an Android, built in a lab, programmed to serve the house he's put in.
He can't move around or go outside and he's lucky if he gets compassionate, nice owners (who occasionally also have sex with him).
Yeah, not a very good life.

He meets Noll, the effeminate (apparently) musician son of the richest family on the planet (or moon), and they have instant chemistry.

Noll eventually finds Dom with the missing shoe and takes him away towards freedom and, potentially, love.

This was a short novella that seemed very promising, the epilogue or at least one of two chapters were badly missing , so I'm hoping the author revisits this story and develops it further.
Profile Image for Kassu.
994 reviews29 followers
December 24, 2023
4+⭐

I love fairytales but honestly the romances in them aren't often the most healthy ones - very weird insta love things, often with royalty. I prefer these newer twists and retellings, where it doesn't feel like it's just a prize of marriage waiting in the end.

This one is a retelling of Cinderella in a sci-fi setting with an android main character - you can't really get a more alluring twist for me. It's still a bit quick romance though, but much more realistic and open ended than the original one, also focusing more on saving our cinderfella from the abuse he's enduring. This could be a 5 star book if it was extended, but it's a very enjoyable short story as it is.
Profile Image for Cindaren.
474 reviews2 followers
March 26, 2023
Awww. This was really cute, a sweet retelling of Cinderella.
Profile Image for PaperMoon.
1,883 reviews84 followers
June 19, 2023
I much prefer this reworked fairy-tale to Firestones and was quite charmed by this you too can go to the ball plus no-sex plot.
Profile Image for Nancy A. Staab.
45 reviews
March 7, 2023
A fresh telling of an old story
This is a Cinderfella story with a twist, as one of the MCs is a sentient android, or domus. All of the expected things happen and since we all know the story, there is a guaranteed happy ever after. This is a sweet read, taking place in an alternate universe, and I enjoyed it very much. You will, too.
Profile Image for Lisa.
3,636 reviews145 followers
March 10, 2023
I didn't realize when I started reading this book it was a retelling of Cinderella.
Loved Dom and am so glad he got a happy ending, I had feared that it was going to end in tears.
Profile Image for Robin L.
1,270 reviews8 followers
July 20, 2023
I really loved this story but that ending was way too abrupt. I wanted more time between the lovers.
266 reviews1 follower
March 1, 2023
WOW! I loved this retelling of the fairytale of Cinderella into a sci-fi MM story. Dom is a butler robot working within a guesthouse, he’s an older model not cared for by his owners who are too tight fisted to fix his problems but still expect him to continue to work. One night there’s to be a ball & the guesthouse is full & Dom is incredibly busy but there’s a guest who offers him a chance to leave his home & attend the Ball. There he meets the musical Noll who treats him like something special. When midnight strikes Dom must return home leaving a shoe behind. This author managed to update the story into something truly beautiful so much so that I didn’t want the story to finish. Loved it! ❤️xx
Profile Image for J. Coatsworth.
Author 97 books192 followers
March 12, 2023
I love fairy tale retellings, especially when they recast the original story in a bold and unexpected way.

Full Disclosure: I was asked by Kim Fielding to create the cover for this book, and to get a better sense of what was required, she offered to let me read it before publication. I also helped with the title (and yes, Cyberella was under consideration at one point LOL).

Poor Dom is a domus – a robotic AI housekeeper for a middle-income family that aspires to be upper class. He lives a life of drudgery, seeing to their every need without even a hint of thanks. They treat poor Dom as an object, and he’s (mostly) content with that, as he was programmed to be. But sometimes he longs to leave the house to see what’s out there in the larger world.

Dom is in a state of poor repair, with a bum knee and slowly deteriorating functions, but his latest owner doesn’t seem to care.

When a new arrival – an offworlder named Per Afrane (Per is a non-gendered signifier of respect, like Mx.), she brings a breath of fresh air into the house, and treats Dom like a feeling, thinking sentient being.

Per Afrane has come to town for the Betucom Ball, an annual dance that is the social event of the season. Betucom is the company that manufactures the domuses, and at one point Fielding gives a great explanation of how society got from smart toasters to simulated human beings.

When Per Afrane offers Dom a way to leave the house to attend the ball in disguise, it opens up a whole new world for him, and a chance at romance with the handsome “prince” of the tale, a man named Noll who is one of the heirs of the Betucom fortune. Of course, complications ensue…

The “Cinderella” DNA is evident here, from the lost shoe to the “must leave by midnight” deadline that gives the story some of its dramatic tension.

But this is a fun, fresh reinvention of the story that also plays with themes of what it means to be human – a very timely question as we enter a new Age of Artificial Intelligence. In Fielding’s telling, AI will end up dealing with the same emotions and insecurities that make us human… and what, then, is the real dividing line?

Dom is a wonderful character, wounded but determined to be civil and serve those around him flawlessly, no matter how undeserving they are. He’s the classic underdog, and the hope of seeing his lot in life improve has us rooting for him throughout the book.

Per Afrane is also a great reimagining of the fairy godmother character, and Fielding through in a curveball with “Prince” Noll that makes the tale feel especially of this moment.

An enjoyable, heartwarming tale that spruces up an old plot with some new thinking, Once Upon a Dance is a great way to spend a couple hours immersed in a sci-fi fairy tale, and one I would happily read again.
Profile Image for Mark Lucas-Taylor.
609 reviews
March 16, 2023
Once Upon A Dance

A beautifully written reworking of the Cinderella story. Kim has transplanted the story into a Science Fiction setting and infused it with a great deal of warmth and character.

We have the humble house Domus, Dom, a fully sentient android with hopes dreams and emotions. The prince, Per Noll, who is a scion of the powerful and influential Betacom family and the archetypal fairy godmother figure of Per Afrane. When the annual Betacom Masquerade Gala is being held Per Afrane arranges for Dom to attend in disguise where he makes the acquaintance of Per Noll and the story follows the Cinderella plot to a not unexpected denouement.

Kim’s plot adds in some clever and charming little twists and variations on the theme to give a story subtlety laced with nuanced observations on self granted position and how people treat others beings they perceive as somehow inferior.

A common perception by many sections of society, political, laity, religious, easily influenced. People who would rather than think for themselves just follow blindly the loudest polemic far too willing to blame and castigate anyone who is seen as different be it by race, creed sexuality, gender take your pick. A condition that unfortunately seems to more and more prevalent and worsening in today’s society.
To paraphrase “..before you point out what you consider another’s faults first address your own…”, “..if you’re different then you’re wrong..”.

Profile Image for Zane Kage.
3,511 reviews32 followers
March 8, 2023
4.5 stars

Once Upon a Dance is a sci-fi MM version of an old fairy tale—Cinderfella, if you will. And in this case, Cinderfella is Dom, the old, broken, and often overlooked humanoid butler who tries his best to get through each day and to please everyone.

And of course, all the people around him were mean and ugly in spirit (think step-sisters/step-mother), and yes he has the magical fairy godmother (in the form of a new and well-meaning friend). Add in a ball he gets to attend secretly, an unlikely guest (Prince Charming, of course) and a search-and-find-the-perfect-fit-for the shoe after that clock strikes midnight as it always must in these cases, and you’ve got yourself a bona-fide fairy tale.

Opposites definitely attract between Dom and his unlikely suitor and this story manages to be unpredictable in its own way, and so much fun. Though short and sweet (about 70 pages) this novella was rich and full, and I did not feel it lacking in any way.

All in all, the sci-fi fairy-tale romance and its HEA made my heart so happy. I highly recommend this sweet retelling of an old favorite I didn’t know I missed.

***Advance copy, voluntary review***
Profile Image for Susana.
1,312 reviews36 followers
March 13, 2023
Dom is an Android that dreams to see the world beyond he house he is tied to. When offered the chance, he accepts and discovers a completely different world. A world where he can find many things, even love… But only until the world strikes twelve…
I love fairy tales retold. In this case, Cinderella is an android who’s known better days. Ageing and in disrepair, he longs to see the world that lies on the other side of the threshold he cannot cross. Because despite being a super-evolved home appliance, Dom has dreams and feelings that make him as human as the people around him. Or even more, because in contrast to those human who treat him like a commodity, Dom is programmed to help and please the people around…
For me, in this cute short story, the romance is secondary to the main topic of the tale. The fact that it is dreams and feelings that make us human, instead of blood and bones. Dom finds love because he shows more humanity than the thousand of people surrounding him in the ball...
Really cute.
Profile Image for Terri.
1,669 reviews
March 1, 2023
This is an engrossing story about Dom, a neglected, aging sentient humanoid machine. Dom is lovable from the start because he does his best with his unhappy circumstances. He looks back on small pleasures from his past, while trying hard not to resent his present. When un unlikely fairy godmother-type (who I need to know more about!) gives Dom the chance at a night of new experiences, Dom leaps at the chance (or he would if not for those old knees). He meets a lovely man on his adventure, but he is on a time limit and has to run away. It's too bad he could never have more than this one night of happiness - or could he?
I'm a fan of Cinderella stories, and this is a really good one. I love the originality of the main character not being human, though Dom is more human than many of the flesh and blood characters here. And I adore Noll, who becomes Dom's prince. I also like how the author subtly fits Cinderella creator Charles Perrault's name into the story. Very creative!
Profile Image for Harrison Hicks.
447 reviews3 followers
April 13, 2023
I've always thought that Fielding is at her best when she plays with myth and fable, and this tale is no exception. It's an intriguing sci fi take on Cinderella, with some intriguing questions on what constitutes humanity and makes a being worthwhile of love and respect. Dom and Noll are intriguing characters, and seeing them seek out their happy endings is quite worthwhile. I don't want to oversell the story, as being a novella it doesn't have quite the time to examine the characters that one might like, but as it is, it's quite an intriguing little read that manages to be thought provoking as well. 3.5 rounded up to a 4 due to Fielding's deft touch.
Profile Image for Rhode PVD.
2,487 reviews38 followers
March 12, 2023
It is exactly what you are expecting, a brief SF m/m Cinderella novella. Why am I feeling meh? I think it’s the lack of subtlety or nuance. The good guys and bad guys stay firmly in their lanes. The plot is the expected dollop of hurt/comfort and nothing more.

My problem is I love android stories, from Tanith Lee’s Silver Metal Lover to Martha Wells’ Murderbot and all the greats in between. Maybe this makes me too sophisticated for this simple novella which uses the genre as a setting without delving into or adding to it. A bit like a hockey romance set in the off season.
Profile Image for Kaje Harper.
Author 96 books2,751 followers
May 10, 2023
A SciFi Cinderella tale where Cinders is an aging house android, tasked with running a small B&B style hotel. After three generations of owners, Dom is ageing and can see the end of his useful life in sight. But when he's given the chance to do something he never got to - leave the property he runs and is tied to for one night - he can hope for finally having an adventure, in a long life of service. This story carries no big surprises, but charms the reader with the character of Dom, and has world-building that informs the story without being intrusive.
Profile Image for Jess.
762 reviews15 followers
July 21, 2024
Very cute!! I see an android on the cover of a romance book… I read it.

There’s not enough android romances out there for me, and it’s a shame this one is only short, but Dom was so sweet. I wish there had been more time to get to know Noll - a lot of the story was set up instead - but he seemed lovely. I just wanted more of them together!

The world building was great and I’d happily read a full length novel of this. There’s just something about an ageing butler android that I adore and want to hug :(((((
Profile Image for Ida Umphers.
5,783 reviews49 followers
March 7, 2023
As an educator, I've been bombarded with articles recently about the doom that AI is going to bring to education and the world. It was lovely here to see a positive spin on this with Dom and his Cinderella retelling. It made it much more poignant for me that Dom wasn't a brand new android, he'd been trapped in his life for a long time. Feeling him get his chance at the masquerade ball was liberating and heartbreaking at the same time. Loved the ending.
Profile Image for MamieH.
18 reviews1 follower
March 8, 2023
Cinderella but gay, android and set in space!
Great and sweet short story about decaying old android who gets a once-in-a-lifetime change to leave his house and attend to a masquerade gala. He meets a beautiful man and gets to dance with him. But the magic (=batteries) only last until the midnight…
I loved this retelling of Cinderella! I want to read more of the androids and the rebels who wants to free them. I hope there’s more books coming!
Profile Image for Rena.
365 reviews4 followers
March 8, 2023
I loved it. Beautifully written, fresh take on a favorite fairy tale with a sci/fi twist. Even though the story is short, it has everything, a great world building, interesting characters, and magical start of a romance. Main character, Domus (Dom) captured my heart and I was rooting for him to get his HEA. Overall this was a good read and a perfect escape from RL for just a bit. I highly recommend it for readers who enjoy fairy tales, science fiction and lovely HEA.
Profile Image for Al.
Author 33 books223 followers
August 2, 2023
I loved this story so much. ❤️❤️❤️ I found it in a list of books similar to my own World Running Down and it absolutely did not disappoint in the M/M android romance category. Dom is a precious cinnamon roll and he gets a gender non-conforming love interest and the gala is full of people in Jazz Age outfits dancing to swing music? My god, this story was made for me.
It made my gay, robot lovin' heart happy.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 57 reviews