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The Ever After Maneuver #1
Pumpkin War: The True Story of Cinderella
All's fair till it isn't a game...
Go to a ball, meet the prince, fall in love.
It's all simple process, though Elindala knows better than to fall in love with the prince. She wears a glamour that molds her into his perfect woman, and as soon as she has his heart, she will play the part of a faithful wife until she has torn down the defenses and has laid bare his kingdom for her family's attack. She just has to keep up the walls around her heart that have kept her safe her whole life.
Christof knows that all isn't right with his new bride. Ella's story has a few too many holes, and she's keeping a few too many secrets. However, she is the woman he's chosen, and he's determined to win her heart the way that she has stolen his. His parents worry, but he's sure that a little patience and care is all it'll take. After all, she's clearly not had much of that from her stepfamily.
War threatens, and secrets abound. Whose heart is forfeit, and whose kingdom will remain standing at the end of the Pumpkin War?
The Ever After Maneuver is a series of loosely connected retellings set in a shared war, with overarching themes of love, treachery, and political intrigue. There will be story arcs spanning multiple books, but unless specified otherwise, they can be read in any order.
Go to a ball, meet the prince, fall in love.
It's all simple process, though Elindala knows better than to fall in love with the prince. She wears a glamour that molds her into his perfect woman, and as soon as she has his heart, she will play the part of a faithful wife until she has torn down the defenses and has laid bare his kingdom for her family's attack. She just has to keep up the walls around her heart that have kept her safe her whole life.
Christof knows that all isn't right with his new bride. Ella's story has a few too many holes, and she's keeping a few too many secrets. However, she is the woman he's chosen, and he's determined to win her heart the way that she has stolen his. His parents worry, but he's sure that a little patience and care is all it'll take. After all, she's clearly not had much of that from her stepfamily.
War threatens, and secrets abound. Whose heart is forfeit, and whose kingdom will remain standing at the end of the Pumpkin War?
The Ever After Maneuver is a series of loosely connected retellings set in a shared war, with overarching themes of love, treachery, and political intrigue. There will be story arcs spanning multiple books, but unless specified otherwise, they can be read in any order.
167 pages, Kindle Edition
Published March 29, 2024
28 people are currently reading
93 people want to read
About the author
Kendra E. Ardnek
68 books277 followersKendra E. Ardnek is the self-proclaimed Arista of Fairy Tales. She makes her home in the hills of central Texas with her fellow author husband, who she found at a writer’s conference. When not writing, you can usually find her crocheting her own cloaks, valiantly attempting to read every retelling ever written, and pretending that owning toy dragons makes her a dragon trainer.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
April 2, 2024
Refreshing
I totally forgot that this book was in the same world as To Destroy an Illusion until I was about halfway through the book. It was really neat how many parallels there are between Elindala's false story and Queen Isobel's actual story. Loved that!
I love love love the depiction of a healthy and close-knit family! It's so refreshing! And to see that close family slowly break down Elindala's walls is a beautiful thing.
Can't wait to see what happens in the next book!
I totally forgot that this book was in the same world as To Destroy an Illusion until I was about halfway through the book. It was really neat how many parallels there are between Elindala's false story and Queen Isobel's actual story. Loved that!
I love love love the depiction of a healthy and close-knit family! It's so refreshing! And to see that close family slowly break down Elindala's walls is a beautiful thing.
Can't wait to see what happens in the next book!
February 10, 2025
Content:
Profanity: None.
Violence: barely there-mild. There is talk of war, and talk of past wars and people dying from wounds, but there's not actually anything except someone pricking their finger with a dagger and drops of blood coming out.
Sexual: high mild. There is a closed door moment in this specifically:
Trigger: depicts parents 'using' children as pawns and being emotionally manipulative.
EXTRA NOTE: I was feeling quite lost at some of the references to Christof's parents, feeling like I'd missed book 1...but this is book 1. I just figured it out! Christof's parent's story is "To Destroy an Illusion" from the multi-author "Shattered Tales" retellings. Which I haven't read yet. Wish I'd known that before starting this one. (Hopefully it's better edited).
Okay, I'll start with the good:
The plot focusing around a war was a unique way to re-tell Cinderella, and it kept me interested. I enjoyed how the story was presented as a farce for a larger political intrigue-type move.
The characters had some good psychology behind them, especially with the involvement of fae in the mix, which caused a lot of backstory trauma as well as character development moments. Especially in the side characters.
The Christian themes weren't too heavy handed. It wasn't preachy.
Next, the bad:
The romance. This is more a personal preference than saying it was written poorly, (which it wasn't), but I don't like how Christof handled things. It was basically, "I'm going to love you if it kills me" type mentality. On the one hand, I found the loyalty to his own morals and marriage vows to be endearing. On the other...he wasn't realistic for me because he seemed to have zero conflict except a mild distress that he might not have the loving marriage his parents did. He was solid in his decision to marry Elindala, but his character had very little true challenge, which is frankly weird seeing as how his wife turns out to be an enemy sent to infiltrate and take over his kingdom.
Finally, the truly ugly:
Editing. Was this edited? Because holy grammatical errors Batman. I stopped counting after I hit 20 errors. There were at least half a dozen times when a sentence, which was clearly a question, ended in a period. Then, there were more than two dozen instances of the wrong word. Like a sentence using "they" instead of "the" and then words like "of" totally missing in a sentence. There were two sentences that I straight up couldn't figure out because there were words in there that had nothing to do with the content or sentence itself. And the formatting made it so that the Chapter breaks were all over the page, including at the bottom with the next half of it on the next page.
The lack of editing is pretty common in Indie published works, and I'm very tolerant of errors, but the sheer amount of errors in this (which a good proof-reader would've caught) made me nearly put it down halfway, and I'm sorry to say, I'm not going to keep reading because there are already reports that book 2 is in the same sorry shape.
The editing is what knocked this down from the possibility of a higher rating, and I dithered on putting it as a 2 star because of it, but the story itself kept me from doing so.
Profanity: None.
Violence: barely there-mild. There is talk of war, and talk of past wars and people dying from wounds, but there's not actually anything except someone pricking their finger with a dagger and drops of blood coming out.
Sexual: high mild. There is a closed door moment in this specifically:
Trigger: depicts parents 'using' children as pawns and being emotionally manipulative.
EXTRA NOTE: I was feeling quite lost at some of the references to Christof's parents, feeling like I'd missed book 1...but this is book 1. I just figured it out! Christof's parent's story is "To Destroy an Illusion" from the multi-author "Shattered Tales" retellings. Which I haven't read yet. Wish I'd known that before starting this one. (Hopefully it's better edited).
Okay, I'll start with the good:
The plot focusing around a war was a unique way to re-tell Cinderella, and it kept me interested. I enjoyed how the story was presented as a farce for a larger political intrigue-type move.
The characters had some good psychology behind them, especially with the involvement of fae in the mix, which caused a lot of backstory trauma as well as character development moments. Especially in the side characters.
The Christian themes weren't too heavy handed. It wasn't preachy.
Next, the bad:
The romance. This is more a personal preference than saying it was written poorly, (which it wasn't), but I don't like how Christof handled things. It was basically, "I'm going to love you if it kills me" type mentality. On the one hand, I found the loyalty to his own morals and marriage vows to be endearing. On the other...he wasn't realistic for me because he seemed to have zero conflict except a mild distress that he might not have the loving marriage his parents did. He was solid in his decision to marry Elindala, but his character had very little true challenge, which is frankly weird seeing as how his wife turns out to be an enemy sent to infiltrate and take over his kingdom.
Finally, the truly ugly:
Editing. Was this edited? Because holy grammatical errors Batman. I stopped counting after I hit 20 errors. There were at least half a dozen times when a sentence, which was clearly a question, ended in a period. Then, there were more than two dozen instances of the wrong word. Like a sentence using "they" instead of "the" and then words like "of" totally missing in a sentence. There were two sentences that I straight up couldn't figure out because there were words in there that had nothing to do with the content or sentence itself. And the formatting made it so that the Chapter breaks were all over the page, including at the bottom with the next half of it on the next page.
The lack of editing is pretty common in Indie published works, and I'm very tolerant of errors, but the sheer amount of errors in this (which a good proof-reader would've caught) made me nearly put it down halfway, and I'm sorry to say, I'm not going to keep reading because there are already reports that book 2 is in the same sorry shape.
The editing is what knocked this down from the possibility of a higher rating, and I dithered on putting it as a 2 star because of it, but the story itself kept me from doing so.
April 3, 2024
Great twist on Cinderella
Most Cinderella retellings have her as a sweet character, which I love. But this casts Cinderella as a potential assassin, and it's beautiful how the prince cares for her. Looking forward to continuing the series!
Most Cinderella retellings have her as a sweet character, which I love. But this casts Cinderella as a potential assassin, and it's beautiful how the prince cares for her. Looking forward to continuing the series!
March 11, 2025
1.5/2 stars ⭐️ Clean Fiction - Fairytale Retelling (+ light faith content + a fade-to-black scene)
The concept of this one should have been right up my alley as a big Cinderella retelling fan, but it was unfortunately a major miss for me. :(
I don’t think I’ve ever had a Cinderella character that I disliked before. She was bratty and manipulative and I didn’t really care for her, but I could see that she was protecting herself with her prickly attitude. She still was a pain though. 😅
This is apparently connected to the author’s other book “To Destroy an Illusion”, which I haven’t read so I was a bit lost with all the mentions and explanations of Christof’s parents’ story.
The fae elements in this book were a little like “What Comes of Attending of Commoners Ball” but on a less amusing note. To be fair, I didn’t care for those elements in that book, so it’s not really a shock I didn’t like it in this book as well. I didn’t understand why they even dealt with some bargains/glamours towards the end because they had bigger fish to fry at the moment rather than worrying about her appearance!
There was a scene with Elindala having to pay an imp for a message from her mother and that payment is done by her cutting herself and giving the creature three drops of her blood. I have no idea if this is a fairytale element or something this author created, but I have to admit to wrinkling my nose in disgust for a few reasons. Didn’t like that part at all.
Gotta be honest, I thought Christof was way too trusting—not just of Ella, but everyone even highly-likely-to-be-potential-enemies people. He and his mom are constantly sharing words of wisdom that are supposed to be insightful, but felt know-it-all in a way, which I feel bad for saying. He had his moments where I liked him, but he also had a mindset that he was going to love Ella no matter what. Perhaps that’s a sign of his strong will or being true to his word, but I never was excited for their romance even when the truth about her identity was revealed.
They consummated their marriage right after she reveals the truth to him and I don’t know, that felt like incredibly poor timing. I would prefer absolutely no hints to a marriage bed and despite this being a marriage of convenience in a way, I didn’t even think about this book having that kind of content. It stays closed door, but there’s enough hints and comments about them sharing a bed and their activities that I personally didn’t like reading about.
One thing I did love was the line “When you try to appease evil, it just demands more and more. Whatever we do, we must take a stand and fight with everything we have.” This was a very professional and diplomatic way of saying “give ‘em an inch and they’ll take a yard” and it feels very accurate to our world today.
Maybe it’s because of the short length of this book, but I was expecting a lot more hemming and hawing from the characters about different events and different choices they needed to make as they were major ones. It ends before everything is wrapped up, which makes sense for the first book (officially) in a series, but I don’t think I’ll be continuing on. I probably should give this a 1 star or 1.5 star rating because I honestly didn’t enjoy much, but I’ll put it at a 2 for now (which seems generous for my thoughts).
Main Content-
Talks about the Author & praying to Him; Christof and his family believe in the Author, discuss Him, and pray to Him for answers (very implied to be God); Elindala does not, but acts like the “good, pious girl” she thinks Christof expects her to be; When a group prays together, Elindala bows her head as well; Elindala thinks it would be easier to have faith in the Author, but notices that someone else’s faith has slipped in a hard time; *Spoiler* ; ‘H’s are not always capitalized when referring to the Author; A wedding takes place in a chapel and in front of an abbot.
Mentions of the Author; Mentions of prayers, praying, & blessings over food; A mention of evil demanding more and more.
Elindala is under a fae glamour to make her appear as the prince’s ideal type (when it takes effect as soon as he sees her, she feels a small buzz across her skin); Christof received a piece of fae glass which he was told would lead him to the woman to marry that would help his country survive the war; Christof has fae blood in him due to a family member & we see a lot about that with them discussing it and calling on a fae to help; It’s said that there are good faes as well as faes that mean mortal harm.
Elindala also receives a message from an imp and the payment is her cutting herself and giving the creature three drops of her blood (which the imp licks greedily).
All about many mentions of faes, glamours from them, bargains with them, magic items from them, & items they do (gold and silver) and do not like (iron and salt).
No major or minor language; Some eye rolling.
Elindala (who is under the orders of her mother) is under the guise of appearing mistreated and abused by her stepmother and stepsisters, being nothing more than a servant to them, and act as if Christof will get to rescue her from her bad situation to trap him into a marriage with her (for the sake of their plan to support another king taking over Christof’s country); Elindala has this mission which will end when Christof and his family are dead; Elindala hisses and lightly belittles a staff member (once); Elindala is very manipulative at the beginning because of the plan.
The king (who is taking over other countries) has taken the princesses/queens from other countries he has concurred and locked them in a tower (said they are not mistreated).
Elindala has always aimed for her mother’s approval and knows that love from her mother has always been a weapon from her mother against her (she knows that if she is good enough or perfect by her mother’s standards, she will receive it).
Christof and his little sister annoy each other and don’t show much love to the other (though they are concerned for each other at different times).
Many mentions of war, fighting, deaths, injuries, & hatred; Mentions of abuse and being used by those who should love you; Mentions of lies & lying; A few mentions of imaging deaths & pain; A mention of an assassination attempt.
1 hand kiss,
10 head kisses,
2 kisses with no details,
3 kisses lasting a sentence or two,
Remembering a kiss (up to a couple sentences); Wanting to kiss (no details); Touches, Hand holding, Nearness, & Noticing (up to a few sentences).
Christof and Ella have to get married because of him saying about marrying her that day; Christof’s father tells him that he doesn’t have to go further with Ella until he can trust her; On their wedding night, Ella wonders if Christof is ready “to make good on their marriage” and doesn’t care as it will solidify her claim to the throne; Christof tells that while they will sleep in the same room, no one expects them to have a wedding night and he will take the bed, adding that “the last thing [Ella] would want is a strange man to be taking advantage of [her] body” and tells her he will not be taking advantage of her; Elindala/Ella however thinks that this isn’t how the plan was supposed to go and says she doesn’t mind, but Christof is kindly firm on the topic; Ella asks Christof to undo her dress and there’s some tension plus her hoping for a moment he will give into the temptation (an added mention of a nightgown a maid left for her when they were “done”); A bit later, Ella sits on his bed in a thin nightgown and tries to seduce him again (they have a conversation on her saying she’s ready and him not willing to touch her until she’s willing to trust him; Ella tries to manipulates the situation by saying that maybe she finds it easier to think of them sharing a bed rather than opening her heart, but Christof stands by his convictions and won’t use her like this even though Ella wants to show him much much she “appreciates” him; Christof adds that he wants to know her like a man who loves his wife and wake up with her at his side, but will wait); Ella doesn’t understand how Christof can be a hot-blooded man and send her away, thinking about how her mother said that men were always weak when faced with a room in his bed; *Spoilers* .
Elindala’s mother tells her that only fools expect love when they get married; Under the act/guise, Ella is told by her stepmother that the prince will use her and then toss her away (but Christof says her virtue will be safe); Elindala thinks that men see “a pretty face and wasted no time gaining ownership over it”; Elindala remembers her mother saying that women have power over men because of women’s perception.
A mention of jealous girls.
The concept of this one should have been right up my alley as a big Cinderella retelling fan, but it was unfortunately a major miss for me. :(
I don’t think I’ve ever had a Cinderella character that I disliked before. She was bratty and manipulative and I didn’t really care for her, but I could see that she was protecting herself with her prickly attitude. She still was a pain though. 😅
This is apparently connected to the author’s other book “To Destroy an Illusion”, which I haven’t read so I was a bit lost with all the mentions and explanations of Christof’s parents’ story.
The fae elements in this book were a little like “What Comes of Attending of Commoners Ball” but on a less amusing note. To be fair, I didn’t care for those elements in that book, so it’s not really a shock I didn’t like it in this book as well. I didn’t understand why they even dealt with some bargains/glamours towards the end because they had bigger fish to fry at the moment rather than worrying about her appearance!
There was a scene with Elindala having to pay an imp for a message from her mother and that payment is done by her cutting herself and giving the creature three drops of her blood. I have no idea if this is a fairytale element or something this author created, but I have to admit to wrinkling my nose in disgust for a few reasons. Didn’t like that part at all.
Gotta be honest, I thought Christof was way too trusting—not just of Ella, but everyone even highly-likely-to-be-potential-enemies people. He and his mom are constantly sharing words of wisdom that are supposed to be insightful, but felt know-it-all in a way, which I feel bad for saying. He had his moments where I liked him, but he also had a mindset that he was going to love Ella no matter what. Perhaps that’s a sign of his strong will or being true to his word, but I never was excited for their romance even when the truth about her identity was revealed.
They consummated their marriage right after she reveals the truth to him and I don’t know, that felt like incredibly poor timing. I would prefer absolutely no hints to a marriage bed and despite this being a marriage of convenience in a way, I didn’t even think about this book having that kind of content. It stays closed door, but there’s enough hints and comments about them sharing a bed and their activities that I personally didn’t like reading about.
One thing I did love was the line “When you try to appease evil, it just demands more and more. Whatever we do, we must take a stand and fight with everything we have.” This was a very professional and diplomatic way of saying “give ‘em an inch and they’ll take a yard” and it feels very accurate to our world today.
Maybe it’s because of the short length of this book, but I was expecting a lot more hemming and hawing from the characters about different events and different choices they needed to make as they were major ones. It ends before everything is wrapped up, which makes sense for the first book (officially) in a series, but I don’t think I’ll be continuing on. I probably should give this a 1 star or 1.5 star rating because I honestly didn’t enjoy much, but I’ll put it at a 2 for now (which seems generous for my thoughts).
Main Content-
Talks about the Author & praying to Him; Christof and his family believe in the Author, discuss Him, and pray to Him for answers (very implied to be God); Elindala does not, but acts like the “good, pious girl” she thinks Christof expects her to be; When a group prays together, Elindala bows her head as well; Elindala thinks it would be easier to have faith in the Author, but notices that someone else’s faith has slipped in a hard time; *Spoiler* ; ‘H’s are not always capitalized when referring to the Author; A wedding takes place in a chapel and in front of an abbot.
Mentions of the Author; Mentions of prayers, praying, & blessings over food; A mention of evil demanding more and more.
Elindala is under a fae glamour to make her appear as the prince’s ideal type (when it takes effect as soon as he sees her, she feels a small buzz across her skin); Christof received a piece of fae glass which he was told would lead him to the woman to marry that would help his country survive the war; Christof has fae blood in him due to a family member & we see a lot about that with them discussing it and calling on a fae to help; It’s said that there are good faes as well as faes that mean mortal harm.
Elindala also receives a message from an imp and the payment is her cutting herself and giving the creature three drops of her blood (which the imp licks greedily).
All about many mentions of faes, glamours from them, bargains with them, magic items from them, & items they do (gold and silver) and do not like (iron and salt).
No major or minor language; Some eye rolling.
Elindala (who is under the orders of her mother) is under the guise of appearing mistreated and abused by her stepmother and stepsisters, being nothing more than a servant to them, and act as if Christof will get to rescue her from her bad situation to trap him into a marriage with her (for the sake of their plan to support another king taking over Christof’s country); Elindala has this mission which will end when Christof and his family are dead; Elindala hisses and lightly belittles a staff member (once); Elindala is very manipulative at the beginning because of the plan.
The king (who is taking over other countries) has taken the princesses/queens from other countries he has concurred and locked them in a tower (said they are not mistreated).
Elindala has always aimed for her mother’s approval and knows that love from her mother has always been a weapon from her mother against her (she knows that if she is good enough or perfect by her mother’s standards, she will receive it).
Christof and his little sister annoy each other and don’t show much love to the other (though they are concerned for each other at different times).
Many mentions of war, fighting, deaths, injuries, & hatred; Mentions of abuse and being used by those who should love you; Mentions of lies & lying; A few mentions of imaging deaths & pain; A mention of an assassination attempt.
1 hand kiss,
10 head kisses,
2 kisses with no details,
3 kisses lasting a sentence or two,
Remembering a kiss (up to a couple sentences); Wanting to kiss (no details); Touches, Hand holding, Nearness, & Noticing (up to a few sentences).
Christof and Ella have to get married because of him saying about marrying her that day; Christof’s father tells him that he doesn’t have to go further with Ella until he can trust her; On their wedding night, Ella wonders if Christof is ready “to make good on their marriage” and doesn’t care as it will solidify her claim to the throne; Christof tells that while they will sleep in the same room, no one expects them to have a wedding night and he will take the bed, adding that “the last thing [Ella] would want is a strange man to be taking advantage of [her] body” and tells her he will not be taking advantage of her; Elindala/Ella however thinks that this isn’t how the plan was supposed to go and says she doesn’t mind, but Christof is kindly firm on the topic; Ella asks Christof to undo her dress and there’s some tension plus her hoping for a moment he will give into the temptation (an added mention of a nightgown a maid left for her when they were “done”); A bit later, Ella sits on his bed in a thin nightgown and tries to seduce him again (they have a conversation on her saying she’s ready and him not willing to touch her until she’s willing to trust him; Ella tries to manipulates the situation by saying that maybe she finds it easier to think of them sharing a bed rather than opening her heart, but Christof stands by his convictions and won’t use her like this even though Ella wants to show him much much she “appreciates” him; Christof adds that he wants to know her like a man who loves his wife and wake up with her at his side, but will wait); Ella doesn’t understand how Christof can be a hot-blooded man and send her away, thinking about how her mother said that men were always weak when faced with a room in his bed; *Spoilers* .
Elindala’s mother tells her that only fools expect love when they get married; Under the act/guise, Ella is told by her stepmother that the prince will use her and then toss her away (but Christof says her virtue will be safe); Elindala thinks that men see “a pretty face and wasted no time gaining ownership over it”; Elindala remembers her mother saying that women have power over men because of women’s perception.
A mention of jealous girls.
April 4, 2024
The Pumpkin War:
The True Story of Cinderella
Ever After Maneuver #1
By Kendra E. Ardnek
Elindala's task is simple, make the prince of Charmonce fall in love with her and steal his kingdom. Except it doesn't quite go according to plan. Prince Christof isn't falling at her feet. Yes, he did propose, and he did marry her. But he's determined for them to have a proper marriage but not until she comes to realize that she can trust him with her secrets. But how can she tell him the truth when doing so will betray her country. Worse, if she doesn't complete her task, her mother will consider her a disappointment, and she will end up in the tower with the other imprisoned princesses. If only King Hurbert hadn't married her mother and taken over their kingdom, she wouldn't be in this mess.
What's a princess in disguise to do? Ella needs to figure this out and soon.
Christof knows that Ella is the woman he is to marry. Not that her glamour has enchanted him; rather, it was a gift given to him by his grandmother that showed him where to set his heart. But when it becomes obvious that Ella is hiding something he needs to wonder just what role she is to play in his kingdom. Could his grandmother have been wrong? Could another fae have been working in opposition to his grandmother's gift? These are questions Christof must think on and hopefully get to the truth of his new wife.
The Pumpkin War is an interesting twist on Cinderella, especially the stepmother—evil stepsister dynamic. This book is separate from but connected to the author's previous book, To Destroy an Illusion: A Glass Mountain Retelling. So if you've read it you'll get a fun surprise in this book. If you haven't read it, there will be no issues with reading and enjoying this book, which is the first in the Ever After Maneuver series.
Experience the story of Cinderella as you've never experienced it before!
The True Story of Cinderella
Ever After Maneuver #1
By Kendra E. Ardnek
Elindala's task is simple, make the prince of Charmonce fall in love with her and steal his kingdom. Except it doesn't quite go according to plan. Prince Christof isn't falling at her feet. Yes, he did propose, and he did marry her. But he's determined for them to have a proper marriage but not until she comes to realize that she can trust him with her secrets. But how can she tell him the truth when doing so will betray her country. Worse, if she doesn't complete her task, her mother will consider her a disappointment, and she will end up in the tower with the other imprisoned princesses. If only King Hurbert hadn't married her mother and taken over their kingdom, she wouldn't be in this mess.
What's a princess in disguise to do? Ella needs to figure this out and soon.
Christof knows that Ella is the woman he is to marry. Not that her glamour has enchanted him; rather, it was a gift given to him by his grandmother that showed him where to set his heart. But when it becomes obvious that Ella is hiding something he needs to wonder just what role she is to play in his kingdom. Could his grandmother have been wrong? Could another fae have been working in opposition to his grandmother's gift? These are questions Christof must think on and hopefully get to the truth of his new wife.
The Pumpkin War is an interesting twist on Cinderella, especially the stepmother—evil stepsister dynamic. This book is separate from but connected to the author's previous book, To Destroy an Illusion: A Glass Mountain Retelling. So if you've read it you'll get a fun surprise in this book. If you haven't read it, there will be no issues with reading and enjoying this book, which is the first in the Ever After Maneuver series.
Experience the story of Cinderella as you've never experienced it before!
September 6, 2024
I loved this story so much! I had no idea that it was related to "To Destroy an Illusion" in the Shattered Tales series and I am so happy that we got to see Queen Isobel and King Kieran again. Elindala was such a great character and I loved her so much. I think that her personality was great and very realistic. After being raised by her mother, it is natural that some of her mother's ideas and beliefs would have rubbed off on her and I really like that she wasn't some sweet, kind-hearted girl who was forced to do everything her mother said but didn't believe in, even though she had been raised that way since birth. Elindala's personality was so much more realistic and she was committed to the same goals as her mother, although she also had selfish reasons for listening to what her mother told her to do. I also really loved Christof so much. His unwavering faith really appealed to me and I love how he was able to resist the temptation of having Elindala in his bedroom and on his bed. The plot of the story was also amazing and I really loved the worldbuilding and the original plot. She isn't a typical Cinderella - her whole entire story was fake. I really like how Kendra took the story of Cinderella and twisted it into something really different. The stepmother, stepsisters, the ball and midnight were given a really small focus and it was a nice and different perspective. I can't wait to read Captive Dance and see Anise's story!
September 17, 2025
The plot was intriguing, blending war, politics, and even Cinderella as an enemy infiltrator. What stood out most to me was Christof and his family being unfailingly kind and trusting, refreshing in how it subverts the usual stereotypes that confine kindness and empathy to “princess” traits. Don’t get me wrong; I think qualities like kindness, goodness, trust, communication, and empathy are universally beautiful - virtues the world needs more of in both men and women, not just virtues reserved for women in fairy tales.
I also appreciated that the story focused on finding ways to avoid war instead of glorifying it as the ultimate power move. For these reasons, I’d give this book a solid 3. It could have easily earned a higher rating if it had gone through additional editing and proofreading. There were grammar slips, missing words, King Hubert somehow becoming King Harold, and several backstory references that felt crucial but weren’t actually explained (I suspect they’re covered in another book from the series). The ending also felt a little rushed and didn’t provide a fully satisfying resolution for this installment.
With some refinement, though, this could become a truly wonderful and thoughtful retelling of the fairy tale, especially for younger readers.
I also appreciated that the story focused on finding ways to avoid war instead of glorifying it as the ultimate power move. For these reasons, I’d give this book a solid 3. It could have easily earned a higher rating if it had gone through additional editing and proofreading. There were grammar slips, missing words, King Hubert somehow becoming King Harold, and several backstory references that felt crucial but weren’t actually explained (I suspect they’re covered in another book from the series). The ending also felt a little rushed and didn’t provide a fully satisfying resolution for this installment.
With some refinement, though, this could become a truly wonderful and thoughtful retelling of the fairy tale, especially for younger readers.
April 16, 2024
Engaging Take on Cinderella
The author flips the script on the classic story in many ways, all of which make for a very enjoyable reading experience. Despite Ella’s initial flaws, I found myself rooting for her transformation and relationship with Christof. The crown prince and his family provide an interesting contrast in family dynamics that the author uses to great effect. I look forward to spending more time with these characters in book 2!
The author flips the script on the classic story in many ways, all of which make for a very enjoyable reading experience. Despite Ella’s initial flaws, I found myself rooting for her transformation and relationship with Christof. The crown prince and his family provide an interesting contrast in family dynamics that the author uses to great effect. I look forward to spending more time with these characters in book 2!
April 13, 2024
Kendra Ardnek combined fantasy and sweet romance in this redemptive story that is sure to captivate fans of retellings and Christian fiction.
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May 2, 2025DNF
I suffered through the first 3 chapters, but I will suffer no more. Did this book even have an editor?
Got as a Kindle freebie in 2025.
I suffered through the first 3 chapters, but I will suffer no more. Did this book even have an editor?
Got as a Kindle freebie in 2025.
November 10, 2025
This book was so strong on the pumpkin theme, from the name of the country onwards, that I gave up reading it after about two chapters.
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