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Kingdom of Glass and Ashes
A Limited Edition Collection of Cinderella Retellings
A classic fairy tale- but not how you remember it...
What if the stepmother wasn't the only one who was wicked and Prince Charming wasn't what he seemed? What if your favourite princess didn't make it home by midnight?
Be transported to far away lands where fantasy and magic come together and pumpkins and princes are joined by shifters and stepsisters in this captivating collection of one of the greatest love stories ever told.
From the imagination of our authors, prepare to meet Cinderella as you've never read before. Kingdom of Glass and Ashes is a spellbinding collection of retellings, written by multiple USA Today and bestselling authors telling their own version of the beloved tale.
Get ready for romance, excitement, enchantment and more than just a glass slipper.
A classic fairy tale- but not how you remember it...
What if the stepmother wasn't the only one who was wicked and Prince Charming wasn't what he seemed? What if your favourite princess didn't make it home by midnight?
Be transported to far away lands where fantasy and magic come together and pumpkins and princes are joined by shifters and stepsisters in this captivating collection of one of the greatest love stories ever told.
From the imagination of our authors, prepare to meet Cinderella as you've never read before. Kingdom of Glass and Ashes is a spellbinding collection of retellings, written by multiple USA Today and bestselling authors telling their own version of the beloved tale.
Get ready for romance, excitement, enchantment and more than just a glass slipper.
2076 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 18, 2018
168 people are currently reading
360 people want to read
About the author
J.A. Armitage
148 books493 followersBorn in Leeds, I lived a very normal life until I got bored one day and decided to travel the world. Since then I've worked on a Banana Plantation, cleaned ACDC's dressing room and been a professional clown.
I climbed to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and the top of Kilimanjaro. Nowadays you'll find me being a climbing frame for my two young children, working in a school, and renovating my home.
Did I also mention I wrote some books?
I hope you enjoy them!
For my free books, just sign up to my newsletter here http://www.subscribepage.com/v7o8k4
I climbed to the bottom of the Grand Canyon and the top of Kilimanjaro. Nowadays you'll find me being a climbing frame for my two young children, working in a school, and renovating my home.
Did I also mention I wrote some books?
I hope you enjoy them!
For my free books, just sign up to my newsletter here http://www.subscribepage.com/v7o8k4
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
November 12, 2019
This collection, sadly out of print at present, is the first in the Kingdom of... series by roughly the same group of authors, some new and some experienced, who tackle retelling a different fairy tale for each installment, in this one the tale of Cinderella.
The stories, eleven in total, are quite varied in styles and genres as is to be expected. With this many stories, you're bound to like some more and others not as much, too. Personally, I thought this collection was better than the first anthology I read, and I think it shouldn't have been pulled out of circulation so soon, more so when the others are still available. Nonetheless, I'm told the stories are going to be republished individually, which I hope is true, because some are lovely.
As a whole, the anthology gets 3.5 stars from me, a rating that doesn't reflect all the stories equally but is merely an averaged number. Some of the stories merited higher ratings, so I'm going to break them down by individual story:
CHARM by J. A. Armitage
1 star
This story was like a The Bachelorette melodrama with royals, and not a good one. Let's start with how shallow the worldbuilding is: What country is this supposed to be? It's obviously Earth and in our modern times, because there's TV and modern artifacts, but this country is ruled by an absolute monarch, which doesn't exist anymore. Also, which self-respecting monarchy in our current times would subject itself to choosing the future Prince Consort to their future Queen through a reality-show contest where several nobles and commoners compete for the Princess' love and go on dates with her like the American reality show?
I'd have been willing to suspend disbelief if this were a fictional world, which it isn't. Furthermore, it's so poorly characterised that it really reads like just another Bachelorette season; just replace some entitled girl from middle class America with a in-name-only royal flighty enough that she doesn't even know what she truly wants. She falls for the palace kitchen aide, but then she quickly forgets him by the end when another Bachelor contestant asks for her hand. And the way each of the male contestants drop out of the dating game with the Princess is ridiculous and unbelievably convenient: One turns out to be gay and confesses so on national TV, another turns out to be the secret cartoon villain that's manipulating her and won't stop at murder, another falls in love with the Princess' sister instead... All of this is pure manufactured melodrama, and for extra irritation, the story ends in a cliffhanger because turns out this is going to be a trilogy.
FORGET GLASS SLIPPERS by R. Castro
2 stars
This was shaping up to be promising, with another plot about a modern-day Cinderella girl who is a football player and is abused by her stepfamily, finding refuge in playing football and reaching star player status due to talent and effort.
But then I lost respect for the story when the author decided to write the revelation that Evita is in reality this super special snowflake. No less than hidden royalty actually, and for that R. Castro invented a fictional kingdom where her princess mother and king uncle are from and where her princely cousins still live. Of course, she finds this out of the blue, but she's this oh so liberated American girl that needs no stinkin' prince, so she "saves" herself through being so good that her royal relatives praise her and her hitherto indifferent family turns out to be truly caring, only that they stayed hidden and inactive whilst she was being abused by her stepfamily. On top, her stepfamily have a sudden change of heart, her witch of a stepmum ends up being a good woman who asks her for her forgiveness, and of course Evita forgives everything. The End.
Talk about unbelievable plotlines and poor characterisation.
CINDER'S CELLAR by Mira Crest
4.5 stars rounded up
A charming retelling, that reminded me more of "Beauty and the Beast" than of Cinderella. It does seem to be mixing elements from both tales, with majority being from the former, in my opinion, because the Cinder girl character here is a "monster" living hidden from view and eventually reveals her true self and gets her "Beauty."
This was my second favourite in the anthology, the half star I knocked off my rating is mostly because of a little flaw I hope are smoothed out on reissue, namely that the modern American slang is edited out (it's a Medieval-ish world, so it reads off that the characters say okay). This is also part of a series of retellings, but unlike the first story in the collection, it doesn't end abruptly and leaving too many loose ends. There's questions still to be answered, such as why the villain is like that and their motvations, but it's left more as a tease for what's to come than as a plothole.
BROADWAY CINDERELLA by Cate Dean
3 stars
It has a nice premise for a retelling: a theatre actress Cinderella, with dreams to make it big and move from her squalid existence in California to glittering Broadway, and for that she has to get past the abusive stepmother and stepsister that don't want her to improve herself and will stop at nothing to put obstacles in her way.
However, I think it was a bad idea to give this magic-less and completely realistic story a touch of fantasy by inserting a fairy godmother for Ella. It was totally unnecessary, and off-putting. Besides, it takes away from Ella's agency, too. Her best friend was doing enough to help her, Ella was doing enough to help herself, so why drop this old fairy hag into the story and ruin plausibility? This, and the exaggeratedly cartoonish villainy of the stepmum and stepsis really hurt the story.
STRIKING MIDNIGHT by Jennifer Ellision
3 stars
Very meh girl assassin plot, and has one of my pet hates: insta-lust between the protagonists. Besides, this also ends in an annoying cliffhanger that'll force readers to follow the rest of the series.
A pity it's so forgettable and absurdly cliché-ridden, because the premise of a princess from a sun kingdom and a prince from a moon kingdom harkens back to George MacDonald's fairy tale of a moon girl and sun boy, and could have been nicer.
UGLY by Holly Hook
4.5 stars rounded up
My favourite in the collection. It has the best premise with good execution: the story of Cinderella in which she's the villain, a very frightening one, told from the point of view of one of the stepsisters. Now, reworking this tale to make it the stepsister's story isn't new nor original, so what makes this original is the way Cinderella comes to be the baddie. I won't spoil it beyond this detail, and will only add that the character of the stepsister is enjoyable through and through.
As with my other favourite, the flaw of this retelling is the too modern slang for a world that looks old timey: okay, wow, klutz... Something that's editable and shouldn't take away from the story, except maybe for nitpickers like me.
STILETTOS & STARDUST by D. L. Pitchford
3 stars
Not a bad premise per se, but rather unenjoyable for me. It's only thematically linked to Cinderella, has a modern setting, with stereotypically nerdy characters, and a bit of a side story that rips off the disaster of the NASA shuttle "Columbia." Not really something that'd keep my interest.
MIDNIGHT DIAMOND'S TALE by Audrey Rich
3 stars
This one didn't interest me in the least either, it's an unbelievable rich boy/poor girl mainstream romance, in which the baddie is the rich grandfather who wants a rich girl for rich boy and offers millions to poor girl so she'll dump rich boy. Bah, who is going to be interested in such a bland plot? The writing isn't half bad, however, the author just needs better ideas for plots.
CHASING CINDERELLA by Anna Santos
4 stars
Although the premise is also another cliché brainy girl/handsome jock romance, at least this one had an interesting concept: fairy tale descendants. Meaning, people who descend from fairy tale characters. I'll let you figure it out how that works.
The major issue here is that, although the story says it's university and that the characters are in their early 20s, it doesn't read like it truly is so. Instead, it looks like it's secondary school and the characters are immature enough that they sound like in their mid-teens. Maybe the author should just swap their ages back to school, and be done with it. It's distracting if you notice, but if you age them down and make it up in your mind that it isn't Uni, it can be enjoyed.
GLIMMERS OF GLASS by Emma Savant
3.5
In this retelling, the lead lady isn't Cinderella but the fairy godmother, who in this story isn't a fully licenced fairy godmother but an intern. The idea that there are fairy godmothers for hire in this alternate dimension above our world is hilarious, and makes for a lovely fluffy read. The intern godmother is enterprising, and always finds a way to make the story fit the fairy tale as per the requirements of godmotherly contracts, even when Cinderella ends up loving the man who's not supposed to be her prince.
ROGUES OF RESENDRA by Madison Stone
1 star
This was neither a Cinderella retelling nor a thematic spin-off, so I have to wonder what was this doing here. The plot of shady fellows coming to our world from another to fetch the hidden princess from another world is one that I forgot rather quickly as well.
As a closing commentary, the anthology as a whole does need some tweaking at the hands of an editor/proofreader, because even the best ones have parts that beg for a bit of editing. I'd recommend that language also should be more standard English for the non-modern settings.
The stories, eleven in total, are quite varied in styles and genres as is to be expected. With this many stories, you're bound to like some more and others not as much, too. Personally, I thought this collection was better than the first anthology I read, and I think it shouldn't have been pulled out of circulation so soon, more so when the others are still available. Nonetheless, I'm told the stories are going to be republished individually, which I hope is true, because some are lovely.
As a whole, the anthology gets 3.5 stars from me, a rating that doesn't reflect all the stories equally but is merely an averaged number. Some of the stories merited higher ratings, so I'm going to break them down by individual story:
CHARM by J. A. Armitage
1 star
This story was like a The Bachelorette melodrama with royals, and not a good one. Let's start with how shallow the worldbuilding is: What country is this supposed to be? It's obviously Earth and in our modern times, because there's TV and modern artifacts, but this country is ruled by an absolute monarch, which doesn't exist anymore. Also, which self-respecting monarchy in our current times would subject itself to choosing the future Prince Consort to their future Queen through a reality-show contest where several nobles and commoners compete for the Princess' love and go on dates with her like the American reality show?
I'd have been willing to suspend disbelief if this were a fictional world, which it isn't. Furthermore, it's so poorly characterised that it really reads like just another Bachelorette season; just replace some entitled girl from middle class America with a in-name-only royal flighty enough that she doesn't even know what she truly wants. She falls for the palace kitchen aide, but then she quickly forgets him by the end when another Bachelor contestant asks for her hand. And the way each of the male contestants drop out of the dating game with the Princess is ridiculous and unbelievably convenient: One turns out to be gay and confesses so on national TV, another turns out to be the secret cartoon villain that's manipulating her and won't stop at murder, another falls in love with the Princess' sister instead... All of this is pure manufactured melodrama, and for extra irritation, the story ends in a cliffhanger because turns out this is going to be a trilogy.
FORGET GLASS SLIPPERS by R. Castro
2 stars
This was shaping up to be promising, with another plot about a modern-day Cinderella girl who is a football player and is abused by her stepfamily, finding refuge in playing football and reaching star player status due to talent and effort.
But then I lost respect for the story when the author decided to write the revelation that Evita is in reality this super special snowflake. No less than hidden royalty actually, and for that R. Castro invented a fictional kingdom where her princess mother and king uncle are from and where her princely cousins still live. Of course, she finds this out of the blue, but she's this oh so liberated American girl that needs no stinkin' prince, so she "saves" herself through being so good that her royal relatives praise her and her hitherto indifferent family turns out to be truly caring, only that they stayed hidden and inactive whilst she was being abused by her stepfamily. On top, her stepfamily have a sudden change of heart, her witch of a stepmum ends up being a good woman who asks her for her forgiveness, and of course Evita forgives everything. The End.
Talk about unbelievable plotlines and poor characterisation.
CINDER'S CELLAR by Mira Crest
4.5 stars rounded up
A charming retelling, that reminded me more of "Beauty and the Beast" than of Cinderella. It does seem to be mixing elements from both tales, with majority being from the former, in my opinion, because the Cinder girl character here is a "monster" living hidden from view and eventually reveals her true self and gets her "Beauty."
This was my second favourite in the anthology, the half star I knocked off my rating is mostly because of a little flaw I hope are smoothed out on reissue, namely that the modern American slang is edited out (it's a Medieval-ish world, so it reads off that the characters say okay). This is also part of a series of retellings, but unlike the first story in the collection, it doesn't end abruptly and leaving too many loose ends. There's questions still to be answered, such as why the villain is like that and their motvations, but it's left more as a tease for what's to come than as a plothole.
BROADWAY CINDERELLA by Cate Dean
3 stars
It has a nice premise for a retelling: a theatre actress Cinderella, with dreams to make it big and move from her squalid existence in California to glittering Broadway, and for that she has to get past the abusive stepmother and stepsister that don't want her to improve herself and will stop at nothing to put obstacles in her way.
However, I think it was a bad idea to give this magic-less and completely realistic story a touch of fantasy by inserting a fairy godmother for Ella. It was totally unnecessary, and off-putting. Besides, it takes away from Ella's agency, too. Her best friend was doing enough to help her, Ella was doing enough to help herself, so why drop this old fairy hag into the story and ruin plausibility? This, and the exaggeratedly cartoonish villainy of the stepmum and stepsis really hurt the story.
STRIKING MIDNIGHT by Jennifer Ellision
3 stars
Very meh girl assassin plot, and has one of my pet hates: insta-lust between the protagonists. Besides, this also ends in an annoying cliffhanger that'll force readers to follow the rest of the series.
A pity it's so forgettable and absurdly cliché-ridden, because the premise of a princess from a sun kingdom and a prince from a moon kingdom harkens back to George MacDonald's fairy tale of a moon girl and sun boy, and could have been nicer.
UGLY by Holly Hook
4.5 stars rounded up
My favourite in the collection. It has the best premise with good execution: the story of Cinderella in which she's the villain, a very frightening one, told from the point of view of one of the stepsisters. Now, reworking this tale to make it the stepsister's story isn't new nor original, so what makes this original is the way Cinderella comes to be the baddie. I won't spoil it beyond this detail, and will only add that the character of the stepsister is enjoyable through and through.
As with my other favourite, the flaw of this retelling is the too modern slang for a world that looks old timey: okay, wow, klutz... Something that's editable and shouldn't take away from the story, except maybe for nitpickers like me.
STILETTOS & STARDUST by D. L. Pitchford
3 stars
Not a bad premise per se, but rather unenjoyable for me. It's only thematically linked to Cinderella, has a modern setting, with stereotypically nerdy characters, and a bit of a side story that rips off the disaster of the NASA shuttle "Columbia." Not really something that'd keep my interest.
MIDNIGHT DIAMOND'S TALE by Audrey Rich
3 stars
This one didn't interest me in the least either, it's an unbelievable rich boy/poor girl mainstream romance, in which the baddie is the rich grandfather who wants a rich girl for rich boy and offers millions to poor girl so she'll dump rich boy. Bah, who is going to be interested in such a bland plot? The writing isn't half bad, however, the author just needs better ideas for plots.
CHASING CINDERELLA by Anna Santos
4 stars
Although the premise is also another cliché brainy girl/handsome jock romance, at least this one had an interesting concept: fairy tale descendants. Meaning, people who descend from fairy tale characters. I'll let you figure it out how that works.
The major issue here is that, although the story says it's university and that the characters are in their early 20s, it doesn't read like it truly is so. Instead, it looks like it's secondary school and the characters are immature enough that they sound like in their mid-teens. Maybe the author should just swap their ages back to school, and be done with it. It's distracting if you notice, but if you age them down and make it up in your mind that it isn't Uni, it can be enjoyed.
GLIMMERS OF GLASS by Emma Savant
3.5
In this retelling, the lead lady isn't Cinderella but the fairy godmother, who in this story isn't a fully licenced fairy godmother but an intern. The idea that there are fairy godmothers for hire in this alternate dimension above our world is hilarious, and makes for a lovely fluffy read. The intern godmother is enterprising, and always finds a way to make the story fit the fairy tale as per the requirements of godmotherly contracts, even when Cinderella ends up loving the man who's not supposed to be her prince.
ROGUES OF RESENDRA by Madison Stone
1 star
This was neither a Cinderella retelling nor a thematic spin-off, so I have to wonder what was this doing here. The plot of shady fellows coming to our world from another to fetch the hidden princess from another world is one that I forgot rather quickly as well.
As a closing commentary, the anthology as a whole does need some tweaking at the hands of an editor/proofreader, because even the best ones have parts that beg for a bit of editing. I'd recommend that language also should be more standard English for the non-modern settings.
Want to read
December 28, 2018I've only read Chasing Cinderella from this boxed set yet. Here's my review for the same.
This was a lovely novella and I had a lot of fun reading it. An original and beautiful reimagining of Cinderella !!
I really like this concept of descendants of fairy tales. Especially this particular take on Cinderella which is a modern fairy tale that doesn't lack in its charm. Giving the perfect enchanting fairy tale feeling. The same one that you get when you watch Disney's Cinderella that came out in 2015, I guess . And even after not being really that long, it manages to completely enthrall the reader.
I am really looking forward to more books in this series. It is really fascinating. I also plan on reading the other books from this boxed set.
This was a lovely novella and I had a lot of fun reading it. An original and beautiful reimagining of Cinderella !!
I really like this concept of descendants of fairy tales. Especially this particular take on Cinderella which is a modern fairy tale that doesn't lack in its charm. Giving the perfect enchanting fairy tale feeling. The same one that you get when you watch Disney's Cinderella that came out in 2015, I guess . And even after not being really that long, it manages to completely enthrall the reader.
I am really looking forward to more books in this series. It is really fascinating. I also plan on reading the other books from this boxed set.
December 19, 2018
Cinder's Cellar by Mira Crest is a wonderful story to read. I am so glad I read this story it has wonderful characters and a wonderful story to read. I highly recommend this story to everyone who loves reading about fairy tales.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
December 19, 2018
This is my review for Cinder's Cellar Mira Crest I found it to be a book I enjoyed reading. This is a new Author for me but I will be looking to see what else she has out. I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
December 19, 2018
I admit it. I’m a sucker for a good fairy tale and the Cinderella story has always been one of my two favorites (the other is Beauty and the Beast - because of the Disney version where Belle is as much of a book lover as me, but that a tale for another time). No surprise that when a whole anthology of Cinderella tales came along I simply had to buy it. Kingdom of Glass and Ashes: A Limited Edition of Cinderella Retellings (Kingdom of Fairytales Book 1) is that anthology. Happily this is not your Disney tale (as frankly I love that too much to have it simply be regurgitated). Instead it’s a set of wild imaginings that are clear variations of the classic fairy tale. Three of these are by authors I adore (and I think have read all they’ve published), J.A. Armitage, Holly Hook and Anna Santos, so I pretty much had a guarantee that the set would be more than worth its price. I was totally correct. All three of these (not surprisingly the first stories I read in the anthology) are a total blast. They’re also quite different. Thus in Holly Hook’s Ugly, we get a reverse fairy tale that features the story of Cinderella from the perspective of an ugly stepsister. Trust me that the Cinderella (Syndie) in this version is no sweet innocent - and neither is Calvin her “Prince Charming”. Instead you’ll find yourself rooting for the sister, Ellia, and for Jasper (who turns out to be much more than expected). Wonderfully written this was a total blast. J.A. Armitage’s contribution, Charm (also the first of her Reverse Fairytale stories) does its variation differently. On the most obvious level, the genders are reversed with Prince Charming being replaced by Princess Charmaine and Cinderella by servant Cinder. That's minor though, as this is a tale on many levels. First, Cinder is a Magi, one of the repressed minority with magical abilities. Next, well let's just say that the King and Queen here are not the jolly versions of the Disneyfied tale. No, this is a story with many layers, and lots of twists and turns, some quite a shocker, especially at the ending. This is all strong stuff, and it’s wonderfully written. Then finally (for now) there’s Anna Santos’ Chasing Cinderella. This time the twist is that the lead here, Odette Charming, is a modern day descendant of Cinderella (and her family has the glass slippers to prove it). What we end up getting is a not-charming love interest (Carl), inter-dimensional “slipper travel” to a land with an elf prince named Edrahil who is pining for his destined love, and a story that eventually ends up back in our Earth after following along a plot that’s totally unexpected in its twists and turns. Totally wonderful stuff. Frankly I can already tell that this whole anthology is wonderful stuff and, but for the fact that I’m literally dictating this review to my husband from my hospital bed, I could go on and on with praises - the anthology definitely deserves it. Since I can’t do that I will simply note that this anthology is most definitely one to read, and it is easy to highly recommend.
December 24, 2018
Charm by J. A. Armitage - I loved reading this story. There was excitement, mystery and romance, and it was all so well mixed together I just had to keep turning the pages to find out more. Honestly I still need to know more. I can't believe what poor Charmaine had to go through and her heartbreak leaped off of each page. I've always loved reading and this is one of those books that I'll read again and again trying to find things that I missed or maybe even figure out what's going to happen in the next book. I can say no matter what I have to read book 2
January 9, 2019
These stories are all so different. Mostly enjoyable!
December 18, 2018
My review for J.A.Armitage Charm
Very charming! But don’t expect a fairy tale ending (yet)
With her older sister dead, Princess Charmaine is now heir of the throne. Unwillingly. For the sake of political stability of the kingdom -and of course to produce an heir at some point in the future- she needs a husband. There is going to be a ball and a hundred (!) suitors have been carefully selected and invited. But there is someone else, who is definitely NOT on the list…
I really liked the idea of a reverse fairy tale. And I wasn’t let down. Wow. It was amazing! Exciting! A bit of fantasy, a bit of romance, a bit of mystery and a lot of suspense. I loved it! The story will continue in book #2, so I’m looking forward to that. ‘Charm’ made quite an impact on me! The story stayed with me long after I finished it.
Very charming! But don’t expect a fairy tale ending (yet)
With her older sister dead, Princess Charmaine is now heir of the throne. Unwillingly. For the sake of political stability of the kingdom -and of course to produce an heir at some point in the future- she needs a husband. There is going to be a ball and a hundred (!) suitors have been carefully selected and invited. But there is someone else, who is definitely NOT on the list…
I really liked the idea of a reverse fairy tale. And I wasn’t let down. Wow. It was amazing! Exciting! A bit of fantasy, a bit of romance, a bit of mystery and a lot of suspense. I loved it! The story will continue in book #2, so I’m looking forward to that. ‘Charm’ made quite an impact on me! The story stayed with me long after I finished it.
April 2, 2019
So many different versions of this classic. I'm still trying to get through them all but I love seeing how each author has a different take on this. I love a good fairytale and this hits the spot!
December 15, 2018
My review is for Ugly by Holly Hook.
Really loved that version of Cinderella and see the point of view of her stepsister.
Really loved that version of Cinderella and see the point of view of her stepsister.
March 28, 2019
I loved it!
I never knew Cinderella could be such a variety of stories. I'm not sure of my favorite one... Maybe the godmothers side? Or Cinderella the assassin? Definitely want to read the sequel to a few of these. Amd all of the boxsets 😊
I never knew Cinderella could be such a variety of stories. I'm not sure of my favorite one... Maybe the godmothers side? Or Cinderella the assassin? Definitely want to read the sequel to a few of these. Amd all of the boxsets 😊
January 18, 2019
Some stories I loved and some didn't catch my interest. I guess that's what makes this a good option, everyone can find a new author or story to read.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews