[I received an electronic review copy of this book from Netgalley and Aladdin in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.]
Summary
Araminta “Minty” Robicheaux is so annoyed with her parents. Her mom’s cleaning supply business is really growing. (Her mom, “Cinderella,” really knows cleaning!) And to move to the next level, they have to leave the small country of Robicheaux and move to New York City. For Minty that means changing schools in the middle of the year. And when her parents leave on a business trip right after school starts, it also means her step-aunties are coming to stay with her.
One good thing about the aunties is that their shoe business – Comfortably Ever After – gets Minty noticed by the school Queen Bee, Eva Murgatroyd. Sure, her other friends have warned Minty to watch her back with Eva. And Eva tries to get Minty to ditch her other friends because “they are nobodies.” But Eva is Minty’s chance at meeting singing star Theo Downey of Retro of Sync and showing him her shoe design ideas. Minty is eager to be seen and noticed for herself and her ideas rather than her famous family.
Review
This is the third book in this series, but the first I have read. It’s a cute fractured fairy tale type of retelling, except with a new generation, which I enjoyed. Minty’s step-aunts were a great part of the story. The reader keeps wondering if they have really changed or not. I loved it!
At the core this is a standard friendship story. Will the new girl be friends with the regular kids or will she join the popular ones? What might she have to give up to stay with the populars? This plays out in a fairly expected way in this story.
I didn’t quite make the leap with the story that a popular boy band would be having a shoe design contest for free concert tickets. It was too coincidental that Minty (I had a hard time with that nickname, too) designs shoes and her favorite band is having a shoe design contest. It tied pieces of the story together, but it was an odd pairing to me. The story didn’t do anything to sell me on the reasonableness of this contest.
But overall, the shoe angle was fun for a story about Cinderella’s daughter. Fans of Whatever After or Ever After High should check out this series starting with book one, Charmed I’m Sure, and then book 2, Fairest of Them All.