Review: Cinderella’s Shoes by Shonna Slayton (Cinderella’s Dress #2)

Cinderella’s Shoes (Cinderella’s Dress #2)
Shonna Slayton
Published: Oct. 6, 2015 (Entangled Teen)
Purchase: Book Depository or Amazon
Review Source: copy provided by publisher in exchange for an honest review

Reviewed by: Amy

Rating (out of 5): 2.5 stars

Note: While this review will be spoiler free, it will reference events from the first book Cinderella’s Dress.

I think it’s pretty safe to say that everyone knows the story of Cinderella. So what happens if the ‘story’ is less fictional, more true, and still full of magic? Kate Allen found that out for herself when she discovered she is descended from a line of “Keepers,” one girl that is tasked with watching over the three famed dresses of Cinderella (or as known in this story Kopciuszek): her servant dress, the ball gown, and her wedding dress.

Of course if Cinderella was a living breathing person, it’s safe to assume other aspects of the story are true as well, notably the wicked stepsisters. Yep, their descendants are still up to no good, and constantly trying to get the dresses and any power they may contain. In the process of thwarting their attempts at getting the dresses, Kate learns some very interesting information. Cinderella’s shoes are also a thing of truth, and not only that, but they can purportedly help the bearer find loved ones. Kate sees this as an opportunity to find her father who went missing in the war and whom Kate also heartedly believes is still alive. Kate’s search will take her to Italy and Poland, both countries ravaged by the war, and along the way she’ll be thrown into situations where she has to rely on her instincts more so than the people around her.

This one was a difficult one for me. Not having read the first book, I had no context as to where these characters were coming from besides what I gleamed from referenced situations in this book. I may be a little lenient here because it’s possible had I read the first book, I would have understood either the author’s writing style more—meaning certain things wouldn’t have been so off-putting while reading—or I would have already felt some kind of connection to the characters therefore understanding their actions more. So only based on the storyline in this book, it was just okay.

I wasn’t overly impressed with Kate as our heroine. She’s very recently discovered her lineage in being a Keeper, but instead of Cinderella’s descendant being welcoming and forthcoming with information, everything is shrouded in unnecessary mystery. You would think the Princess’ line would want their Keeper to know all the ins and outs of their job, but apparently not. You may be thinking ‘this isn’t Kate’s fault’ and you’d be right, but what is her fault is knowing that things are being kept from her and not speaking up. She just goes along with things willy-nilly throughout the whole book and I was waiting so patiently for her to get tired of it and stand up for herself. It never happens.

The mystery of finding the shoes and overall history behind them did spark my interest, but I felt like this gets shrouded by throwing too many ‘people of suspect’ at the readers. Too many coincidental meetings that didn’t make sense to me even when all the dots were connected by the end.

Overall, I loved what Shonna Slayton tried to do in bringing a fairy tale into the real world. That was very interesting, but I still wanted that fairy tale magic, and while it is present, we only see it utilized very briefly and even then we’re never given the purpose of its use. This one just missed the mark for me.

Sexual content: kissing