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After her father's disappearance, Cinder leaves home for a servant job at the castle. But it isn't long before her sister Ella is brought to the castle herself. What Ella finds there starts a quest that will change her life and the entire kingdom. Cinder and Ella is a Cinderella story like no other, and one you'll never forget.
Anonymous
Posted February 9, 2013
There is tjis book by mellisa lemon called snow whyte (yes it is spelled whyte)and i want it ever so badly and barns and nobles has failed at bringing that wonderful book to the nook store. Why why why must they keep all the good stuff off the nook store and why is everything so much money at the apple store everything is 99 sents. I will not stand for this press like if you agree.
P.s i love this book and totaly recomend it.
1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted February 13, 2013
Great book I would read it over and over until I was sick of it!
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted January 16, 2013
I loved this book! It was sooooo intense!! Recommend this book for adventure seekers.
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Posted December 9, 2012
Cinder and ella is scary. A great adventure for any one in a mood for a good story.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Book_Bite_Reviews
Posted August 9, 2012
I didn't really like this story, it was alright but it definitely wasn't amazing. There weren't enough differences to make it its own "inspired by..." story and there weren't enough similarities to call it a retelling. It was kind of a let down. Melissa could have done a lot with this and put a whole new twist on the story, or just nicely retold it, but it almost seemed like she didn't want to go too far. Almost like she had an initial really good idea, but that was as far as she got. She didn't know how to make it thrive. I loved Ella character and the Knight, but I did not like Cinder at all. Im sure if the characters were better developed I would have liked a few more, but there were just kind of there in the end. I did not like the ending, either. It felt a little too rushed and it ended in a good note, but I don't know why. Nothing really happened to get rid of the bad. I really wanted to like Cinder and Ella, but I just couldn't.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.salabat
Posted November 23, 2011
This almost felt like the script for a narrator to read during a movie... I never felt connected to or involved in the story. It was really a shame because I felt there were some parts of this story that could have felt magical and beautiful, but they felt flat and hardly noteworthy...
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.UpstateNYReader
Posted November 3, 2011
I liked this book.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.NYbookloverSJ
Posted November 3, 2011
Cinder and Ella by Melissa Lemon was a fun book. It can be enjoyed by older children and adults. It has some similarities to the original Cinderella story but the storyline is totally different.
The family consists of a father, mother, and four sisters Katrina, Cinder, Ella, and Beatrice. The family was happy until the evil Prince Monticello knocked on their door and put an evil spell on the father. The father left the home and after that the family became very dysfunctional. The mother didn't pay much attention to her daughters and went into her own little world of working on her spinning wheel. She even went so far as to forget that she had two daughters, one being Cinder and the other Ella. She just remembered Cinder and in fact called her Cinderella.
Katrina, the oldest daughter and Beatrice, the youngest daughter end up staying at home with their mother but Cinder and Ella leave the home and end up finding jobs. Cinder finds a job working at the castle where the evil prince lives and Ella finds a job working for a nice family in a neighboring town.
Cinder starts to miss her sister Ella and cries in her sleep for her. A guard hears her crying and tells the prince. He orders the guard and some other guards to go find Ella. They find her and bring her back to Cinder. Ella is not too happy because she really liked the family. Cinder and Ella end up finding their father locked up in the castle. He is in bad shape. At the end of the story he does start to improve. There is some hope.
I can relate to this story because I did come from a dysfunctional family. In a dysfunctional family, the children do become invisible as if they are not even there. There is hope for the family, maybe not in this generation but the next.
This unbiased review was based on an electronic copy of the book provided by the publisher for the purpose of creating this review.
Though it seems like it is, and the narrator begins the story that way, I don't think it's fair to call Cinder and Ella, by Melissa Lemon, a retelling of the Cinderella story. Sure, there is a prince, and a party, and a missing father, and horrible sisters, and Cinder; but this story isn't really about any of these things, it's really about Ella and the legend of the trees.
Cinder and Ella follow the two sisters as they try to navigate life in their drama-filled household. Their father has disappeared and is assumed to be dead after speaking with the evil prince. Their mother sits in a corner all day, spinning at a wheel to make a living. Their older sister thinks her job is to primp and preen herself, while making demands of her mother for the best and newest clothing and accessories. Their youngest sister cries and generally behaves like a brat. Ella - forgotten by her mother, who merges her and Cinder's name together, referring to Cinder as Cinderella - is sullen and dissatisfied with her family's situation and holds fast to the hope that her father still lives.
Cinder takes up employment at the castle, working as a servant while Ella runs away from home, distressed that she's left to carry out the desires of her demanding sisters. As Cinder works her way to the top, Ella find a new place to call home and all seems well until an unsuspecting knight starts out on a quest to find the sister that Cinder keeps crying out for in her sleep. The prince takes notice of the knights quest and the story begins to develop as the reader and knight try to figure out what the prince wants and how Ella will escape his dark plans.
Along the way we are introduced to the legend of the trees; each life is tied to a tree and as long as the person lives to take care of it, so does the tree. I felt that if the story was centered more around this legend and in developing the story behind it, instead of trying to be a retelling of an old fairy tale, then the narrative would have left the reader with a better impression.
The narrative was written in the third person, in a storytelling style, which feels as though you're being told a fairy tale, but also lacks structure in the plot. It wasn't very descriptive and so the setting and characters felt very two-dimensional. It also felt a little forced, especially since it had to live up to being a Cinderella story with a twist. I am convinced that it would have done better as a story about a girl named Ella, her dysfunctional family and the legend of the trees; instead there was a lot of untapped potential and I think anyone looking for another Cinderella story might not enjoy this particular version.
[review of egalley from NetGalley]
Cinderella has been retold in numerous of ways - Disney, historical, musical, pop culture, ninja, assassin, ugly sister's perspective, masculine - but here is one that claims she is actually 2 sisters named Cinder and Ella who each have their burdens to bear. Cinder has been the Atlas of the family, waiting on her sisters and mother hand and foot without complaint, while Ella has a harder time with being as patient. When Cinder leaves the family to be a castle servant, Ella tries to pick up the slack but it is obvious that her family would rather have Cinder. However, something wicked resides in the castle by the name of a supposed Prince Charming - and it is up to Ella to get to the bottom of it and rescue her sister.
The Cinderella fairy tale retellings seems to be gaining popularity lately - and I can't seem to resist them as I patiently wait for Apocalypsie debut Queen Of Glass. I had a difficult time with diving into Cinder and Ella. I know that this was not supposed to have any bibbidies or bobbidies, but the story didn't draw me in very well. I thought it was about both Cinder and Ella - but Cinder becomes more of an afterthought as Ella takes the stage. I thought there'd be more to how they became "Cinderella" but it hardly mattered. The opening line promised a "corrected" version - but as the story slowly proceeded, it seemed like a completely unrelated story that had no bearing on this age-old fairy tale.
What a twist! I absolutely love it when authors take a classic and twist into a completely new story or tell it from a different perspective. While I didn't love this particular story, I did love the restructure.
I'm not sure why I didn't like this suffice it to say that it just didn't keep my attention.
jwitt33
Posted September 24, 2011
I received this book free of charge from NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.
From Goodreads: "After their father's disappearance, Cinder leaves home for a servant job at the castle. But it isn't long before her sister Ella is brought to the castle herself-the most dangerous place in all the kingdom for both her and Cinder. Cinder and Ella is a Cinderella story like no other and one you'll never forget."
If you are looking for a retelling of the classic Cinderella story in this book, stop right here! You may be disappointed. If you are looking for a totally new fairy tale that just happens to have two girls with the names of Cinder and Ella, a prince, two bratty sisters, and an absent father, then please, continue reading! If you go into the reading of this story knowing the above, then I imagine you, like I, will totally enjoy Cinder and Ella!
The story begins with a happy family, with a father, a mother, and 4 sisters. But things begin to change when the Prince, with malicious intent, visits the father while on a mission to turn the people of the kingdom against his father, the King, so he can take over. The father becomes obsessed with this "mission" and one day disappears, leaving the mother to try to raise the 4 girls all by herself. When the story starts, the four girls are Katrina, the eldest daughter, Cinder, the second oldest, Ella, the third daughter, and Beatrice, the youngest by 5 years. Their mother spins yarn day and night, and withdraws almost completely from the world around her. Katrina is too selfish to take over the care of her sisters - this task falls on Cinder's shoulders, as she is the most caring of the girls. Ella can be kind, but she has absolutely no patience with her older sister or the youngest, who is a bit slow and very, very needy. When Cinder gets a job at the castle, Ella tries to take over her role as helper, but she can't do it and instead leaves the house in search of work for herself.
One of the reasons I loved this story is that each character is so well developed that you never mistake one for the other. The story is told in the third person, and goes from one POV to the next in such a smooth manner that you never get confused as to which person is speaking at any given time. The way in which each person speaks and acts makes it easy to go from one to the other without taking you out of the story. There are no jarring interruptions in the story, in other words.
This may not be your typical Cinderella story, but it still smacks of a fairy tale! The reason that Cinder and Ella end up being Cinderella is when their mother, who is so out of it that she has trouble dealing with reality, calls for "Cinder-n-Ella" to take care of their sisters, which then turns into "Cinderella". I really love how the author draws you this picture, which you will better understand when you read the book.
In summary, I really liked this book! It was a very quick read (I read it in under 24 hours) because it smoothly transitions between POVs, and it's just a really fun story! I am absolutely looking forward to hearing more about Melissa Lemon's books, and I will gladly read more of her books in the future :D
rehobbit
Posted July 29, 2011
This was a fun book, but then, I'm a sucker for a good fairytale. The twists on the original Cinderella were imaginative. And, in true fairytale style, the ending is bittersweet, not outright happy. Cinder is way more selfless than most people; I've only known a couple of people with such developed unconditional love. Ella is very believable, finding the strength she needs even while believing she's not as good as her sister (who she believes to honestly be one of the best of humanity). I love Tanner, he's the ideal knight. However, my favorite thing about the story is trees. Each character has a tree, and the life of that tree and the person are intertwined. While one flourishes, the other will, too. The tree can save the person, or the person can save the tree. If one is killed, the other will also die. While I wouldn't list this as one of my favorite books, I did enjoy it. If you like fairytales, give this one a try. I bet you'll like it! 3.5/5 stars
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.l_manning
Posted July 12, 2011
This book takes a different approach to a very familiar story. Cinder and Ella are two different sisters with very different personalities. Their father begins to follow in the footsteps of the not-so-charming prince. He disappears and leaves Cinder and Ella with their mother and two sisters. The longer their father is gone, the worse their home life becomes. Their mother withdraws from the world, and she even merges the two girls in her head to create one "Cinderella." Their older sister becomes extremely self-involved while their younger sister becomes a brat. One day, Cinder gets a chance to escape by becoming a servant in the castle. Ella however can no longer take the miserable state of her home and runs away. Their stories then take two different directions, with evil princes and good knights leading the way.
I loved the concept of people's life forces being connected to trees. Each person had a tree that represented them. The tree's health was directly related to the person's health. This made for an interesting aspect to the story. I also liked how things weren't wrapped up neatly, and people were held accountable for their choices. These added some realistic touches to a very fanciful story.
The writing felt a bit uneven at times. Sometimes it read a bit stiff, but other times it seemed to fit exactly with the fairy tale style. I think this book can appeal to a number of different age groups. It certainly takes a very familiar story and turns it on it's head. It makes me wonder what other fairy tales could use a good reworking. This book can help inspire some creative minds to see things in a whole new way.
Galley provided by publisher for review.
Anonymous
Posted September 16, 2011
No text was provided for this review.
Anonymous
Posted November 7, 2011
No text was provided for this review.
Overview
After her father's disappearance, Cinder leaves home for a servant job at the castle. But it isn't long before her sister Ella is brought to the castle herself. What Ella finds there starts a quest that will change her life and the entire kingdom. Cinder and Ella is a Cinderella story like no other, and one you'll never forget.