Reading has always been my favourite hobby. I have been reading books since I was 14 (a very late age of course 😆) but by books I mean novellas. Back then, I started by reading novellas and then novels my mom had. By the time I reached undergraduate school, I read every week that meant finishing off the entire Harry Potter series, Percy Jackson series, Sydney Sheldon and much more!
However, when I moved to Australia, my reading pattern drastically dropped. In a sense, I read a book every six months and I struggled to finish any new books. I search for the books I loved but only a handful of books satisfied me.
Fast forward to my resumed love of reading, I came across the ‘Twisted tale’ series of decades famous Disney stories. I have been a huge fan of Disney stories all my life. Cinderella, Snow White, Ariel, Mulan, Frozen sisters (not much of my favourite), Rapunzel, Belle have always been my best stories to imagine. I always thought of the twisted endings or a twist in these stories. A similar pattern we can get in all these stories is, the prince comes, breaks the curse (whatever it was), marries and lives happily ever after.
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In a sense, it can be seen that all these stories are referring to have a man come to you, break your curse and live a happy life. The only story which is different is Mulan’s one as she is the only girl who posed as a man to help her father. But the rest of the stories are the same. And all my life, Cindrella’s story was a bit difficult to believe 😆 as the glass slipper had to fit any foot and she would be the princess to the prince.
Back to the book (enough of my background description 😂), this book named ‘So, this is love’ written by Elisabeth Lim has got a twisted background and this is what caught my eye. The background revolves around an alternate plot where Cinderella couldn’t get to the fitting of a glass slipper. This means Cindy (I am shortening the name here) broke through her evil stepmother and sister’s tyranny herself. The plot starts with Cindy going to the ball and meeting the prince with the help of fairy godmother Lenore’s help. The story in the first half is well known to all of us. Cindy leaves her glass slipper in the ball, runs to her house, the magic finishes leaving her in rags and being orphaned again.
Then, Prince Charles goes into the finding my runaway princess with one slipper he had. Now the twist in the story is, the grand duke who is the advisor to the King is the main villain here who tries his best to marry Prince to some other suitable princess so that the duke could enhance his powers. On the other hand, Cindy is confined in her own room when the duke comes for the ‘fit the slipper’ episode and She is sold off by her evil stepmother.
Later on, Cindy manages to escape the trafficking and she finds a very kind friend Louisa who helps Cindy get a job in the palace. By the mid-story, Cindy got herself a very nice job in the palace as the seamstress and the Queen sister’s attendant.
As the story progresses, Cindy is recognised by the Prince, they get time to know each other. Cindy is shown to be a very smart, quick learner and she had a big strength to get into the palace and be financially independent. Oftentimes, she thought she would open up a shop with all the savings from her job which is quite a nice plot twist.
This book touched on love, betrayal, winning the abusive environment with strength and determination. The part where the writer mentions that Cindy escaped her childhood trauma through daydreaming really showcased the real way people actually embrace trauma. The ordinary story where Cindy fit into her glass slipper and marrying the prince was quite difficult to embrace by the adults 🤣 but the alternative plot Lim brought is so hopeful, heartwarming and positive.
I found myself very invested in this book. Lim has a really nice way of grasping the reader’s attention and letting us imagine all the scenes of the palace, the balls, dresses and the cute love of Cindy and the prince. This book is one of the very good books I read after a long time and it made me content like the New year eve’s dinner!