Book Review: Cinder and Ella

Cinder and Ella

by

Mellissa Lemon

Kindle Edition, 280 pages

Published October 27th 2011 by Cedar Fort, Inc.

ASIN: B0060N7NK6

About the book:

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.

Image and information courtesy of goodreads

About the Author:

Melissa Lemon holds that her greatest achievement is being married to a wonderful man and having three amazing children. In addition to mothering and writing novels, she taches music lessons on the piano, cello, and guitar. Meliss is a graduate of the University of Utah. She and her family live in Kaysville, Utah. (from the book)

My thoughts:

“If you drink water and breathe air, then you have heard the story of Cinderella. And, if you drink water and breathe air, you have heard it wrong.

There was no fairy godmother, no glass slipper. There was no wicked stepmother or wicked stepsisters. There wasn’t even a prince, at least not in the way that you might think. And if you’re expecting everyone to live happily ever after, you may end up being disappointed . . .”

 

My nine year old granddaughter had just finished reading "Cinder and Ella" and read this opening passage to me and told me, “Grandma you should read this book, it’s really good.” I told her I would and so I began thinking I was in for a rewrite of the original fairy tale.

I don’t know how far into the story I was when I began to have a nagging thought that kept reoccurring. This was a re-written tale but it wasn’t Cinderella. What was it? And then I realized. This was a re-write of the plan of Salvation. For those of you who are not familiar with this phrase it is a doctrine taught in my church (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.) This plan teaches us where we came from, why we are here on this earth and where we will go when we die. The author penned a good story based on this doctrine and I enjoyed reading it.

When I was finished I had a good conversation with my granddaughter about the plan of Salvation. I asked her if she had recognized the elements of the plan in the story. We discussed the characters and who they represented. It was quite enlightening for both of us and I enjoyed the conversation more than the story.




read more about the Plan of Salvation here