Just Ella (The Palace Chronicles, #1) in Into the Forest

Jan 07, 2009 Cara rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fairy-tales, fantasy

Don't let the cover mislead you. This book is not set in modern times. What I liked so much about the book was that Ella had a lot more "umph" to her than the other Cinderellas I've encountered in other books. ...more

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Mar 16, 2010 Bitsy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fairy-tales, fantasy, young-adult

Happily never after. Or so it seems at first. Just Ella is a rewritten take on the famous fairy tale Cinderella. Only in this story Ella takes herself to the ball, evading a wicked stepmother and sweeping Prince Charming off his feet without any outside help of the magical or furry little creature kind. Once she gets everything she has ever dreamed of, through hard work, cunning and ingenuity it is just to discover that she is just another naive princess after all. The fairy tale she’s worked so ...more

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Sep 02, 2015 Giselle rated it liked it · review of another edition

3.5 Stars
Reading this book as an adult was such a different experience. It had a lot more heavy themes than what I realized. Everything went right over my head as a child. I enjoyed this book but a lot of the charm that it held when I was younger was lost reading it now.

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Jul 30, 2008 Mariah rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: library, best-fiction, 2008, reviewed, fantasy, feminism, fairy-tale, owned, 2010-acquisition

Just Ella isn’t really a retelling of Cinderella, rather it is a sequel of sorts- Haddix imagines what might have happened after the supposed “happily ever after”. As she awaits her wedding day, Ella wonders if her life in the castle, filled with elaborate rules of decorum and the instructors that teach them, is really that of her dreams. And is Prince Charming, handsome though he may be, really the man she loves?

This book is a great antidote to the cloyingly romantic stories that fill the shelv ...more

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May 18, 2009 JS rated it it was ok

Shelves: ya, fairy-tales

Okay, the new cover on the book is terrible (in my opinion). It makes it look like a modern version of Cinderella, which it isn't. But that's neither here nor there.

I found myself largely enjoying the book, although for all of her hard work to get to where she was, she sure doesn't seem very smart at the beginning of the book. I find myself continually annoyed with princessy books in which the heroine is incapable of conforming at least publicly to social niceties. I really don't believe it coul ...more

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May 05, 2011 Michele rated it liked it

Shelves: fairy-tale

This story begins where Cinderella ends. Cinderella has been whisked into the castle and find is it all not as she imagined it would be, and she wants out. It is an adorable idea for a story, but it seems to lack tension or suspense.

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Dec 01, 2008 Carrie rated it really liked it

Shelves: childrens, ya, young-adult, fairytale, fairy-tales, based-on-another-re-tellings

Very cute twist on the Cinderella story

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Oct 21, 2008 Kathee rated it really liked it

Yes, another fairy tale adaptation. I am obsessed I tell you. What can I say, I have adored fairy tales since I was a wee girl, and I still do, and I will FOREVER. This book tells the "true" story behind Cinderella. I liked her idea of what really happened, and how she made Ella a strong, independent girl. ...more

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