You’ve heard the story of Cinderella many times. A young girl mistreated and abused by her wicked stepmother and stepsisters wishes for a miracle. One arrives in the form of a fairy godmother, who gifts her with the opportunity to live as a princess for just one night. She attends a ball, dances with a handsome prince, and absconds at midnight, leaving only a glass slipper behind.
The prince tracks her down, slips the beautiful shoe onto her foot, and they live happily ever after, blah blah blah. But this opens the door to a mostly ignored question about this fairytale: is it not possible for two girls to have the same sized feet? This is the inciting incident of Christine Claella’s Liar’s Kingdom, which takes a classic story of royalty and true love and flips it on its head.
A massive thank you to Page Street YA for sending us a copy of Liar’s Kingdom.
This review contains minor spoilers
Please note that this novel contains depictions of physical and verbal abuse.
Not Your Mother’s Cinderella Story
Ellain DeBrun is a young woman trapped in miserable circumstances. Following her father’s death a number of years prior, Ell was relegated to the role of servant and punching bag at the hands of her cruel stepmother and selfish stepsisters. She is beyond desperate, and when an opportunity for an escape arrives at her front door she leaps at it.
The prince has been on a search across the kingdom for the beautiful, mysterious girl who captured his heart at the ball. He insists on trying the slipper on every young lady of the house, including Ell. The shoe fits perfectly, and both Ell and the prince are thrilled. The thing is, Ell is not the girl from the ball…
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She plays along with the intention of escaping to the castle with the handsome prince Bayard, and running away at the first available opportunity in order to start anew. However, after arriving Ell begins to question if a life of comfort and camaraderie with a good man – if not a love match for her – may not be so bad after all. First however, she’ll have to convince the king, a ruthless and wicked leader, of her capability to help Bayard carry the crown.
Not to mention Bayard’s cunning and infuriatingly handsome best friend Duke Maxim D’Arcy, who is a thorn in her side, and the object of one too many of her thoughts. Oh, and did I mention there’s a faction of Fae in the woods beyond the kingdom who may be gearing up for an attack after years of segregation?
Ell will soon learn that there’s more to the stories of vicious fairies than what the people of the kingdom have been told all these years.
But a worm turns in my gut. For I know there is certainly one thing the prince would never forgive me for, if he found out. I am not the girl he met at the ball.
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Between retellings and adaptations, the story of Cinderella has certainly been widely shared across the world since its original publication (which can be traced all the way back to Ancient Greece in its origins) and the most popularized version of the tale put to paper by the Brothers Grimm in 1812. Liar’s Kingdom presents a wonderfully updated take, with the story beginning after the ball and all preceding events, with Bayard and Maxim arriving with the slipper for trying within the first chapter.
Personally, I loved that we didn’t need to wade through the same old fairy godmother song and dance. The novel posits the idea of a sort of fractured happily-ever-after and allows the reader to imagine a reality beyond glass slippers and a poor girl who needs rescuing.
The addition of the Fae as not simply a means to help Ell escape her turmoil, but be their own separate community and a source of fear for the cruel king adds a layer of intrigue to the story, and in true fantasy fashion they are a powerful and fearsome people.
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The Characters
The evolution of these classic tales for a more modern audience means that in Liar’s Kingdom, Ell is a strong-willed, cunning, and resourceful heroine as opposed to a helpless young girl waiting for her prince to rescue her.
Instead, when aspects of the kingdom’s mismanagement and the king’s single-mindedness appear suspicious, she takes it upon herself to get to the bottom of the story and determine who the real villain of the story is.
Liar’s Kingdom has the added benefit of a wonderful cast of side characters as well. Maxim’s shrewd, sarcastic banter and Bayard’s charming good nature make for an excellent contrast, and Ell’s newfound posse of the naive and sweet-natured lady-in-waiting Trude and the guarded, dry maid Zita are wonderful editions. Ell’s stepsisters even get the multi-layered treatment in this version of the tale.
A Fairytale for the Modern Reader
The world of YA fantasy novels has so many options for a young audience. Liar’s Kingdom fits into this niche beautifully. It has action, magic, and humor woven throughout the narrative, not to mention a hefty dose of enemies-to-lovers, which is a fan-favorite trope.
If anything, this reader would have appreciated an added scene or two between Ell and Maxim in order to see the shift in their relationship a little bit more clearly. That said, their banter was top-tier, and audiences of all ages love a morally grey male lead.
But now that Maxim is officially my mortal enemy, I wouldn’t put it past him to shoot me on purpose. After all…I did just threaten to do that to him.
Ell’s internal struggles are ones that will certainly be relatable to many readers. How many of us would tell a white lie in order to escape traumatic circumstances? Calella allows for the development of relationships as well as the opportunity to forgive and form new ones with people in our lives and helps to ground the narrative in a tale even as fantastical as this one.
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Final Thoughts
Liar’s Kingdom excels at remaining its own unique story in spite of its source material. It is a retelling while not being a rehashing of the same story we’ve seen multiple times. It sets itself apart by allowing the addition of new characters and circumstances. I believe it would be a truly enjoyable addition to the shelves of fantasy readers everywhere.
Liar’s Kingdom is currently available for purchase wherever you buy your books! Pick up a copy and get lost in a story you thought you knew.
*Disclosure: We only recommend books that we love and would read ourselves. This post contains affiliate links, as we are part of the Amazon Services LCC Associate Program and others, which may earn us a small commission, at no additional cost to you.
The Review
Liar's Kingdom offers readers a twist on the classic Cinderella story, and showcases what comes after the supposed happily-ever-after.
PROS
- Characters
- Setting
- Fantasy
- Retelling
CONS
- Pacing
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