The Stepsister Scheme

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"You know how all those old fairy tales take you through lots of scary adventures till you finally reach that inevitable line: 'And they all lived happily ever after...' Guess what? It's not true. Life in never-never land isn't all sweetness and light. Cinderella--whose real name is Danielle Whiteshore (née Danielle de Glas)--does marry Prince Armand. And...their wedding is a dream come true. But not long after the 'happily ever after,' Danielle is attacked by her stepsister Charlotte, who suddenly has all sorts of magic to call upon. And though Talia--otherwise known as Sleeping Beauty--comes to the rescue (she's a martial arts master, and all those fairy blessings make her almost unbeatable), Charlotte gets away..."--p. [4] of cover.

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Highly recommended submitted by Susan4Pax -prev. sueij- on August 26, 2013, 9:23am Interestingly, this book appears on its surface to be appealing to women, though it came to me with VERY high recommendations from two men. (Although the graphic novel-bustiness of the cover picture seems targeted to a male audience to me!)

It's fantastic. A hard-driving story line, great characters with deep but not in-your-face motivations, everyone reacts and responds to events in realistic ways. A great twist on the old fairy tales (in their original forms, not the Disney-fied versions) that made me search out a book of the old school stories from the library.

Highly recommended, by at least three of us.

Good story submitted by kathscot on June 25, 2014, 8:05am Well paced, interesting characters, very imaginative. Makes me want to read more of his books.

Tons of fun! submitted by ValerieL on June 16, 2017, 7:34pm The Stepsister Scheme by Jim Hines is the first in his Princess series. He takes popular fairy tales beyond their supposedly "happily ever after" and creates a world full of intrigue, betrayal, and adventure. Goodreads is spot on in their description of it combining Disney Princesses, Charlie's Angels, and the darker side of fairy tales.

This is another one of those books that I'd been meaning to read for a while and just hadn't had a chance, so I was a little afraid that it wouldn't live up to my expectations. It totally did and I wasn't disappointed.

This book finds Danielle (Cinderella), Talia (Sleeping Beauty) and Snow (Snow White) working together to find Danielle's husband, the prince. It was packed with great action scenes, twists and turns in the plot, and great characters. This is a prime example of what an author can do when they take fairy tale characters and re-imagine them in different roles.

If you prefer fairy tales retold with only superficial detail changes, this book is not for you. But if you're willing to stretch your imagination and re-imagine these princesses in totally different roles in their lives, you'll enjoy this book.

nice >:] submitted by gabbietucker on June 28, 2019, 8:44pm It was an interesting take on the Cinderella story by adding what happens after the happy ending. Interesting, and I loved all the characters, especially Taila.