Rating: 
Summary: This a Way Awesome Book!!!!
Review: I love rewritten fairy tales and let me tell you, I have read as many as I could get my hands on! Just Ella is one of the most orginal and intertaining retold fairy tale. There are twists and turns that throw you for a ride each time! Yes,it does stray from the classic storyline but that's what makes an awesome story. I highly recomend it!
Rating:
Summary: Finding One's Self
Review: I really LOVE this telling of Cinderella in the palace! Ella talks about that magical night and tells all. She has now lived in the palace for 2 months and relizes that she will no longer be able to make her own life decisions like she had once done! Ella makes a brave decision to take charge of her live again!
Rating: 
Summary: A Disappointment
Review: Before I write this, I have a few things to say; 1. I did NOT think it was a sequel to Ella Enchanted, a mistake many seem to have made. 2. I am 14, but have been reading adult novels since third grade, so I would appreciate not being stereotyped as a young idealistic believer of fairy tales(and back off the others, too. So they like fiction, big deal, it's their opinion. Don't belittle their understanding or intelligence.) 3. I LOVE books with tough fem chicks most of the time. I dislike books sometimes just because they have wimpy female characters. That said, I have to say, I didn't like this book very much at all. As many have said, it is amazingly predictable. There was no character developement(besides learning the "truth" about the prince, but by paying attention from the beginning, when she mentions that he wouldn't be interested in her day, you know he's a loser.). Ella started uncomfortable with castle life, and stayed that way. Every chapter ended with her reiterating the question,"Am I really happy?" Sorry Ella, but no, things aren't all roses, and if you had stopped to think before you showed your stepmother up, you wouldn't have to dig out of a "crap hole" as you so nicely put it.
Oh, hey, was it just me, or does the mention of French(or any other real language) in a completely made up world seem strange? If you're coming up with new countries and cultures, come up with a new language. Not so hard, right? Just what I think though, it's not a huge problem.
Speaking of new cultures, the castle life seemed absolutely ridiculous. I find it hard to believe that Anyone is as airheaded as those ladies-in-waiting of hers. Allt eh characters overplayed their parts in my opinion. It seemed very melodramatic, and unrealistic.
Misery. This whole book was about complaining. About castle life, dungeon life, stepdaughter life, runaway life, and refugee life. Perhaps it was wrong of me to wish for a happy ending. The author certainly didn't deliver. This story warranted another chapter to conclude it, or at least an epilogue(set after a wedding maybe???) Instead, she ends up once more thinking about how her life didn't turn out happily ever after, and not even telling the by now thouroughly depressed readers whether or not she's decided to give poor pathetic Jed a chance.
Does anyone know if sliding down banisters was common in classic Cinderella stories? I first ran into it with Ella Enchanted, and seeing the same youthful passion in this book piqued my interest. I wonder where she got the idea. I'm not trying to accuse Peterson Haddix of anything, just curious, because I really don't know anything about it.
I didn't enjoy this book, although I really thought I would, because I'm a huge scifi/fantasy fan. But this book just didn't do anything for me. I finished it of course, because I'm not one to just drop a book, but I was pretty mad at the reader by the end of it and started coming up with my own Cinderella story to help ease the hurt fairy tale section of my mind. Read this, if you're willing to give mediocre peices of writing a chance for the sake of the original story. Otherwise, I'd advise readers to look elsewhere for a good read(Tim Zahn and Robin McKinley are wonderful, and McKinley even does fairy tale rewrites, so you might try her.) Anyone who actually read all that gets a shiney star sticker and a big bag of fairy dust. ^^
Rating: 
Summary: Brought a realistic view to a cheesy fairy tale...
Review: It took me a night and a morning to read this book and I thought it was very clever and original. Now, I'm not saying I didn't grow up with the fairy tales about Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty and happily ever after, (I enjoyed them as well) but maybe it's the fact that Im a little bit older and get tired of happily ever after (cause it doesn't exist) is what made me like this book. I disagree with a lot of the reviews. One of them talks about how Ella is not a real character because she disagrees with how things go in the castle. It is quite possible that there were people many many years ago who had more modern views about how the world and its people should behave. (eg. H.G. Wells believed in equal rights for women in the late 1800's, early 1900's) Just because you are raised in a certain era, does not have to mean that you agree with what goes on in that era. The world is full of different opinions and the fact that Ella is more "liberal," is what makes her interesting. I'm sure that there were plenty of unhappy people in the "olden days" because they were oppressed. (Especially where women were concerned.) Another thing is that, nowhere in the book does it say the date, or when this takes place, its sort of an ageless tale. This was a good idea because it gives the author more leeway on language use and so on. I thought that it was the perfect book for todays young adults, because they so often believe that you will meet a perfect guy, fall in love, get married, and live happily ever after. Disney taught us this, and so did Barbie's. I even believed it at one point. But, this book is for a young woman with more up-to-date views on life and love, not for someone looking for a happy ending fairy tale. (Even though I thought that the ending was perfect.)
Rating: 
Summary: Okay...
Review: To start with, Just Ella is not a sequel to Ella Enchanted, so don't start reading it with the expectation that it will be like it, or you won't really be able to enjoy it. Just Ella is a mediocre book, not too hard, not too easy, and the story is okay, if a bit predictable. The reason I say it is only okay is because all the main characters, or the protagonists, at least, held almost entirely modern views on things, and the only difference between them and modern day people is that, well, they were in Medieval times. This is a hindrance in the book because on the one hand, things will happen, somewhat accurately to the time, such as being unable to break a betrothal to a prince, but then Ella has views as if she was in present times, such as the fact that in one part of the book, Ella talks about how she is only 15 and doesn't need to get married or something, when in those times, she'd probably have been wed at around 13. I'm not saying it is wrong to have opinions such as hers, it's just that the book contradicts itself in trying to be accurate to the time period, but then giving the main characters such liberal (in those times, anyway) opinions that simply couldn't have existed during the book's time period. I am not saying this had to be a completely accurate period piece, but it could've at least been truer to its time. So all in all, Just Ella was okay, but could've been better.
Rating:
Summary: I Hated it~!
Review: AH!!! I completely disliked this book. I know itz not a squel to Ella Enchanted but it doesn't even follow the story line. Or the Cinderella story line for the matter. The characters are boring and rather dull. The only character worth the story line was Quog, who gave you something to raise an eyebrow. The plot was flat. The end, almost predictable. So Jed, the tutor walks into the rooms and gasped at Ella's beauty, he;s the only one who actually talks to her and likes her (other then Mary) and he spends every day with her....hum...my first impression isn't...jee, she must hate his guts. The end is predicatable, Ella give you hints Charm is slow and nastily mean, even though you don't execpt Ella to be locks away in the dungeon....you can see it coming.
I thought the book was lame. 6 words. Thats enought. If you want a good Cinderella story read Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister or Ella Enchanted or a Chinesse Cinderella or something....this book is a WASTE OF TIME!!~!!!!! bye
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST BOOK EVER
Review: i love this book mostly because its like a cinderella story but with out all the magic i thought it was so cool and how suprising it was at the end at first i only got it because i thought it was the sequel to ella enchanted but when i found out that it wasnt i was about to put the book down but i couldnt handle it i had already got way into it so i read it in one day and now i give the title to all my friends to read it and they think its the best too.
Rating: 
Summary: Horrible!
Review: While I knew this was NOT a sequel to ELLA ENCHANTED, I was still excited to see what might happen in this book. It was awful! It really had nothing to do with Cinderella, and the ending had even less!
Rating:
Summary: This isn't a normal fairytale, but VERY good.
Review: You know how many fairytales have the "happy ever after" endings? Or the girls always get the prince? Well this book isn't necessarily like that. Yes, it starts out the standard fairytale but it ends kind of with a twist. I'll just tell you the ending; she doesn't marry the prince. I think this book has a good moral to it. Some people don't like this book much because it's not a "standard fairytale" or because it doesn't follow some standards in the normal Cinderella book. But this book has a good moral and if you think about it, this book has a good point for girls. What is that moral, or good point for girls, you ask? Well, this book basically shows you Prince Charming isn't always charming. The Prince in this book basically gets engaged to a commoner because she's pretty. But he himself has no care for her, except that she's pretty and she can bare him children. She eventually figures this out and wants to get out but they throw her into prison and the Prince trys to win her back by showing her he's "macho" but she eventually escapes and runs away to this friend of hers she met when she was in the castle. It shows, look for the deeper person, not the outer person. The outer person may look nice and handsome, but the inner person may not be. Also it's sometimes nice to have a book that doesn't have the standard "Happy ever after" ending. But a book that has meaning and morals to it.
Rating:
Summary: It's different
Review: This book is the second story of Cinderella except that it has a slight turn of events that you don't expect. What is that unexpected turn; that is what you read the book to find out.
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