This is the first book I have read in the series and whilst most of the time you think "oh no" when you manage to land a book half-way through the series I found that this book didn't feel heavily involved within a series due to Christina Bauer's introduction of all the characters who (I presume) have previously been in the other books. I found that this made the overall feeling for the book more positive and allowed me to have much smoother reading.

I thoroughly enjoy retellings (of any kind) of fairy tales so this book really was up my alley. I enjoyed the character, Elle, a she was very spunky and gave off a good feminist vibe which I am all for recently. The other characters also complimented the plotline alongside the main character.

My main jibe with the book was that there was some plot holes and inconsistencies which didn't make a lot of sense and did make parts of the book feel very confusing or in need of a re-read. There was a lot of information which seemed glossed over and encouraged the fast-paced energy of the book. Some time could have been given to go over this and ensure that they were spelled out a little more for the audience's ease.

I noticed a lot of spelling errors with the book as well which ended up making much of the writing style very choppy. I would recommend this is looked into further in future books if possible as I understand it's something which can discourage a lot of readers.

I am a fairy tale retelling addict, and I have read a LOT of Cinderella retellings. That being said, this one still threw me plenty of surprises! I'm excited to read the rest of the Fairy Tales of the Magicorum Series!

This was a very fun retelling of Cinderella! I enjoyed the characters, the world-building, and the writing! I also found it to be very faithful to the original! I love how it ends happily! I recommend this for fans of Mercedes Lackey, Christine Pope, and K. M. Shea!

I absolutely love fairy tale retellings. This book of a Cinderella retelling was absolutely fantastic.

Christina Bauer is phenomenal at these retellings and I'm excited to read the next one.

I received an eARC from the publishers through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. It has not affected my opinions.

First i love retelling of stories. and i say this one is very interesting since it's in a mordern world. and i liked it alot, but there was some things that didnt add up. like stories/adventures that was mentioned but never told in the book, that bugged me alot, especially when it was big time jumps.

It's good and easy story to get through, I just found my self not interested in reading it, and that is a killer when i feel that. Cause i want to be sucked into the story and swept away, and i didn't get that feeling .in this story

I don't want to be mean as Ms Bauer herself seems really lovely but I felt this book was a bit of a mess.
The good:
The characters are great, I love Elle and Alec, Knox and Bry. They are all such great personalities with a good strong bond. Even the villains of the tale have such a strong presence that they feel real. I could very vividly imagine them all and that's great work.
The Bad:
The plot was all over the place. Bits contradicted other books and the reasoning behind actions of some characters just plain didn't make sense. There were plot holes you could drive a truck through.
Then there was the jumping over adventures. Now I haven't read the entire series so I have no idea if these adventures are written about in earlier books but there should be more than "we went to Egypt and broke the curse."
Like... What? All the potential story and action summed up in a few words.
Again it was nice to see Ella taking a stand and the early years before the template kicks in but on the other hand we really don't get to see much since most of it takes place off screen.

I’ve never been a big Cinderella fan , but I really enjoyed this retelling. It had a good consistent plot that didn’t drag and it felt easy to read if that make sense. Definitely recommend this to anyone looking for and easy reader or something to help with a book slump.

This is the first book in the Magicorum series that I have read and I have to say I loved it and may have just found a new favourite author. Following Elle...but not Cinderella who has escaped her horrible family to Manhattan where she ends up stealing jewellery to stay alive. That is until she meets the handsome and captivating Alec heir to a jewellery empire. Will their love be happily ever after or another disaster in the making?
This Cinderella twist is fantastic and I could not put it down!
Thank you to NetGalley, the publisher and author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is another one that I didn't realize was a series so I didn't fully get the enjoyment I wanted out of it. I couldn't find the series at my library but I wasn't as enthralled as I'd hoped so I'm not missing out too much on the series for myself personally.

A wonferful retelling, an imaginative world, and great characters.

Some of it didn't completely work for me, maybe I wasn't in the mood. So, I found it difficult to immerse in the reading.

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publishers for giving me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This Cinderella feminist re-telling took me completely by surprise and I was so impressed with the way the author navigated the story. The world building was incredible and I enjoyed how it was easy to understand the different elements of the world, for example the mythical creatures and how their magic worked. The only downfall, which was partly my fault when requesting this title, was that this book is part of a series and hence certain things did not make sense to me. Considering how much I liked the writing style and the fun twist to a classic fairytale, I am convinced I will pick up more books written by Christina Bauer.

This felt to me like a feminist re-telling of Cinderella with ahm *added elements*

I have to admit I haven’t read the rest of the series (I didn’t even realise at first) so I may of missed some back story!

Loved the characters, and it was a lot of fun!

I have to admit, when I first picked the book, I was expecting it to be like all other Cinderella retelling. The female lead would be moping around & the male lead would be living a life of misery. But I am so glad I was wrong. I won’t go itnto much details but this book was a fresh (and much needed) aberration from the cliché retelling.

I really liked how the author brought about a tinge of Fantasy & presented a mixture of some classic fairy tales like Alice in Wonderland, Snow white & of course, Cinderella. The language was comprehensive & graphic. The book had me biting my nails in anticipation of what would happen next. The book instigated in me, a plethora of emotions and I could feel myself INSIDE the novel.

I really like this retelling of Cinderella. I don't normally like retellings so I was pleasantly surprised :)

Cinderella got nothing on Elle Cynder ...and talk about evil stepmother and stepsisters, sheesh! Even though Elle and Alex triumphed, I don't think the happy ending is coming anytime soon.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I have to say, I enjoyed this book, but there were a few problems that I will address. I guess we will start off with the good stuff.

The characters, especially Elle, were great. I bonded with Elle pretty quickly, but Alec just wasn’t for me. I rooted for Elle and Alec but only because I wanted Elle to defeat the system. Other than that, meh. For half of the book I didn’t buy their love story until near the end. I have a couple of ideas why but I’ll get to that later. I enjoyed Bry and Knox. I wish we could have seen them in the book more and I think the author tried to, but there was just so much stuff going on. The villains and their plots were good. I enjoyed Queen of Hearts immensely. Again, I wish I could have seen more of her as well.

The second positive is the world building. It is a very believable world and I liked how it clearly separates the real world from the magic world. The different types of magical creatures and how they worked together was interesting.

Here are the problems I had with this book.

The plot pacing was all over the place for me. Part of the reason why was the jumping in time. Good on the author for making it clear of the time jumps, but it really threw me off as the reader. Like months, weeks, and years would pass and it just threw me all over the place. Also I think this is why I didn’t buy the relationship between Alec and Elle.

A whole year passes with them spending time together as 17year olds and neither one of them states how they feel? It’s a bit of a stretch to me.

And all of this stuff happens within this time frame that really doesn’t get explained. One clear examples of this is the development of relationships that jump from strangers to best friends or even from strangers to boyfriend/girlfriend within a flip of the page.

It just happens too quickly for me to keep up with. The author tries to fill in the gap with information dumps, but it just slows the plot down. I just wish the author would just walk us through those time gaps. I know that the author has other plans for books in that gap, but it just leaves us with so many questions without any answers. It’s just frustrating as a reader.

The last problem I had with this book were the typos. I am not usually the queen of marking up a book because of typos but there were quite a few. Namely near the end of the book it would state Elle and I when clearly it was written in Elle’s perspective. There was also the misspell of Elven magic (spelled like Eleven). I usually let them by since I know it is hard to catch, but they just kept duplicating like bunnies near the end. It took me right out of the story multiple times. I hope the author and editor will go back and fix those errors.

Overall, I enjoyed this book. There were some good twists and the characters are wonderful. However, there are some serious issues at play. Hopefully, the author will fix it. I would still recommend it and I think I might read the next book. It has Jacoby in there, how can I resist a good dark elf story?

I have a strained relationship with Christina Bauers' books: some are too confusing for me and some are just awesome. From the Tales of the Magicorum I had already read (and loved) Shifters and Glyphs (almost two years ago), so I was curious to see how Cinderella (oh no, of course: Elle) was doing in Slippers and Thieves. And although I think Christina's take on the fairy tales is pretty awesome, it really took me some time to get into the story.
The story of Elle and her parents is starting slowly and it is very sad to know beforehand that your parents will die. So, the first - partly sad - chapters took a while for me to get through. I kept drifting to other books, but finally I made some time in this book. And when Alec is getting warmed up, that's when the magic starts happening: the story picks up in speed and you can't help but root for Alec and Elle to get their happy ending. Because all of the meddling and scheming of Alec's parents, Elle's evil stepmother and her stepsisters is pretty scary. So, Christina keeps you on your toes. And then, when all seems to be hopeless, of course there will be a happy ending... sort of... or not. Mmm, now you got to keep on reading in Bandits and Ballgowns to see how this will end.
In all: three out of five stars from me (mostly because of the slow first part). And a special thank you to Netgalley for providing the arc.

Part of a series which I did not realise when requesting and I assume would make the novel too confusing for me.

Slippers and Thieves is a phenomenal retelling. It is enjoyable, engaging, and holds your intention the entire way through. The plot and stories are very unique as well as the characters. I love the development you see in their journeys.

This was a pretty good book. It was a fun twist on Cinderella. The book was well written and I really enjoyed it. I really liked the characters, absolutely loved Elle! I hadn’t read this author in a long time and enjoyed reading something of hers again. I highly recommend.
**I voluntarily read and reviewed this book