What an unexpected treat this was. I was expecting something dark and whimsical, and there was definitely both darkness and whimsy here, but there was also anger, feminism and subversion of what happy ever after actually means, adding up to a clever, inventive modern fairytale.

The Charmed Wife begins long after Cinderella and the Handsome Prince have begun their happy ever after. Our heroine lives a life of balls and tea parties, of enchanted mice and  gorgeous gowns. She has two children and the perfect husband. At least, that's what she tells herself, that's what everyone says. So what if she hardly ever sees him, if every day blurs into the next, if life is one blurry, bland pink bubble? And yet, here she is, standing at a crossroads at midnight, asking a witch to murder her husband. What brought her to this moment? And what happens next?

Hold on tight and forget everything you think you know about fairytales as Grushin sweeps us off on an adventure unlike anything you've read before. At times grimmer than Grimm, with deft humour and some excellent storytelling, The Charmed Wife recasts traditional fairytales for the modern day. A thoughtful, original retelling. Highly recommended.

This twist in Cinderella is a lot of fun, and whilst revisionist fairy tales are nothing new, this rattles along slowly broadeneing its focus until there is barely any fairy tale left. That is the point. Its easy to deconstruct Cinderella to point out that three dances, and a show fitting is no basis for a wedding, but to also take to task all the protagonists motives with initially humour and then a broader purpose is a little trickier.

Grushin has a lightness of touch which means the extreme feminist twists that the book latterly engages in  (including the core question between the real difference between a Fairy Godmother and a Witch), slide by naturally. There is a lso a running subplot in the first half of the book that sees an entire rise and fall of a mouse civilisation from Cinders initial mouse friends whose lifespan would not allow a long relationship (but nevertheless the trip through revolution and disillusionment with the vapid heroine is very amusing). I wasn't initially sure about the second half completely having the setting fall apart, but in retrospect it works and frankly I wasn't really up for just a deconstructed fairyland for the rest of the book. Nevertheless the Sleeping Beauty cameo is very well done, as is the jazz age twist on the twelve dancing ladies.

Originality is probably a bit over-rated. This is not the first revisionist Cinderella out there, and won't be the last. Any serious dramatisation of the tale has to wrangle with its inconsistencies and anachronisms (I have always been very fond of the solution in the Drew Barrymore starrer Ever After). But doing it well, with wit and purpose is a lot harder. This does it pretty well.

This is a based off of Cinderella. I liked it but I didn’t love it. The writing style was okay and I found it a pretty quick read. The first half I really enjoyed as Cinderella fairytale happy ever after falls apart and I was sucked into the book. The middle was a little weird and I didn’t like it as much as there just seemed a lot going off. I almost didn’t finished the book after this section as I lost most of my interest, then suddenly we are in New York modern day which just felt wrong. The twist of it all being in the head of the books Cinderella wasn’t what I was expecting and it didn’t feel natural. However the final pages were enjoyable for me and I did like the end. I enjoyed the fairytale aspects that it had and I liked a couple of the characters but overall I don’t think I will read it again and I don’t think this is a book that will stay with me.

Romantic stories usually end with the heroine marrying her handsome Prince and living happily ever after, in the case of fairy tales often without getting to know each other first which is a tad unrealistic. This skilfully plotted fantasy takes the Cinderella story to a point some 13 years after the marriage to a point where the happy couple haven’t communicated for years and looking after their 2 children is not enough to prevent Cinders going out of her mind with boredom. So much so that the story opens with her meeting a witch on a windswept moor to arrange his death. Will she go through with it and what exactly has driven her to this point? Nothing is as it seems in this feminist fantasy.

I received an ARC of this book thanks to NetGalley and publisher Hodder & Stoughton in exchange for an honest review.
The Charmed Wife poses an interesting question: what happens when the magic goes out of Cinderella's marriage? Feeling unloved and embittered by the false dream she has been sold, our main character seeks out a witch to cast a spell to kill her fairytale prince. Just as they are about to cast it however, the fairy godmother shows up and urges her to look back on her relationship and whether things are as bad as they seem.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first half of this book. It has a dreamy, fairytale style sprinkled with humor and thought-provoking imagery. It takes an interesting look at what life for Cinderella would actually be like, and I particularly enjoyed the asides about the saga of her two pet mice. That honestly was my favourite part of it and I wish it had continued throughout the entire book.

Halfway through however, this book changes gear and here it got a bit less enjoyable for me. A lot of different fairytales start appearing and this was great at first but quickly became crammed and a bit tiresome. I felt like the plot had gotten away from the author and I wanted to get back to it. The ending I cannot discuss without spoilers so:

*SPOILER WARNING*

 I think the decision to have it all be a potential delusion could have worked a bit better but it was woven in so messily into the multiple fairytale stuff that was going on, it didn't quite hit the mark for me. And personally I would have preferred to stay in the fairytale world as I found that more insightful and that it worked better as a metaphor. The final scene with the prince revealing he never got what he wanted either is very powerful, and it doesn't need the real world muddying the waters.

*END OF SPOILER WARNING*

Having said that, this book was incredibly creative and I found myself very absorbed and invested in the story. It is unlike anything I have read before in a really great way, and I was completely enchanted seeing where it would go. It's definitely a powerful book and one I know will stick with me for a while.

Overall Rating: 4/5 stars

An incredible fantasy depicting what actually happens post the happy-ever-after. A fairytale like no other!

As your favourite fairy tale ends with “and they all lived happily ever after” did you ever wondered what really happened next? Strap yourself in and prepare to find out. 
This book is put together very well and is totally imaginable. Very thought provoking and definitely worth a read

What happens when cinderella does not live happily ever after? Follow this enchanting tale full of fairytales woven together. It will make you smile and remember tales from your childhood but with a very different twist. All I can say is enjoy and smile as you follow the twists and turns of the story.

I love fairytale retellings, and for the most part, I really liked this book. In all of the Disney approved fairytales of my childhood, the stories always ended with ‘Happily Ever After’, but even as a child, I wanted to know what this meant. What was happily ever after? As an adult, that ending annoyed me even more, as it made it feel like the women in the story were ornamental, they were a prize to be won and their lives stopped being relevant as soon as they got the man. Charmed Wife deals with this idea, and the realities a fairytale princess might be left with after the curtains have been drawn. Her life seems to be an endless parade of parties and feasts, with no real substance to give her happiness or strength. Her husband is distant and her children cruel. She is unfulfilled and her life is seemingly pointless beyond portraying the image of a happy princess, wife and mother.

I really liked the social commentary that the author was able to bring about, by discussing the ideas about how women are ‘supposed’ to find their happiness in their families, the importance of social hierarchies and marrying up. About feeling unimportant in our own lives, and questioning whether those who claim to love us, do so because of who we are, or because of who they think we are.

I liked the author’s take on the traditional fairytale characters, and how nobody is who they seem to be. The Prince isn't really charming, the witch isn’t evil, etc… How the labels we give to ourselves and those around us can be used to excuse certain behaviours and stop us from seeing the truth. I also really liked the discussion on mental health, how sometimes it is difficult to tell what is real life and what is our imagination, especially when fantasy has a way of taking the edge off reality.

I did find some of the writing a little weird, and found myself having to go back and reread paragraphs, as the story did jump around a little. I also found the bits with the mice a little odd and I am not sure if they brought anything necessary to the story. But overall, I would definitely recommend this novel, and look forward to what the author brings out next.

Overall the theme of the book got to me. I found it very realistic and heartbreaking over how human nature is capable of destroying its own inhabitant. I think that it is a bit too complex for me as it jumps through different narrators without much warning and I often find myself wondering what is reality in this fictional universe. I found the ending poignant and truly beautiful. The different relationships, the different versions of love were very well explained to the point where it is so clear to see that this fairy tale marriage had no love in the first place. Happily ever after takes a lot of work and cannot be magically fixed. I found all characters to be unlikable and likable at times which made them again, far more realistic and humane than most fairy tale based novels. It is definitely a book that will stay with you for a long time.

What happens after a happy ending?

Cinderella’s married life in the palace seems like an endless loop of idle eating and dancing, her husband never present or invariably distant, her children her only joy she may soon lose. 
The tone of the book is an odd, in all the positive ways, combination of fairy tale and a realistic narrative voice of an unhappily married woman, fuelled by her misery and the newfound decisiveness to end it.

It is both sad and refreshing to witness the well-known version of Cinderella reimagined as a miserable woman in her mid-thirties, struggling to make sense of her bleak happily ever after. I applaud the author’s vision and her take on other familiar characters. No one, not the Prince, not the evil stepsisters, not even the Fairy Godmother are what we’re used to.
 
The occasional cuttings to Cinderella’s mice’s personal lives feel like fun interludes but somewhat unnecessary, nonetheless, overall, the structure of the novel is skilfully accomplished. We begin with a brief overview of the story we already know and then dive right into The Charmed Wife’s narrative, with appropriately timed and placed flashbacks, each told in a fairy tale manner and welcoming some more unexpected yet familiar faces. My personal favourite is the Witch, who, as many others, is not at all what you would expect.
 
Sometimes, it is hard to tell what is real or not, just as Cinderella struggles to tell reality from her fantasy. Here our world and fairy tale are transposed on one another to show that magic cannot solve everything, true love is not the same as lust or infatuation, and making excuses for others is a futile endeavour that nourishes hate, and “hate traps you as much as love does.” 

The novel touches on the subject (which has been bothering me for quite some time) of the Prince having the whole kingdom trying on the glass slipper until finding the girl it would fit, essentially, any girl with the appropriate shoe size. “Would he have even known the difference?” Cinderella ponders. At some point, she begins to acknowledge the power of choice and what true love really feels like, which is far from feeling like “some misplaced piece of luggage” that needed retrieving with a glass slipper acting as a luggage tag. 

The novel challenges the outdated conviction that goes in line with the “middle-aged certainties” of Cinderella’s Fairy Godmother, that marrying rich is every woman’s ultimate goal. Of course, true love does exist. But it is not shallow, it is not just about the looks, interminable gifts, and possessions, but something much deeper that would never take away your dignity. There are many “beautiful beginnings”, but not all make for a beautiful ending. 

Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine meets Once Upon a Time with a darker twist, the novel is tragic, funny, and refreshingly unexpected. You will not be disappointed.