Fated: Cinderella’s Story by Kaylin Lee
Fantasy. 252 pages. 5 Stars.
Synopsis:
All Cinderella wants is to take care of her family.
After working tirelessly for five years to prove herself among the city’s elite, she’s about to graduate and win a coveted spot in city government. Then it all blows up in her face—literally.
A violent, anonymous force has been targeting commoners in horrifying attacks. Now they’ve set their sights on Cinderella. Either that, or she’s losing her mind. It doesn’t help that she’s falling for a mage who’s way out of her league.
Just as she manages to recover from the attack that left her scarred and traumatized, the city’s mysterious enemy destroys what’s left of her future. But when they go after her family, they cross the line. The whole city is in danger now.
How much is Cinderella willing to risk to save the city that has always hated her?
—
Fated: Cinderella’s Story is a magical fairy tale retelling filled with hope, sacrifice, and sweet romance. It’s the first book in the planned Destined series, a collection of overlapping fairy tale retellings all set in the same magical world.
My Review:
Fated, book 1 of the Destined series by Kaylin Lee was an excellent debut in my opinion! We all know how much I love fairy tales and I’ve been on a bit of a fairy tale kick lately, but this spin on Cinderella was quite unique and certainly intriguing. I opened the book to read the prologue or maybe just chapter one to see what I might think…next thing I know I was three fourths the way through the book and up way past my bedtime.
Fated features a unique setting–possibly my favorite part of the book–with a very structured caste and political system. I found myself very enthralled by this society and yearning to learn more about the city and its policies as well as the cities around Asylia. I wanted to know more about the history and how they came to be where they were and I hope the rest of the series continues to expand on the incredible world that Lee has created. The mages were a lot of fun to read about and, again, I hope to see more about them. What rules govern them how do the laws of magic work, etc? I feel like Fated just gave me a glimpse into a much larger world. The characters themselves were wonderful! I loved Weslan and Ella and Zel and the girls. I will say that I did not see the big reveal at the end coming until I was right up on it and so now I’m super pumped to read book two (and I hear there’s a third in the making!!!). I liked how real they felt. Each character displayed an array of emotions and reactions to the people and situations around them. And the romance was slow and sweet. There are quite a few bits I wouldn’t have minded to see from Weslan’s pov, honestly. Ooh, and the plot, y’all! I was drawn in from chapter one. Lee kinda throws you into the deep end of the pool with her world and the setup, but she gave me just enough information at just the right time that I never felt frustrated, only curious to learn more. The plot was well-paced with several faster paced points that kept me surging forward for more. The story was very well-written and I can’t wait to see more by this author! I will say this, I did wish that last chapter had been just a tiny bit longer. I mean, come on! We spent the whole book building up to that moment and then whoosh it was over in like a few sentences. Though, it wasn’t disappointing!
Mild romance, mild violence (nothing graphic, though one of the main plot lines follows a terrorist group), and there were like 6 swear words in the last fourth of the book in a few conversations between some of the guards. Nothing terrible, but it was mild foul language for the paralleled time period. I was actually kind of surprised to see it since the first three quarters of the book had absolutely none. Overall, I’d recommend it to fairy tale lovers, probably high school and up.
More:
Prequel Novelette: Torn (4 Stars)
Book 2 in the Destined series is Hidden: Rapunzel’s Story (4 Stars)
Book 3 is Twisted: Belle’s Story (4 Stars)
Book 4 is Betrayed: Ruby’s Story (5 Stars)
Book 5 is Hunted: Alba’s Story (5 Stars)
Book 6 is Cursed: Briar Rose’s Story (Being written)
I have reviewed each of the above on Goodreads. Follow the links to find more info on the books and then scroll down to see the reviews. Mine is among them.
This series should be read in order.
On Gracebought
Stay tuned for my thoughts on the next book in the series!