Two people taking shelter within each other

I really loved this book. These two characters were so beautifully broken and the way they slowly realized they could find solace in each other was beautiful. I feel liberated for Ella! The only thing I wasn't crazy about was Ella's little speech to her step-mom and step-sisters; I understood that it was supposed to show the difference in her now, how she's so much stronger than she was before. I get that and I love it and respect it, but Ella's character was a quiet healer type and I liked that she had the ability to keep that innocent, kind side of herself despite all of the horrible circumstances she'd gone through (not that those women deserved any of it). It just felt slightly out of character. I expected something like "You will no longer take up space in my head, I will no longer allow anyone, especially you, to make me feel guilty about my father's death or anything else that I can't control. I didn't deserve how you treated me." (and maybe a "karma's a bitch" at the end or something for some edge). I just didn't expect her to be so venomous, even though I understand why. Either way, that was a small part of the book and it was an excellent retelling of the classic love story with some dark elements to it that made it both delicious and sad in so many ways. I actually hadn't expected *slight spoiler alert* Prince Thorsen to take Ella captive since she was so bendable and such a slight woman that probably would have submitted to him without him having to drug her if he'd offered her money for the sanctuary from the start, but I like how it happened because it was unique. No, kidnappings in dark romances aren't unique, but rich men that are princes and are watched by the press all the time and are being pressured to settle down kidnapping a woman to mess around with her, now that was intriguing since it was done on a whim and Thorsen had finally had some feelings again after being numb for so long. I just loved this novel. Oh, and I have to say that although both narrators are excellent at what they do, the accents were EXTREMELY confusing at first until it's made clear that Thorsen is from Norway. I'm sure they mentioned something about where Ella was from, but at first when I heard Thorsen it was like this weird mix of British and Jamaican accent or something. Then I was like... South African, maybe? When the book said he was from Norway, I was really surprised! Whenever I've heard Norwegians speak English, they have a sort of lilt to their voice that's almost French sounding, and the odd drawl that the male narrator adopted made it sound Jamaican to me. Honestly, I think both narrators probably just should have gone without trying to put on accents and just used their natural voices because their chapter announcements indicated they had wonderful natural voices that would have been great without the accents. Even so, the accent thing didn't ruin anything for me but it was a little off-putting until I understood why it was there and got used to it being present. Overall, I give it 7/10 glass slippers!

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3 people found this helpful

No Disney Prince

As much as I liked this version of Cinderella, it was a little too raunchy for me. There were a lot of twists, and I liked that karma was so sweet, but there are a lot of cringe reading moments from me.

Still, if things like that don’t bother you, then you will like this story.

The narrators were excellent.

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1 person found this helpful

Beautiful

This is like a twisted tale of Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast. I love this story so much it is amazing!!!

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Dark & titillating

I love this twisted version of Cinderella.
I loved listening to this during my walks..made the time go by.
A Zavarelli knows how to take a classic love story and make it dark & titillating.

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a bit more erotic than I expected

The dark twist on the fairytale was intriguing but it was far more erotic than I expected.

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Very dark,!!!

Listeners beware… this is a very dark story!!! It’s hard to listen to…, both MCs are broken and depraved in their own psychological way! They both suffer from childhood abuse that can be a HARD trigger for lots of listeners… I give it to A. Zavarelli she knows how to tell one heck of a twisted tale!! She gives you your HEA, but there can be no doubt… if this was r/l… it would have a totally different end! A very tragic end… Listeners you’ve been warned!!!

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Not for me.

The prince is horrible and Never likeable. He was cruel and I just couldn't get past how terrible he was to the heroine regardless of his backstory. I just found this to be a poorly written dark story. It's cringeworthy.

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An entertaining, dark fairy tale retelling

I enjoyed this when I read it and loved the audio book even more. It was well paced with plenty of drama and just enough angst to keep me entertained. Ella attends a ball intent on meeting her country's prince and convincing him to donate to the animal shelter she works at. Instead, she winds up with the infamous heir to the Norwegian throne, becoming his obsession. When he kidnaps her, she makes a deal with the devil, agreeing to stay and becoming his target for his cruelty and dark needs. Ella and Thorsen were a perfect blend of naivety and darkness. The former captured elements of the tradition innocent and sweet Cinderella and the latter a tormented, lost soul. It was an intense love story with some dark themes (elements of cruelty, rough sex, suicide, sexual abuse) that were written well. I really enjoyed both of the narrators although I found Ella to sound more Eastern European rather than French. That being said, I'm definitely not an expert. Ashleigh Zavarelli never disappoints me and this book is no different.

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My favorite fairytale as an erotic tale.

Cinderella is my favorite story and the author did a great job of retelling it in a new adult version. The details were well written and brought the story to life. The narrators were perfect. There was the perfect amount of story and erotica. I really enjoyed this audio book.

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A dark, romantic, twist, to an old tale!

I loved how she re-told this story, was it dark? Yes. However; it was also, intriguing, passionate, a fun twist on an old fashion tale. I would not only read this one again but I would definitely recommend it to others. It does have a trigger warning! ⚠️ Yet, most dark tales do.

Thor was the anti-hero in Stealing Cinderella. He’s a dominant male, for what that means to you, however; he has a troubled past that’s really holding him back. Ella is the heroine and spoiler alert it does have the typical Cinderella concept but then it gets naughty, with a little bdsm, etc. So it becomes the adult version….Plus there’s some added differences obviously so….Overall it was really good storyline and much more complex when compared to the original. It’s definitely worth reading!

Narration was great. Thor had an accent, supposed to be Norwegian, I’m not too familiar with that region so I don’t know how dead on it was and I know if it’s not that can tend to bother some people so be aware and listen to the sample if you’re one of those people. I don’t usually mind as long as it’s sexy. Ella had a accent too but hers was British I believe and sounded so……..

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