Ella Enchanted (Ella Enchanted #1)

I totally didn't realize what this was based on until the last 30 or so pages. I think that made it more enjoyable. I really liked this book. Ella has a healthy dose of what the Finnish call sisu!

I loved this book as a child and re-read it so many times my copy fell apart.

I'm going to start this by saying that I LOVED Gail Carson Levine's books growing up (The Princess Test, Cinderellis and the Glass Hill, The Wish, Princess Sonora and the Long Sleep....). That being said, I think I would have liked this book a lot better if I'd read it in middle school than as an adult.

At its bare bones, this is a story about girl empowerment. Ella takes the reins on her own life and does everything she can to make her life go in the way that she sees fit.

I enjoyed this retelling of Cinderella. I read Cinder last year, and I'm almost amazed by how different they are. I like how Ella was able to break the curse herself at the end and didn't rely on “true love's kiss” like so many Disney/Disney-esque stories.

Comfort reread. This is one of the very, very rare books with a movie adaptation that I actually like both the book and the movie, despite heavy changes made to the movie. The book is a slower pace, which makes for a great comfort read, and it's got so many sweet little moments.

This seems to be one of those Young Adult books that doesn't really work once you are no longer young. A major pet peeve: the use of exotic languages was overdone; instead of writing things in Gnomic or Elvish and then translating, it would have been a much easier read if it was just “XXXXXXX” Slannen said in Elvish. I had to do some heavy skimming to make it through the book, and even with that it felt like a waste of time.

This book is amazing! I recommend it to everyone!

A great retelling of the Cinderella story. Ella is a strong, relatable character. I like to revisit the story every once-in-awhile.

Finally ticked this one off the TBR list.

At Ella's birth, a fairy begifts her with the ability to always obey. It turns out to be more of a curse than a gift, however, when Ella's friends learn of her compliance and use it to make Ella their servant.

You know how there are those children's books that one is never too old to read?

Well, sadly, this was not one of them. I was a nice little read and I am sure had I read it in my early teens I would've loved it. But I didn't back then and the truth is I had a rather mediocre time reading it right now.

Better than I remember. Would recommend the story to nine to fourteen.

I just didn't like it as much as the movie. I felt it was also written poorly.

I've read and re-read this book so many times over the years, and it's still one of my favorites.