Only Anna knows the truth about Cinderella: The pauper turned queen wasn't the victim, but the bully.

Anna fled when the castle guards came to arrest her mother and sister on Cinderella’s orders. But leaving them in bondage at the Fairy Godmother’s workhouse? Out of the question. Disguised as a young man and taking the name of Ansel, she’ll do whatever it takes to free her family and set the record straight.

Will, a former royal huntsman, was nearly killed for dissenting Cinderella’s rise as queen in the wake of the sudden death of the king and his son. He hatches a plan to take Cinderella down, and encounters Ansel, who wants revenge just as much as he does.

Drawn together by a common goal and burgeoning feelings neither can ignore, Will and Ansel enact a plan to assassinate the queen. But when that goes awry and buried secrets come to light, they’ll have to choose: continue running from their pasts or accept themselves in order to forge a new future together.

tl;dr
A spicy romance that takes inspiration from Cinderella and Snow White, but crafts an entirely new story.

About
Cinderella was never the victim - she was the bully. And when she ascended the throne, she locked up her "evil" stepmother and one stepsister. But the second stepsister Anna got away, and now she's on the run, disguised as a young man named Ansel. Will is also on the run, former huntsman to the king before the mysterious death that left Cinderella in power. When the two of them meet, they share a common goal - take down the queen. But as dangers arise and sparks fly, they might find something more.

Thoughts
There are a lot of Snow White retellings, and even more Cinderella retellings, and this book genuinely feels like it could have existed just fine without being either. The plot and characters stand on their own so well that I didn't think much about either of the fairy tales it's based on while I was reading it. This book is first and foremost a romance, with attraction kicking in pretty early on, followed by a lot of spicy scenes for people who like their romances with spice. Anna is a determined lead with a gentle heart, and a very visible love for her family. I appreciated how the story handled the complexity of Ella as a villain warped by grief, although I think a lot of readers might consider her ending to be too gentle, considering everything she did. Will doesn't get quite as much attention in terms of character development, and I felt in few places that his personality was outshone by Anna's. Still, they have very believable chemistry, and the ending for them was very satisfying. The pacing of the novel is pretty fast for the most part, with lots of fun plot twists, although it does slow the momentum pretty hard pre-finale before picking up again, and I felt kind of thrown by that. A great fantasy romance with fairy tale inspirations and lots of steamy bits.

A reimagining of Cinderella except from the perspective of the “ugly” stepsister. In this story Ella is the cruel one, using magic to force people into loving her and making her queen. Her step sister Anna has been on the run ever since, but when she finds out that Ella has captured her mother and sister Anna will do anything to get them back. When disguised as a young man and taking on the name of Ansel, Anna accidentally runs into Will, a former royal huntsmen who was nearly killed for dissenting Cinderella’s rise as queen in the wake of the sudden and very suspicious death of the king and prince. Together Anna and Will must work together along with others in order to destroy the fairy godmother that has been brainwashing people, take back the throne from Cinderella, and free all those who have been captured. Yet the more they spend time together the more they begin to fall for one another... but with so many of their own secrets... can they truly fall for one another after their secrets are brought out into the open? This was a mixture of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty and I definitely had fun with this reimagining. Anna was so much more forgiving than I would have been in her shoes, and I guess thats why she’s our own real Cinderella haha. The romance between Anna and Will is great, they have a lot of chemistry and it works well. Overall, I would definitely recommend this for fans of reimagining of classic fairytales and romance.

*Thank you Netgalley and City Owl Press for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

Every story has two sides, and this one was spectacular!

I feel that a lot of fantasy books are rather challenging to read, but this book just flowed nicely because of the manner in which Magan writes.  I also enjoyed the 'Mulan' element (Anna disguising as a boy) it gave me all types of nostalgia.
I did not anticipate the Polt twist, which was just Fantastic!
In the story The Ugly Stepsister, Anna tries to save her family from the fairy godmother and Cinderella, who turns out to be evil but made it seem like it was anna and her family who were the mean ones. As she is trying to get to her sister and mother, she stumbles into Will. a former royal huntsman who is also trying to get into the fairy Godmothers workshop. They then hatch a plan to take down Cinderella together with will's group however there are many things that do not go to plan including them gaining feelings for each other.

Overall this was an amazing book to read to give you a different perspective of the traditional cinderella story.