The Charmed Wife

By: Olga Grushin

Narrated by: Karissa Vacker

"Genre-bending and darkly comic, Grushin's fourth novel is a weird and wonderful triumph." –O, the Oprah Magazine

Cinderella wants her Prince Charming dead in this sophisticated fairy-tale for the twenty-first century.

Cinderella married the man of her dreams--the perfect ending she deserved after diligently following all the fairy-tale rules. Yet now, thirteen and a half years later, things have gone badly wrong and her life is far from perfect. One night, fed up and exhausted, she sneaks out of the palace to get help from the Witch who, for a price, offers love potions to disgruntled housewives. But as the old hag flings the last ingredients into the cauldron, Cinderella doesn't ask for a love spell to win back her Prince Charming. Instead, she wants him dead.

Endlessly surprising, wildly inventive, and decidedly modern, The Charmed Wife weaves together time and place, fantasy and reality, to conjure a world unlike any other. Nothing in it is quite what it seems--the twists and turns of its magical, dark, and swiftly shifting paths take us deep into the heart of what makes us unique, of romance and marriage, and of the very nature of storytelling.

Utterly Charming

I loved this take on a Cinderella story. At times I was absolutely devastated, and then hopeful. I love the way Ms. Grushin wove in different fairytales and fairytale elements into the overall narrative.

This book will make you dizzy.

Lots of hard to follow story lines. Some unanswered questions still remained at the end of the book.

Thought provoking

Timelines become jumbled for Cinderella as she moves from her fairytale life to a more realistic world. Don't worry about trying to keep all the timelines straight in your head. We're seeing this through Cinderella's eyes as she makes her way from one world to the next. The timelines are jumbled for the reader because they are jumbled for her. It's an interesting look into our roles in creating our own happily-ever-afters, and how things are frequently not what they seem.

Beautiful, Hopeful, Powerful

The heroine is memorable and the story is unforgettable. a fantastic read. Highly recommend.

Sad fairy tale

The narration of this story was superb. I found the story just a little bit too long because it went into so many different tangents. Too many characters. That said, I did enjoy the story and found it very true to life not at all what we would think it’s fairy tail wouldn’t tail.