Cinder X Bella

Damsels of Distress, Book 2

By: Dakota Krout

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller

Dakota Krout presents Book 2 in the Damsels of Distress series.

©2025 Dakota Krout (P)2025 Tantor Media

Still good but my least favorite of the series.

I really disliked how much time was spent on how evil the step mother was. Yes, I get it. She bad. But please don't make her the star of the story and spend so much time on the things she does. It make the story hard to get through since it's so uncomfortable to read.
All that being said, I really liked the overall arch of the story and the beginning and end parts are superb.

Righteous Anger.

Dakota Krout did an amazing job with his adaptation of the beloved story of Cinderella. I love the way he integrated the skills of CALS world, into the characters of this classic fairy tale.
In a story of “it’s gonna get worse before it gets better”. Dakota definitely played on my heart strings as much as he could. Almost to the point of me wanting to walk away from the series as a whole.
However I’m optimistic that this was the worst of the series, and am looking forward to seeing how the rest of the “Damsels of Distress” interact.

Rarely hated characters more

Dakota really put the evil in the evil step-family in this gamafied Cinderella retelling. a strong beginning and a satisfying ending sandwiches a middle that makes you uncomfortable and upset in the best of ways. As always, narration was on point, and characters believable flawed creatures.

LitRPG fans, don't shy away- there isn't enough romance to make you cringe and there's plenty of system exploration.

Best book I’ve read in a while

I loved the richness of each of the characters, how fantasy felt grounded in reality, and the fantastical twist on a Cinderella story. Everything about this was pure gold. X.

misery. pure and unadulterated.

so, the first, I want to say 70% of the book? was the main character suffering. and it got my goat. I was ready to lash out and I genuinely started pacing and visualizing ways to attack the evil stepmother. even now that the book is over I'm still mad. a genuinely nearly gave up about halfway through. it was very difficult to push through the suffering that you feel by proxy. the worst part is you can't even skim through it because so much detail and important hints for future stories are littered in every other sentence. you skip forward 2 minutes and you're like what on Earth happened?! so you're forced to just sit there, stewing in your rage. so I will not in good conscience give this book five stars even if it is worthy of it. I did not like just how completely miserable this book made me just by listening to it, even as I couldn't willingly stop reading. it's really well written. Dakota Kraut is the best. I love everything he writes even this. I'm just angry. lasting emotional damage.