Fated: Cinderella's Story

Destined, Book 1

By: Kaylin Lee

Narrated by: Lauren B. Leigh

All Cinderella wants is to take care of her family.

After working tirelessly for five years to prove herself among the city’s elite, she’s about to graduate and win a coveted spot in city government. Then it all blows up in her face — literally.

A violent, anonymous force has been targeting commoners in horrifying attacks. Now they’ve set their sights on Cinderella. Either that, or she’s losing her mind. It doesn’t help that she’s falling for a mage who’s way out of her league.

Just as she manages to recover from the attack that left her scarred and traumatized, the city’s mysterious enemy destroys what’s left of her future. But when they go after her family, they cross the line. The whole city is in danger now.

How much is Cinderella willing to risk to save the city that has always hated her?

—

Fated: Cinderella’s Story is a magical fairy tale retelling filled with hope, sacrifice, and sweet romance. It’s the first book in the six-book Destined series, a collection of overlapping fairy tale retellings all set in the same magical world.

©2017 Kaylin Lee (P)2020 Kaylin Lee

A Surprising Twist on the Cinderella Story

I'll admit, this one snuck up on me. Early in the book, I wasn't sure how I felt about it--some of the worldbuilding was confusing and I was decidedly not sold on the romance. Once it got going, though, it got going. Kaylin Lee managed to turn basically every single Cinderella trope on its head, and I often found myself delighted with the little twists. The plot was a touch on the predictable side and I typically knew what was coming long before Ella did, but there was enough action, romance, and little surprises to keep me hooked.

Overall, it was a quick, easy, fun read that definitely has me wanting to pick up the next book in the series. Lee definitely developed an interesting world, and I'm interested in more for sure (even if Weslan, who was by far my favorite character) won't make an appearance.

The narration was solid as well. She was easy to listen to, and while there wasn't a huge variety in male voices, it worked just fine for this novel.

This audiobook was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

Very, very, very interesting

I knew this story was going to be a re-imagining of the Cinderella story and boy was it ever! Ella was not the put upon step daughter but she was whiny. Maybe she had good cause but I stopped this listen several times because her whine and angst had to be taken in small doses. In short, I did not like her.

I did like the story and the narration though. There were some wonderful new elements to this trope and the narration delivered on all fronts.

Cinderella Mostly In Name Only

I listened to this one with my 14 year-old-daughter and we both really enjoyed it a lot. We were both expecting it to be a different version of Cinderella but this was so far removed from the original story that we were really surprised by the direction it went. I have to say it was mostly Cinderella by character names only. There's a dystopian feel (very hopeless for much of the book) and with the many deviations from the original that it really doesn't look or feel much like what you would expect from the title. That being said the story was phenomenal, fast paced, and a fun magic based fantasy adventure. It's a pretty clean read, no bad language and the violence isn't too graphic. The only slight warning is there are a couple places in the book where the MC is propositioned for sex in exchange for police looking the other way, then the prince is talked about as a womanizer and she is warned about meeting him, but there are no sex scenes and it isn't a highly discussed topic in the book... so - PG13 and I would say middle school and up would really enjoy this one.

The narrator did a fantastic job, had good voice differentiation, the acting was great, and overall was just fun and easy to listen to.

—I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

A GREAT CINDERELLA TWIST

A VERY WELL WRITTEN CINDERELLA STORY WITH HINTS OF A BEAUTY AND THE BEAST FOLLOWING IT SOON AFTER.
STORY IS WELL WRITTEN AND EASY TO FOLLOW . HAS A DYSTOPIAN FANTASY FEEL TO IN THE BACKGROUND.
ACCEPTABLE FOR SLIGHTLY MORE MATURE AUDIENCE NOT FOR YOUNG CHILDREN.
THE NARRATOR LAUREN B LEIGH IS GREAT AND VERY EASY TO FOLLOW.

Creative Retelling of Cinderella

This was the most unique retelling of Cinderella that I have ever heard! And the narrator’s performance was amazing.