ARC Review: The Charmed Wife by Olga Grushin

Synopsis:

Cinderella married the man of her dreams – the perfect ending she deserved after diligently following all the fairy-tale rules. Yet now, two children and thirteen-and-a-half years later, things have gone badly wrong.

One night, 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.

Review:

The Charmed Wife is a very unusual book and not what I was expecting at all.  Some elements are written in a magical fairytale style, whilst others crossed over into the modern world.  Occasionally it’s hard to decipher the dream from reality which is a little confusing, however this confusion turns to clarity once the modern world begins to emerge and the story begins to unravel.  For the most part I really enjoyed it, however there are some elements I didn’t enjoy quite so much.  I found myself skipping over the passages marked in italics narrated by the mice. I didn’t feel these references were an essential part of the story and found them a little tedious.   At first I enjoyed reading the references to other fairytales, but there were too many and annoyingly I found myself playing spot the fairytale throughout the book. 

However, the writing is strong and the fantasy sections are written well and because the storyline is so intriguing it makes for a compelling read.  The plot is very clever and beautifully constructed.  I feel I should re-read it, I missed some of the nudges towards the modern world earlier on in the book and this would have helped me understand how the book unravelled at the end.  An enjoyable read, but don’t expect an fairytale retelling of life after Cinderella marries, this one has a twist.  I definitely didn’t expect the book to pan out the way it did!

Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Publication Date:   21 January 2021
Format:  Paperback
Page Count:  288
Genre:  Fantasy
Rating:  ⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to the publisher for the review proof of this book in exchange for an honest review.

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Happy reading!
𝒦𝒶𝓇𝑒𝓃
^{Twisted in Pages Blog}