From the Ashes, Kayla Jameth

 

 

A nice M/M retelling of the classic fairytale Cinderella.

- Review by Kazza K

This is one nice cover!

This was a sweet M/M retelling of the classic Cinderella. Here Cinderella is a male who is made to dress like a female so he cannot gain his inheritance after his father died. Now the inheriting male is out of the way, the money/estate goes to his evil stepmother and wretched, ugly step sisters. Cinderella, whose real name is not spoken (until the end), is attracted to men, hates wearing a dress, and longs to be treated like the young male that he is.

As per the original, there is an upcoming ball for the eligible prince, and Cinderella has orders to make sure his sister's ballgowns and finery are all ready for the palace event. When they have gone, his fairy godmother arrives to tell him he is off to the ball as well, that his prince awaits him. Which confuses Cinderella on many levels - he didn't know he had a fairy godmother, he sure as heck didn't know there was a prince awaiting him, and he wasn't sure why he had to continue wearing a dress, surely that was not the way to meet someone in the most honest light. But the FGM won't brook any argument, she is there at the request of his deceased father. She organises his ballgown, hair and make-up for the night, and those wretched glass slippers, and sends him off in his horse drawn carriage, with orders to be back at midnight. Cinderella goes and is the belle of the ball. Prince Henri is smitten. They dance, talk and find they have a lot in common, including wanting to find love, happiness, a decent partner, and to ride horses.They both feel stuck in a world that constricts them. Of course midnight approaches and Cinderella does a runner, leaving the glass slipper behind. Prince Henri does the standard search for the right slipper-fitting blonde, until his true love is found.

Andrej Pejic gets my vote
for Cinderella

Our male Cinderella is able to pull off being a female because he is pretty - long blonde hair, androgynous looks, slim and petite, very little body hair, so no five o'clock shadows for our boy Ella.



The writing here is neat, well edited, the prose was charming and lent itself well to the fairytale quality. There were some deviations to the plot - mostly at the end. I thought Ms Jameth might go in another direction than she did. It's always nice to have a bit of a surprise. So there is a twist on the traditional ending which I was happy with.

I recommend From the Ashes for lovers of fairytale romances, with an emphasis on M/M, those who like a sweet story with some nice sex scenes when they occur.