A bit about the author:

 Cross-Warrior is your friendly neighborhood dragon who enjoys reading, doing karate, hanging out with her family, and writing fantasy books. She is also a Christian who is currently attending pursuing a college major in elementary education. Her novel, Midnight, was longlisted in the Wattys2018. 

Title:

When I first read the title, I immediately think of something along the lines of the famous fairy tale, Cinderella. Which, since this is a Cinderella retelling, I suppose that is a good thing. XD

Cover:

mahana258's covers are always gorgeous, and this one is no exception. The cover is stunning and fits the story well.

Blurb:

The first paragraph reads like any typical Cinderella story. Until you reach the next paragraph--and then everything changes. (Like when the last stroke of midnight falls and I turn into a pumpkin) Boom! You immediately caught my attention and peaked my interest into reading this most unusual retelling of Cinderella.

The Good:

Great writing as far as blending so many fairy tales smoothly together. Amazing job on writing the action scenes and setting the mood for your story. Kudos as well for drawing the reader in immediately in the first few chapters; that's always something difficult to achieve, but you nailed it. 

The Bad:

A lot of times the pacing felt too fast to me. Especially in the later chapters, it seemed like there was so much happening that I began to get confused and would have to reread things to fully understand who was doing what, etc. I would advise spacing things out a bit. Yes, it's action, yes, there's a lot of stuff going on, but just slowing it down, or maybe describing what's going on more would help. 

Also, some of the characters (after Ash joins the ship) seemed flat. Like, we get introduced to them, and we're given relevant personal links, but I could not get into the other characters. Caspian was fine, and Willow was okay. But the rest I found it hard to keep them separate. Maybe the show-not-tell technique would help with this. 

What the Reader Thought: 

Overall, excellent. I have never been disappointed in this story. Time and time again, you managed to bring a chapter to a conclusive ending, and yet leave me hanging for more. Yes, there are a few issues I had, that I mentioned above, but I love the story for itself. Probably my favorite Cinderella retelling besides Ever After. It did have spots where it dragged a bit, or stuff happened too fast, but editing will definitely fix that. 

I started reading this way back, one or two years ago, when TheFaeFolk posted a review on it. It piqued my interest, so I started reading. Your story has come a long way since then, and even though it's not yet finished, and it's still a bit rough-hewn in places, you should be very proud of it. 

Score: 8/10