As the son of music industry royalty and a famous rock star in his own right, Henry “Cinder” Cinderford has spent his life on the road. Craving stability, he signs on to do a special limited engagement in Las Vegas and plans to spend the next six months discovering the meaning of home.
After losing his mom at a young age, Ellis Tremaine survived a childhood with an abusive stepfather who took out his anger on the son he never wanted. Nearly two decades later, Ellis continues to struggle against the emotional manipulations of his family, even in his career. But when he meets none other than the Prince of Pop himself, things start to change.
From attraction to friendship to something so much more, Ellis and Cinder become the celebrity ‘ship known as “Cinderellis.” But when reality threatens their storybook romance, all they can do is hope there really is a happily ever after for every once upon a time.
Fairy tale retellings?! I'm such a fan! I think it's fun to read authors put on their creative caps and try to rehash classic tales.
Evie Drae's Cinderellis (Once Upon a Vegas Night #2) is a standalone tale of love between a pop star 'prince' Cinder (or Henry) and a jack of all trade, blue collar worker, sweet, gentle giant Ellis! The story is a pretty quick read with QUILTBAG friendly characters (well expect for the villain, of course). Ellis is socially awkward, shy and submissive who works so hard he isn't caught up to current social media trends,etc. Cinder, is a world weary son of musical legends who is looking to finally laying roots. They find each other one magical night in Las Vegas. And magic happens!
Our 'Cinderella' in Drae's retelling is Ellis, a late twenty-something who is stuck working under his abusive stepfather's thumb. (Let me add this: some might look down on older characters still being abused...it's a hard cycle to break for some. And I thought the author did a very good job explaining why Ellis, 6 foot plus giant of a man could still react the way he did to the evil stepdad.)
The story alternates POV's which helped understand both main characters. Cinder was pretty smooth and adaptable when it came to Ellis. Ellis definitely was inexperienced in just about all the ways when it came to the world, so I liked Cinder's handling of him. The pacing is pretty quick when we get to the romance. The pacing was mostly smooth with minor hiccups.
My biggest concern with this wonderful story is the try-hard-ness in the dialogue. In the beginning Ellis came off as shy and socially awkward, he had panic attacks for some social interactions, then it seems to disappear as we zipped through the romance. And his personality melded in Cinder's personality at times; meaning chatterbox Cinder and Ellis shared the same reactions and word vomit/cheesy one liners at time. I'm not the biggest fan of cheese, so to each their own.
I felt the romance, or the buildup to the romance was rushed at points to fit in more sex scenes. Ellis had a shitty past with his previous sexual experiences. He seemed to get over his hangups fairly quickly. Though I must say, sexually he read like a fairy tale prince: gentle giant and submissive. He and Cinder definitely had good chemistry in and out of the bedroom.
The conflict is the stepparent (no surprise, as this is a Cinderella retelling) but it felt a little anti-climatic toward the end as it read rushed and not as satisfying. And the step sister was under utilized. She could have easily been not added and more step dad scenes could have been used instead. Maybe I would've gotten more of an impact from him? *shrug*
Other than that, I thought the story was a cute story. I'm happy Ellis grew as a person. I'm a big fan of fairy tale retellings and I enjoyed the ideas the author came up with. I'd check out more from this series.
Recommended for readers who like easy reading, cute characters and fairy tales.
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