Keeping going with my fairy tale retellings spree (4th in a row now), I decided that it was high time for some Cinderella action. I was drawn to Ember in part because of the synopsis and in part because of the praise it received from another reviewer whose opinions I highly respect. 
 This is a very different version of Cinderella. Sure, all of the elements of the story we all know are present: the orphan girl, the stepmother and the two stepsisters, the ball, the shoe, the search for the girl Prince Charming has fallen in love with Yet all these elements are warped so that it's possible to recognise Cinderella but view this story as being a very different telling. 
 Ember revolves around sex and yet it does so in a tactful way. It's not there on every page, though it is introduced as of the first few pages, and it's not full of purple prose-isms. It doesn't overwhelm the plot of leave the reader wondering when things will get back to the story at hand. Many authors could learn from Bettie Sharpe! 
 Here Prince Charming isn't Charming because of his looks and personality but because he was cursed with Charm by a witch. Now, instead of earning his people's love, they cannot help but freely give it, something which Ember wishes to avoid. In order to resist his Charm, she cuts off a digit and freely feeds it to one of the elements, becoming a witch herself in the process. Of course, as the only person able to resist his Charm, the Prince becomes even more interested in Ember, determined that she should love him for who he is, and not because of his Charm. In his quest to make Ember his own, they both weave a tangled web of lies that could cost them their happiness as those webs start to unravel. 
 This is a short novella but there's so much packed in to it that almost as soon I finished I went back and read it a second time. A week later I was contemplating going for round 3 (this actually took place a few months later). The story had me absolutely enraptured. For something so short that's an incredible feat! Ember is far from perfect, but that's not an issue here for me personally. The story affected me in a way I was not expecting. It's definitely one I'll be revisiting in the future.