The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back by Sariah S. Wilson

The Ugly Stepsister Strikes Back by Sariah S. Wilson
"Everyone knows how all those fairy tales go. The princess gets beautiful, nabs her prince, falls instantly in love, lives happily ever after and leaves her evil stepsisters in the dust.

But what happens when you’re the ugly stepsister and your obnoxiously perfect—read pretty, smart, and, worst of all, sickeningly nice—stepsister is dating the charming, tall, devastatingly handsome guy you’ve had a thing for since you were nine years old?

Quirky, artistic and snarky Mattie Lowe does not lead a charmed life. Her mother is constantly belittling her on Skype. Mercedes, the school mean girl, has made it her personal mission to torment Mattie. But worst of all? Her stepsister Ella is the most beautiful, popular girl in school and is dating Mattie’s secret longtime crush, Jake Kingston.

Tired of being left out and done with waiting for her own stupid fairy godmother to show up, Mattie decides to change her life. She’ll start by running for senior class president against wildly popular Jake.

Ella can keep her Prince Annoying. Mattie’s going to rule the school.

And no one, not even a cute and suddenly flirty Jake, is going to stop her." (Amazon summary)

I really enjoyed reading the Ugly Step-sister Strikes Back. Loosely framed around Cinderella fairy tale tropes, this novel  is told from the perspective of a jealous stepsister named Mattie Lowe. Mattie is aggrieved at her inability to compete with her workaholic, absolutely gorgeous, and successful step-sister Ella, especially when Ella starts dating the guy that Mattie has loved since fourth grade.  The novel has a wonderful voice and a plot line full of un-put-downable tension.  I felt that the first several chapters had a few moments of choppy narrative where the narrator slowed the prose down by being repetitive, but these choppy moments disappeared as the story got rolling. I loved how all the characters grew throughout the novel and the fact that Mattie had a back bone and self-respect. Mattie was fun to root for because she remained true to herself even when she was a little nerdy. 

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Since I review this book as part of a blog tour hosted by I Am a Reader Not a Writer there is a fun giveaway.


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First Impressions: Desire of our Hearts by Sariah S. Wilson

First Impressions
This is a little series that details my experiences reading books for an hour a day in the library. I read the book either until I became disinterested in it or until I finished it.

The Desire of our Hearts by Sariah Wilson
This story is a fictional account of Alma’s experience in the court of King Noah. He falls in love with a girl named Sam, who refuses to like him, but he decides he will win her over anyway.
This is really terrible, but I have to be honest about how I felt about his book. I read it for 15 min. and hated it. I enjoy romance novels, but some romance novels are just…over the top. This was over the top in a bad way. How do I begin? My cynicism kicked in when the line, "then he saw her" appeared. He is in love already and we don’t even know what this person looks like! That annoyed me because I don’t believe in love at first sight. The love was too magical and too instant. He hadn’t even said one word to her. Later Alma has to confront Amulon because he tries to carry the girl Alma loves to his chambers and rape her. In this confrontation Alma totally comes off looking weak. He makes a threat that is empty, and then uses the “you’ll regret it later” speech to get him to cooperate. Alma doesn’t convincingly show that he has power over Amulon in my opinion, which makes his character incredibly weak. Yet he’s supposed to be the most favored in King Noah court? Then to add to that annoyance the girl cries in Alma’s arms after he rescues her, and then she agrees to let him walk her home! So, I’m not convinced that Alma’s rescue equals total trust on the part of a girl who almost got dragged off by another evil priest of Noah so recently. It was so fake and contrived just for the romance of it that I couldn’t read another instant and put it down.
The author’s prose is fine and she tried hard to set up a nice setting with lost of nice description, but she just couldn’t sell me on Alma’s character or the romance. In spite of my bad first impression it has been nominated for a Whitney finalist for 2007 in the Romance/Woman’s Fiction.

Author’s website: http://www.sixldswriters.blogspot.com/
Author’s blog: http://www.sariahswilson.com/

Here is a link to several favorable reviews on Desert Book:

http://deseretbook.com/store/reviews?sku=4991910