Unfortunately I had to DNF this one. There were so many triggering things included in the plot (especially one particular scene that I just couldn't continue with) and it was not what I expected going in at all. I couldn't connect with the heroine, I detested pretty much every other character and in the end it just became a chore to get through.

My thanks to HarperCollins UK for the ARC but unfortunately this one did not work for me at all.

I loved the world-building in this book. It was a gothic fairytale with interesting characters and accessible writing. It doesn't blow your mind in its story and writing, but it was certainly good fun.

This was a great fantasy story. I love fairytale retellings and this story had a great version of one of my favourite classics.

Thank you to Netgalley and HarperCollinsUK for granting my wish for this!

The Shadow in the glass follows Eleanor ‘Ella’ who after her mother’s death is taken in as a ward by the Pembrokes. Following the death of Mrs Pembroke, Ella is relegated more to a housemaid than a ward and lives along with her fellow house staff under the yolk of Mr Pembroke who presents a danger to them all.

After things take a turn for the worst, Ella is granted 7 wishes by her fairy godmother with a caveat. After the fulfilment of her 7th and final wish, Ella must give her fairy godmother her soul.

This is where the resemblance to Cinderella ends. Based in 19th century London, this story explores the circumstances for the average working woman at this time. It’s filled with sexual predators, heartbreak, abortion, miscarriage and much more that really underlines how difficult it was in this society to be a woman.

Whist extremely well written, it deviates so much from Cinderella and the author has truly made this retelling her own. Even the sub-genre of retelling falls spectacularly short when you get to the nitty gritty of Victorian London. The characters were all delightful and I especially loved Charles, he was really unexpected for me so I was pleasantly surprised by his personality.

I felt so much for the maids at the house and honestly the worst part is that it’s historically accurate. I did find Ella to be a little whiny and annoying but that’s more a personal preference than a critique of the book. The epilogue was both perfect and extremely frustrating. I thought it was excellently done but I really hate an open ending. Things just feel really unfinished for me in many respects so I would definitely be up for a sequel, though I doubt I’ll ever re-read this.

All in all this was a frustrating yet enjoyable read.

As a lowly housemaid, Eleanor lives in fear of her employer, Mr Pembroke. One night, when her fears are at their greatest, a mysterious black-eyed woman comes to her aid.

I received a free copy from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Set in Victorian London, Eleanor has lived in Granborough House for most of her life. She was the daughter of Mrs Pembroke's lady's maid, until Eleanor's mother died. Because of the close friendship, the Pembrokes became Eleanor's guardians.
Mrs Pembroke doted on her, and trained her to be a young lady. But when she passed away, everything fell apart. Mr Pembroke went into debt, dismissed most of the household staff, and relegated Eleanor to being a housemaid.

Three years later, and Eleanor has watched her home fall into disrepair. She has watched her fellow housemaids battered and bruised, as they are forced into sexual relationships with the violent Mr Pembroke. She has watched her friends fall pregnant, and get thrown into the gutter when they can't hide it.
Now that Eleanor is sixteen, and Mr Pembroke's latest victim has gone, he turns his gaze on her.

This is a dark gothic story that is loosely based on Cinderella.
This is most clearly alluded to at the beginning, with an over-worked servant girl and a "fairy godmother" entity; and at the end. The rest of the story is completely original.
It takes a very unforgiving insight into the life of women in Victorian times. They have no freedom, and little wealth of their own. There are very strict rules of decorum, and the maids are under pressure to represent their house in only positive ways. No one cares which gentleman is involved, but a whiff of rumour or pregnancy will see the maids thrown out without reference or chance of honest income ever again.

We follow Eleanor, as she tries to rise above poverty, so she can get away from Mr Pembroke, and hopefully take her friends with her. She had a brief glimpse of what life is like for the upper class, and she would do anything to get it back - not for the pretty dresses, but for the security it would offer her.
Eleanor is always sensible of her position throughout the book, she knows how precarious things are, and knows how even if she became rich, it would still legally belong to her guardian, the vile Mr Pembroke.

The black-eyed woman appears early in the story, summoned by the strength of Eleanor's need. She offers her seven wishes, in return for her soul.
Eleanor agrees, but quickly learns that each wish carries a terrible price.

This was darker than I expected from a "Cinderella retelling", but I really enjoyed it.
It took a while to get into, but once I worked out what type of book this was, I was definitely up for the ride.

The horrible treatment that Eleanor and her friends endured seemed brutally real, and despite Eleanor's best intentions, there were several parts in the book where it felt she had no way out of her situation.
The black-eyed woman was always happy to answer her call; but Eleanor put up a good fight, trying not to use the wishes, unless absolutely necessary.

I thought the author did an excellent job of keeping you guessing about... well, everything.
The wishes don't get granted by magic; they use other people, they use murder and mayhem, but get the required result. Which is only to be expected from a black-eyed woman...
There's just enough evidence to support the demon being real; just as there's evidence that she's not.

The pacing did occasionally dip, mainly when Eleanor was transitioning to a new role. It slowed down, and I did wonder where the story was heading.

Overall, this is a great debut, and I look forward to reading more of the author's work.

When Ella finds a book in the library of her masters house, something strange happens. A woman appears and offers her seven wishes for her soul. Expect there's a catch that Ella doesn't realise until her second spell is cast. Although this books synopsis intrigued me I felt let down i didn't connect with the main character at all.

A really interesting retelling. I really enjoyed how the original story was twisted and how the author used it.
I found the characters well developed and the prose was wonderful.
The writing was so good and really made the story engaging and fast paced:
The storyline itself was familiar without feeling over trodden and was definitely one of my favourite recent retellings.

I was unsure of what to expect from this book as it's not my usual genre but the cover drew me in and left me intrigued so I knew I had yo give it a go... I'm so glad I did.

I honestly loved this book. It was SO atmospheric, spell binding, heart wrenching and FULL of emotion from the very beginning.

It felt like a darker more grown up version of the fairytale Cinderella. More sinister, more gritty.. just more everything!

It's most definitely a book that you get emotion9invested in. The characters are wonderfully written and the locations are described perfectly, you can literally feel the cold, damp, dusty environment, the smog in the air... amazing!

The only very very small negative comment I have is that I wish the ending had been dwelled on just a little longer, it happened so fast and it was the perfect note to end on but it just felt a little too quick.

4.5*

Massive thank you to netgalley and Harper Collins UK for the ARC.

Although i loved the idea of the retelling of cinderella with a bit of a gothic twist it just did not do it for me and left me confused. Not sure how i feel about this book and despite finishing it im still unsure if i enjoyed it or not.

Thank you Harper Collins for granting my wish (but thankfully without any consequences!) and sending me a lovely e-arc of this read.
From the get go I was absolutely all chips in. I could picture all the maids and cook together in the downstairs, squabbling, fighting, being good friends - the scenes and the characters were really excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed the descriptions of what was being used to clean, make beds with, the sounds and sights on the streets - this book was researched well and it shows.
I thoroughly loved the cinderella story, the idea of a child being taken in as one of their own and then thrown back 'downstairs' the moment the master of the house could do so, Although this is a fantasy, dark, magical book, the themes were very adult, so it felt like a grown up fairytale. I truly loved the idea that Eleanor sneaked to the library whenever she could, to get lost amongst the books.
The lady in the book was like a genie, and it was thrilling that every wish had a consequence - like yin and yang.
The book got more and more thrilling the more greedy and desperate and impatient Eleanor got. She said she wasnt sure what it would feel like to lose parts of her soul, but we saw it after each wish, in her desperation, her impulsiveness and in some ways - greed. She was convincing no-one that she was doing this for everyone else, always putting herself as head of the new household she imagined.
The only negative for this book for me (which put it to a 4.5/5 in my view) is I wanted to find out that the book had been used before by a deceased character (there was a hint but never explored) and also more of an ending, it felt quite abrupt.
Truly loved it though and could not put it down. Thanks net galley & harper collins!

You know when you’re watching a mystery on tv or at the movies or whatever and the camera pans to a random, seemingly meaningless object and focuses on it … for just a couple seconds too long. Maybe there’s even a decoy object behind the object or next to the object and it is like they think they’ll trip you up if next to this receipt/certificate/key/engraved trophy/book of matches/teddy bear is a glass of water and now you wont notice have they have given you absolutely everything you need to guess the conclusion.

That is this book. I mean. Just so much. Everything is telegraphed from, for me, the second wish. Of 7. So, yeah, early and then often.

Ella is my least favorite type of unreliable narrator. Not only is the presentation of events playing a trick on her–– and by extension the audience––, but she’s also so self-unaware that it is laughable. I want my unsympathetic female protagonists to know wtf they’re doing and why. Or if they don’t know, to at least be struggling with why they don’t know. At one point Ella is confronted and criticized as just being 'nothing but excuses' and that is the truest line of the book. And what frustrated me the most about it.

The ending is also a let down here. There are a significant number of things that were teased <b>at length</b> throughout the book that are never wrapped up. This itself is annoying, but on top of it–– Ella actually takes her first interesting character step and the book freaking ends. Confusingly her first interesting character step is actively fighting the wicked witch in the mirror who was already asking her to come with her so throwing herself at her may have been misconstrued as going along willingly and not fighting for her soul back but that’s a whole other can of worms.

I will credit that the premise had so much promise here. I love the initial idea and I think there is a lot of great metaphor that could have been tapped here. And the writing is engaging; I remained mostly fraught with curiosity throughout. So, while I really didn’t like this book, that’s just one take on it.

My thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

I re-read a beloved book, I read a book that others had loved but that I found disappointing, I wrote a blog post to celebrate the many books I had loved but not written about this year, and somehow that sent me crashing into a reading slump.

I have picked up and put down books that I usually would have loved, I have done other things, and it was only with this book that I read a novel from start to finish.

It is far from perfect, but it hooked me in for long enough that I had to keep reading to see what would happen. It was the right book at the right time.

If it was a recipe it might read like this:

"Take the following ingredients:

- a large handful of Cinderella
- a dash of Doctor Faustus
- a teaspoon of Victorian Gothic
- a pinch of fairy dust

Mix together thoroughly and then throw the mixture into the air and see it fly."

The story begins with a young woman creeping into a library at night, knowing that she would be dismissed on the spot if she was discovered, but quite unable to resist the lure of books.

"Eleanor set down her candle and surveyed her subjects. Damp equatorial rainforests, steaming in the heat. Versailles, glittering in the dark like an earthbound star. Verona – Juliet on her balcony sighing into the darkness. It was a perfect night for poetry: she could stretch out her legs and whisper sonnets into the slow, hot silence ….."

Eleanor had become the ward of the Pembroke family after he mother had died, and Mrs. Pembroke had loved and treated her as she would have loved and treated one of her daughters who had died in infancy, leaving her with a single son. The sudden death of Mrs. Pembroke shattered Eleanor’s life: her widower decided that she had no claim on him and that she must earn her living alongside her household staff, and so Eleanor was renamed Ella and became a housemaid. Mr. Pembroke also fell out with his son, Charles, who left his household; and so his father ruled alone, drinking heavily and harassing the young female servants.

It was on one of her visits to the library that Eleanor encountered a mysterious woman with dark eyes. That woman offered her seven wishes, her price being that she would take Eleanor’s soul after she made her seventh wish. Eleanor accepted eagerly, thinking that she could help the other maids who had become good friends and that she could elevate herself so that she would never be poor or have to work again; and reassuring herself that if she didn’t use her seventh wish her soul would be her own to keep.

It didn’t take Eleanor long to discover that life with wishes was not at all straightforward. Her wishes had consequences, usually unforeseen, and almost always destructive ….

Eleanor was a fascinating character to follow. She was bold and passionate in her love for her friends and her hatred for those she felt had wronged her, and she did everything within her power to achieve what she felt was right and just for herself and for them.

I saw how the possession of the wishes, her changing circumstances – and maybe the mysterious woman with dark eyes gaining a hold on her soul – changed her. That was very well done.

I couldn’t say that I liked her, but I always wanted to know what would happen next.

The plot also kept me turning the pages with frequent developments, some of which I expected and some of which took me by surprise.

In the later chapters there were developments that I felt were too improbable, and I felt the characters were sacrificed for the playing out of the plot. And I can’t help thinking that better editing, just a few small changes, and the book being either shorter or longer, could have helped with those problems.

I did appreciate the distinctiveness of the story, and I was engrossed right up to the sudden and surprising conclusion.

That is why I say that ‘The Shadow in the Glass’ is an imperfect book but it was the right book at the right time.

I loved how gothic this story was! It really was a fairytale fantasy full of suspense, atmosphere and darkness. I really enjoyed it.

I liked Ella. She was kind and loving. She is hell bent on improving her life, and why not? The only problem is, is that this is the only side you see of Ella. However, this worked in the reader’s favour, because no matter what was thrown at her, we can sympathise with her.

I found the plot got more exciting towards the end of the book, nevertheless, I was hooked until the end.

I don’t read much historical fiction, but I found this one fascinating.

A big thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this review copy!

This story intrigued me especially as it was supposed to be a dark cinderella retelling. Unfortunately I did not enjoy this book at all, the story dragged on for so long and I kept waiting for something to actually happen and I just got bored.
The characters also fell flat for me, I couldn't connect to any of them and I couldn't really feel for Eleanor or root for her. I felt she was really naive for someone who was supposed to have had some education and could read and write. She was also a act first think later person, only thinking about the consequences after it was already too late and I just got annoyed with her.

I love a dark retelling, and this fits that. It's a bit bleak in places, but life was bleak for women at the time. I felt it dragged a bit in spots too, but overall, this was definitely worth the time to read it.

Eleanor Hartley is pretty and 17 years old but fate has meant that she is a housemaid serving her lecherous guardian. Her only escape is the library where she reads avidly. One evening, whilst reading, she is visited by a strange woman who promises to fulfill seven wishes for Ella in return for her soul. Ella decides that as long as she doesn't use up all the wishes it is an easy bargain to make. Unfortunately she discovers that there is a price to pay
There are some rave reviews for this book and I started it eagerly but Ella is not a likable character so I found myself not actually caring about her fate. There is a nice juxtaposition of the fairy world against the context of early 19th century London but it was not enough and I struggled to finish the story

This is a creepy, gothic retelling of Cinderella. Ethereal and beautiful – it is a clever rehashing of a familiar story set in a Victorian London. Ella is visited by a woman who grants her seven wishes, and in a Faustian bargain, she has to decide if it's worth it. I wondered whether if in part this setting and tone would become boring (as it is overdone), but overall, it was delightfully dark and there was a grittiness that I appreciated.

The heroine isn't as 2D as you might think – Harwood captures the bitterness of Ella's life and the desperation manifests into lovely tense moments.

A beautiful book. I definitely went into this book seeing the mindblowing cover. Its indeed a pleasure to read such new fiction from time to time. Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this book.

The Shadow in the Glass is part Cinderella retelling, part Faustus retelling, and altogether something entirely fresh and deliciously twisted. After the death of her benefactress, Eleanor has been relegated to a common housemaid trapped under the thumb of her slimy master. Her only solace is the library, where she discovers a copy of Faust that summons a fairy godmother offering seven wishes in exchange for her soul. Every wish offers her a new freedom—from the taunts of the other maids, to be with the man she loves, to escape Grantham house—but there is always a price to pay. And with each one, Eleanor loses more and more of herself.

The Gothic tone of this book is filled with vivid imagery and evocative descriptions reminiscent of Erin Morgenstern, its atmospheric voice rivalled only by the rich introspection of our narrator. Eleanor’s descent was written masterfully, her demeanour subtly changing with each wish until she becomes an unforgiving figure who will stop at nothing to gain her freedom. The writer firmly grounds all of this in the Victorian period with keen attention to setting, social expectations, and references to contemporary culture.

After the first two sections of the book, I did find myself forgetting that this was a Cinderella retelling right until the very end, which treats us to a glass slipper reference. The ending itself happened very quickly, and although—in my opinion—it picked the perfect note to end on, I wish it had dwelled a little longer on this to reach full impact. That being said, there were one or two lulls in the middle of the novel as the structure of each section became clear: Eleanor’s last wish has brought her brief happiness, something else goes wrong, Eleanor grapples with the idea of making a new wish to set it right, Eleanor makes the wish. Despite this somewhat repetitive formula, I truly could not predict the tragedies that each new section would bring for our protagonist. Everything comes crumbling down around her in that typically Gothic manner, and while some might argue that Eleanor deserved everything she got, I found myself wishing to see our dark, ambitious heroine come out on top.

This is a unique gothic tale, a fairytale but it’s got so much more depth, it has real, dark, Victorian gothic feel, at points really eery and chilling. Slow to start, but as the story picks up, so does the pace once it gets going you’ll be on the edge of your seat like I was. I found the writing absolutely beautiful and very atmospheric, a twisted retelling of this classic fairytale that brings London to life with dark magic to create an atmospheric story that will leave you with many questions and wanting more

Thanks to netgalley and the publisher for a free copy for an honest opinion