Cinderella married her perfect prince and lived happily ever after… Didn’t she? Thirteen years and two children later, she’s seeking help from the witch who offers potions to disgruntled housewives. But, instead of asking for a love spell to win back her prince, she wants him dead.

The “what happens after happily-ever-after” story has been done many times before, but not quite like this. Classic fairytale elements are integrated with modern references, creating a not-so-far-away magical world where fantasy and reality cross over heavily. It is a fairytale retelling, but it isn’t really a fantasy novel and it certainly isn’t about magic and romance and happy endings.

The Charmed Wife is a compelling novel, but I didn’t think it was perfectly executed. The second half of the story, which focusses on after Cinderella (who was very unlikeable) has left her husband and we find out where everything went wrong, was more interesting and I particularly appreciated that the prince’s viewpoint was acknowledged. I liked the portrayal of many well-known fairytale characters in this book, especially the witch and the stepsisters, but unfortunately, I found the entire first half to be quite dull. The part that captured my attention the most was the intermittent saga of Brie and Nibbles, the princess’ mice.

Grushin does a good job of exploring outdated notions of romance and fairytale, but I found the delivery quite jumbled and tedious.

I tried really, really hard to enjoy this. I loved the beginning and thought the concept was brilliant, but sadly, the execution completely lost me. The non-linear timeline and jumping between fantasy and reality was confusing, and I just couldn't connect with any of the characters. The interwoven story of the mice I enjoyed and actually preferred to the main plot but unfortunately, this book just wasn't for me.

A modern take on an old fairytale. The wife deciding she needs help to bring her husband back to her so she enlists a love potion from a witch This type of story is really not my cup of tea so I’m afraid I didn’t read it to the end!

It was love at first sight when I read the blurb for this novel, it had everything I wanted; a deconstruction of a fairytale, and hints of a feminist theme, all whilst erring on the dark side. A little like the novel however, the love waned a little as I read on.

Firstly, my initial negative thoughts. Essentially, it wasn’t what I was expecting, and whilst in large part that’s on me and my own expectations, I also found it hard to care about the fate of Cinderella. She was very vanilla, weak and a bit pathetic, I found myself endlessly frustrated with her as she began a seemingly never ending cycle of making the wrong decisions based on her own fantasies. The blurb had me believe that she was a strong woman on a quest of self discovery, pulling herself from this marriage she was unhappy in the most dark of ways, going against grain of fairy-tales by turning to evil.

However – and this is the huge positive….I got past these expectations and intrigued by the beautiful story telling, the language akin to that I’ve grown up with in fairytales, I continued to read, wondering what The Charmed Wife was going to deliver.

And I’m very glad I stuck with it to the end, because the ending makes sense of the confusion throughout and the penny drops as everything suddenly becomes clear, connections are made and the picture shifts entirely.

This is so much more than a fairy tale. This is a story of what happens when the shiny veneer of fantasy is scratched and of what lies beneath. It’s about the lies we’re told, and the ones we tell ourselves. Most of all it’s about realising that love and happiness comes in many different forms, and not necessarily the one that we’re sold from birth.

This is not a book of instant gratification, it’s one I found that I needed to stick with and trust in. The narrative is beautifully written and kept me reading, pulling me in, lulling me along, but once I reached the end and everything made sense, I had an overwhelming feeling of wanting to flip back to the beginning and start all over. It’s a little bit weird, a bit trippy at times, and I adored the little mouse interludes (despite being petrified of them in real life, I developed a fondness for this particular rodent civilisation).

The Charmed Wife, although not quite what I expected, actually delivered something far better; more intelligent and insightful. If you enjoy your fairy tales with a bitter twist of reality, this could be for you.

This is a really interesting concept: what happens if your happy-ever-after isn't happy?

After being married to Prince Roland for twelve years, Cinderella goes looking for another potion. However, this time she doesn't want him to fall in love with her, she wants him dead.

I loved the feminist touches to this book, alongside a lot of references to other fairytales! Sometimes I wanted it to be a little bit more pacy, but overall I enjoyed it.

I didn't really know what to expect when I started this novel. I was on a kick for a fairytale retelling and I thought the concept was interesting. However, sadly I didn't enjoy this novel. The story was inconsistent in its chronology and I found it difficult to follow at times. I also did not enjoy the interruption of the mice story and felt that they would've served better separate from the main story. Having it interrupting the main story pulled me out of the world. The characters were never really fleshed out and remained two-dimensional.

As I have already stated, I did enjoy the concept, and the twist put an interesting spin on the retelling. However, the execution of the story let it down, and overall I didn't enjoy the story.

I enjoyed this book. The characters and settings seem familiar to those who enjoy fairy tales. . The modern take on the fairytale for adults gives intriguing reading. The main protagonist is confused, betrayed by her husband although she doesn’t know it, and in search of deeper meaningful relationship with her husband: somebody who is just not interested in her...…

Sadly, this book was just not for me. While I like the concept of it, I really didn't enjoy the writing style. The lack of linearity/chronology completely threw me off, I was so confused by the changes in time - we were in the past, but also going even further at times, which was never clarified by a date or subtitle outlining the time change. The constant change between using 'I' and 'she' for our main character in different timelines was confusing for me, too. While some people enjoyed it, I had absolutely no interest in the bracketed and italicised story of the mice, which was jarring and pulled me out of the story whenever it popped up. Conceptually, it had promise, but I personally didn't like the way it was executed!

As someone who LOVES fairytales and a 'Happily ever after', this book certainly caught my attention when I realised it was a twist on the original Cinderella tale we all know so well.
This story takes place 135 years later, and explores the history of Cinderella's marriage in her own perspective, which had me well and truly hooked.
I loved how the author managed to intertwine both modern and past worlds as the story progressed, and with the addition of acknowledging other tales along the way really deepened this fantastic storyline.
I really enjoyed this new take on the classic tale, and I would honestly recommend it highly to any other fairytale lovers like myself!

I loved this original take on Cinderella. I'm a big fan of fairy tale reimaginings but in a growing genre Grushin still manages to be utterly original and very modern. Her Cinderella is 13 and a half years into her marriage with Price Charming but life is not all she imagined. With two children anda distant husband, she takes matters into her own hands and turns to a witch to solve her problems. But her solution isn't a love potion, she wants the Prince dead. Her visit to the witch behind a quest to right her wrongs but as Cinderella journeys through a land of magic and misery she begins to realise that nothing and no-one is quite what it seems. What is her real life?

Grushin weaves a story that creates a complex tapestry of folklore, magical realism and post-modernism in which neither reader or characters can trust what they see. The timelines resolve slowly and worlds shift and morph into new forms allowing Grushin to fully utilise her impressive ability with language and style. It's clever, it's modern, is funny and the subplot revolving around Cinder's fairytale mice is brilliant.

I loved the premise of this book which is all about what happens after happily ever after. This was a really enjoyable and different read.

I loved seeing Cinderella deal with a long term relationship after all they do take work. And just because they got there happily ever after does not mean that every moment after that will be happy. Not at all. But this book walks you through Cinderella’s life as she sees it and includes twists and turns, dark magic and everything you would want from a fairytale.

Really entertaining and quick read.

Well, this was unusual!
I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy it, for a start - it’s so different from anything else I read.
When her fairytale palace becomes a prison, Cinderella looks for an escape.
This is a story of dreams and nightmares, very reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland.
One of those books that I quite enjoyed, but I was glad when I finished it!

This book was very odd, but in a good way. I didn't really know what to expect from this story before i got into it so i just let myself get carried by it, and it was a good choice. This is fantasy but in the old fairytale kind of way. The setting was pretty good and i liked the fact that we see the Cinderella story after 13 years of marriage and how life turned out to be. But even though i liked the premise and the setting of the book i wasn't a fan of the characters, especially Cinderella who was pretty unlikeable. I also wasn't a fan of all the shaming (weight, age, appearance) that was in the novel.

I think I am the wrong audience for this book. I picked it up because I love fantasy and a good fairy-tale retelling, but honestly this is neither. There are parts of the book that I found utterly charming, such as how the weather seems to match Cinderella's mood and the talking. I was particularly taken with the many incarnations of Nibbles and Brie and loved this sub-plot to the main story. As much as I enjoyed the beginning, the way the story unfolded was disappointing, and ultimately I think the blurb is misleading, although I can see how it would be difficult to write a blurb that doesn't give too much away. The truth of the story was revealed too late and the princess's real issues felt as though they were swept under the carpet in a hurried wrapping up of the story.

Does happily ever after *really* solve everything?

The short, blunt answer is no, of course not. The long answer is The Charmed Wife by Olga Grushin. This novel is an exciting and frankly refreshing look at the ‘after’ in happily ever after. The story revolves around Cinderella’s life after she’s married to the Prince and gave birth to their children and all is not how she imagined despite hoping that true love would prevail.

The reader will be easily transported to a world of fairy tales that exists within our world, yet magic is not the cure all it shows itself to regularly be in all our favourite Disney films. The way Grushin explores the themes of love vs lust and really shows what ‘true love’ or what it should beis really fascinating. Her exploration of love and hate are also so well written, the nuance of her writing shows that hate can isolate you and keep you, just as much as love can.

The beginning of the story is perhaps a little slow for some, but once I was able to read through the first few chapters, I was suitably hooked and found I could not relinquish the story until I had finished it! With the examination of the traditional fairy tale itself (why the prince gets all the maidens to try on the shoe- would anyone do as long as they fit? And examining the Fairy godmother rather closely), we really see an element not shown in the original tale of Cinderella; reality. A realism that works with bringing her story into the modern world and showing the fantasy for what it really is.

A really interesting read for anyone who has questioned the original fairytale and a great look at what might have happened 13.5 years later.

There was a few things about this book I really liked: most notably the subversive blend between fantasy genre in which Cinderella was set, and a almost contemporary approach on unhappy marriages and the after of Happily Ever Afters.

Whilst I knew this plot included Cinderella with a murderous intent to ditch her hubbie, it came as a surprise other more adult elements of this story made an appearance, turning what I thought might be a story of female empowerment into something a bit different.

Unfortunately, that's kind of where my praise ends.

It was well written, and I think there's nothing contextually wrong with the story- it just wasn't for me.

Towards the second half, there was a omnipresent discussion of divorce and custody, which took away from the fantasy elements I expected to see a lot more- and also felt soft compared to the premise of Matiricide. I was expecting a far darker tale, about love and contempt, and it fell through in this respect for me.

Sometimes I just get a strong craving for a strange fairytale retelling and I knew that The Charmed Wife would fit that bill. I’ve seen very little publicity for it so I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect but it’s exactly the kind of book where you probably should just dive in.

It has been 13 years since Cinderella married her prince. They have two children together but she is far from happy. One night, she seeks out the help of a witch who can provide a variety of potions and Cinderella finds herself at a crossroads -does she want to fall back in love with her husband or does she want him dead?

Our heroine is at a major crossroads in her life and this manifests both physically and metaphorically in the book. It’s where she consults with both her Fairy Godmother (the good) and the Witch (the bad) within her and she returns to it again and again as time runs out. I thought this was done really cleverly and is the perfect fairytale-esque way of depicting a difficult decision being made in action.

It’s also very funny in places! The Witch in particular is a great source of humour and she actually came across as a quirky, eccentric old lady rather than an evil entity. Of course, she is also a physical representation of our heroine’s dark side, so I took that to mean that although we may have dark thoughts sometimes, very few of us are intrinsically evil.

There is also a wealth of humour in the mousey subplot. Cinderella’s mice friends Brie and Nibbles (and their many successors!) have their own lives and problems and we’re very lucky to be privy to them in the book’s little asides. They were such adorable characters and I laughed out loud at some of these episodes. It was a really lovely, whimsical addition that could easily have been omitted from the story because it doesn’t add anything at all to the main story but I’m so glad it was there!

When our heroine leaves her home, she stays with her sister Melissa whose life has been blighted by tragedy and yet she enjoys a wonderful loving marriage. Although she feels guilty about it, it’s only by spending time away from her family unit that our heroine finally starts to find herself again. This leads her to take jobs for other fairytale characters -Sleeping Beauty and the Twelve Dancing Princesses make appearances. I adored how seamlessly these worlds were woven into the narrative and it was so much fun to see these classic characters in a modern, subverted setting. Distinctly different but still wholly recognisable.

The Charmed Wife is a fun, strange blending of genres that is an amalgamation of stories, all leading to the same end. Stories that children have been told for centuries that are somehow relevant to, and in some cases mirror, real adult lives. The end does drop you quite suddenly out of the magic as you realise what was behind the spells and potions but I guess that’s a lesson for life too. When you first fall in love and settle down with someone, it is magical and beautiful. Only time and gradual dissatisfaction can cause that to fade. Pick it up if you’re looking for a unique, witty take on a break-up story.

The Charmed Wife is not a bad book – it’s not a great book but it’s not bad. I toyed with the idea of giving this a 2.5-star rating but upped it to 3 because I was genuinely invested to see how the story ended.

This was a quick paced, easy to read book with nothing too complex with the prose. To talk about the story in great detail gives away a plot twist so if you don’t want to be spoiled best not read any further.


***SPOILER***



This wasn’t the fairy-tale retelling ‘sequel’ it was originally blurbed to be. Not that I mind because I enjoyed the twist but it does make for a different kind of book and I can imagine the shift will displease a lot of people.

Cinderella isn’t Cinderella at all. We’re told that Cinderella is seeking out a witch (and trying to be dissuaded by her fairy godmother) to cast a killing spell on the not-so Prince Charming. We experience the typical fairy-tale land with talking frogs and woodsmen and twelve dancing princesses and a bit of everything else in this fairy-tale kitchen sink to hammer the point home.

The truth is that ‘Cinderella’ is a woman in New York City in the middle of a messy and complicated divorce with her husband who is using her various mental health complications against her. As a form of escapism from her real life our MC retreats into a fantasy world, casting herself as Cinderella.

This part is actually cleverly done with hints being dropped from the beginning that not everything is as it seems but only really coming to light about 75% of the way in. This is not a deconstructed fairy-tale akin to ‘Into the Woods’ but is about a woman learning to overcome her destructive coping methods and learning to be the master of her own choices after casting herself as a downtrodden ‘victim’ all her life.

If you’re expecting the former and not liking the latter then this will be a disappointing book turn of events. If you don’t mind a shift in genre and perspective then you’ll get on with this a lot better.

I upped this to 3 because I enjoyed the story shift and felt it worked and you’re floating outside of ‘Cinderella’s head enough to not be absorbed into her subjective viewpoint. Like I said, it was not complicated in its writing so it’s not going to rate high on a list of books that cover mental health as a topic and I was interested enough to see if this would have a happy ending of sorts.

The one thing I will say is the sections with the mice are abysmal. I really didn’t like them. They added nothing to the plot and I skipped through the majority when I realised there was no point to them aside from taking up book space. In honesty, it was these sections which almost made this a 2-star rating.

Thank you to Netgalley for my arc!
I got drawn to this as another tale of Cinderella and thought it would take me back to the magical world.
However I just didn't understand this book at all?!
Is it supposed to be in the future or now or is it still a traditional fairytale? Was it the same character narrating all the way though as I couldn't tell?
I couldn't tell what was real and what wasn't and the story just didn't flow. I thought it was a traditional tale but that the Prince wasn't what she was expecting but then she ends up in New York with a mobile phone and a lawyer and I couldn't quite work out how she ended up there?
For me this book just made no sense and left me completely confused and disappointed!

Hmmm… for me, this is one of those instances where the author got overwhelmed with a premise and ideas that they were unable to successfully execute. As a result, we have a novel that needs more work, tighter plotting and editing, and even maybe a significant streamlining of ideas.

What we have in The Charmed Wife is the reimagining of Disney’s Cinderella. This isn’t alien territory – contemporary retelling of fairy tales is somewhat commonplace (hello, Maleficent, Ever After) – but Olga saw her retelling as one that not only dragged Cinderella into the 21st century, but also blurred the lines between the fairy-tale and our reality.

In fairness, the book starts off well. It is divided into two halves and I really enjoyed the first – a witty, well-observed takedown of Disney’s animated classic – and I loved how Olga’s slant reframed the charming dancing teapots as controlling, the Fairy Godmother’s potions as uppers and downers, and Cinderella’s pet mice as fighting legacies and battles of their own.

But we lose all this in a second half that is not as clever as it thinks. Olga’s attempts to draw in other characters is not smooth, the blurring of realities feels more jarring than effortless, and an entire section feels less an homage to Angela Carter and more outright cribbing.

For me, this book overstays its welcome, drags through the whole of the second half, and its conclusion is flat and not well thought through. But, worse, not one of the female characters in this novel ever blossoms into anything more than two-dimensional reductive stereotypes. Somewhat ironic that a contemporary retelling of a story full of stereotypes does nothing to dispel that damaging legacy.