THIEF LIAR LADY

An unlikely princess is driven by a secret political mission in Soria’s take on “Cinderella.”

Lady Aislinn and Prince Everett’s whirlwind romance was an instantaneous legend. An unknown noblewoman forced into servitude by her wicked stepmother and stepsisters sneaks into the prince’s birthday ball, they fall in love, he finds her by using the shoe she left behind, and so on and so on. Everyone in the kingdom of Solis knows the story. But stories so rarely tell the whole truth. In Lady Aislinn’s case, the truth is that she and her stepfamily schemed up the whole fairy tale, missing shoe and all, in order to get Aislinn married to the prince. That same wicked stepmother, Seraphina, has been training her stepdaughter and two daughters all their lives to be expert con artists and also to be so skilled in illegal magic that Aislinn knows how to cast a little spell to manipulate Prince Everett into falling for her. Seraphina’s goal is to secure wealth and security, but Aislinn has plans Seraphina doesn’t know about. Her motivation to secure her place in the Solisti royal family has little to do with money and jewels and more to do with a notorious political prisoner and the welfare of a downtrodden neighboring nation that Aislinn—supposedly—has no reason to care about. Soria effectively spins several layers of conspiracy here, and once the twists start coming they only keep building. While there is a somewhat perfunctory romance, far more interesting are Aislinn’s relationships with the many finely drawn female characters, including Seraphina, her daughters, Aislinn’s palace maid, and Mariana, the queen of Solis. And unlike fairy tales, which have clean moral lessons, this book is unafraid of the deep complications and compromises people in positions of real power and influence sometimes have to make in order to do what’s right.

A standout fairy-tale retelling.