Cinderella Ninja Warrior

Title: Cinderella Ninja Warrior

Series: Twisted Tales (Book #1)

Year: 2011

Author: Maureen McGowan

Summary: In this fast-paced story full of adventure and romance, Cinderella is more than just a servant girl waiting for her prince—she's a tough, fearless girl who is capable of taking charge of a dangerous situation. Seeking to escape the clutches of her evil stepmother, Cinderella perfects her ninja skills and magic talents in secret, waiting for the day when she can break free and live happily ever after. In a special twist, readers have the opportunity to make key decisions for Cinderella and decide where she goes next—but no matter the choice; the result is a story unlike any fairy tale you've ever read!

Review: If you went into this book with little to no expectations, it was a fun, easy read with some new twists to a favorite fairytale.

If you went into this book with any expectations regarding the title and cover image... well, prepare to be greatly disappointed.

Ninja Warrior... No Way. This Cinderella is a self-taught wizard and ninja in training, and nowhere near a ninja warrior. Additionally, she never once wields a sword or any sharp weapon of any kind (or a candle, come to think of it), and her two fights (outside of magic fights) are with wolves and a band of thieves and last for about a minute each. She has a few ninja-type scenes that require some cool acrobatics, but it's more like reading about a gymnast in a cop-off ninja warrior game show. Personally, I think they could have done a whole lot better titling this book and creating a cover for it.

Don't get me wrong. It's an awesome title and cover -- they just doesn't belong with this book.

The other big thing wrong with this book was the "choose your own path" adventure. First off, there were basically only three choices you as the reader got to make for Cinderella. And they all end the same way -- with the exact same ending. So, you're really not making any choices for her; you're just choosing how long it takes you to get to the ending scene. Second, the choices aren't varied at all. One choice should lead to drastically different results than another, but the choices are simple things that only take the reader to the next plot point in the story. What really got me was the first choice you made for Cinderella, where you have to choose whether or not to accept the invitation to the ball. If you're one of those daring people to choose "no ball," the book laughs at you a few pages later. "JK! She's going to the ball anyway, loser!" The choices you make really don't affect Cinderella at all.

Getting on my writer's soap box here: those kinds of choices say nothing more than "lazy author." It's as if the author couldn't decide to do this scene en route to the ball, or this scene en route to the ball, so what gives? Let's put both of them in, up the word count, and save some time! La.Zy.

Personally, I would have loved to see the whole choose your own path thing obliterated completely, and gotten those pages back to see more of Cinderella's adventure. More ninja stuffs. More sword action, rather than people fighting over wands.

The narrative style, honestly, was painful to read at first. There is a lot of information given in the first couple of pages, and the author's throwing it all at you without warning you to put on protective headgear. I realize she had to get into the story fast (given how much space later in the book she wastes on the no-true-choice adventure paths), but it was still painful.

The characters came across as very 2D. Cinderella was pretty stuck on rescuing herself, being a strong female, and all of that; ironically, she owes her whole rescue to her cat. Yes, she has some magical abilities and ninja moves, but both of those are developed thanks to the cat. Ty was such a flat character. He was flirty and full of himself while still wanting to help Cinderella out. The stepmother goes most of the book without a name; actually, quite a few characters remain nameless, as if the author didn't want to be bothered with naming them.

I apologize if I seem harsh. I just had so many emotions spilling over with this book, and I had to get them all out somewhere.

HOWEVER, I do think there are some redeeming qualities to this book. Imagine that. While a lot of the fairytale elements of Cinderella are watered down, a few of them were unique. For example, I liked how the author actually gave the stepmother a reason to keep Cinderella around, more than just, "Oh, I need an extra servant to boss around."

So, if you're wanting an easy read with some fun acrobatic scenes and magic sparkles, this is a Cinderella book to add to your list. Just don't have too many expectations getting into it.

Advisory: Some fantasy violence/fighting. Most of the fights are with wands, so characters are just throwing sparkles around, so it's never very scary.

Cinderella is training to be a wizard, as are several other characters in the book. At one point, she goes to a magic competition where wizards in training compete with and without wands. Magic here seems to be an ability that one is born with and must hone to actually use it with any luck. Wands are helpful to some spells, but magic appears to be mainly developed and used by sheer confidence and believing in one's self. (I may or may not have drowned in how many "believe in yourself" statements I read.)

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars