| Author: | Angie Grigaliunas |
| Genre(s): | ➡️ Fantasy ➡️ Fairy Tale Retellings ➡️ Clean Romance ➡️ Teenage Reads |
| Series? Series Order: Series Title: Can it be read as a standalone? | ✅ Yes Book 5 Once Upon a Prince ✅ Yes |
| Goodreads Rating: | ⭐ 4.38 (116 ratings; 65 reviews) |
| Personal Rating: | ⭐ 3 / 5 Overall |
🛑 Spoiler Warning 🛑
I might be recounting events, characters, and themes so THIS MIGHT BE FULL OF SPOILERS.
If you’d like to read a review with the spoilers hidden, kindly scroll to the bottom to read my spoiler-free review or head to my Goodreads post. You don’t need an account to read it. 🙂
BLURB
A bitter prince. A rejected servant. A revelation that could change everything.
When Prince Kirran of the autumn fey returns home from war, all he wants is food, drink, and sleep. But with his older brothers dead, he’s now the only heir — and he needs a wife. As soon as possible. Which wouldn’t be a problem, except that he’s not over the girl who shattered his heart seven years ago.
Half-human Alia avoids her noble stepfamily by living among the fey king’s servants. Her life of anonymity serves her well and helps her forget how Kirran betrayed her — that is, until they’re thrust back into each other’s lives.
Their hostile reunion leaves both reeling — until they realize their memories of their breakup don’t match, and neither is lying.
With mere days before Kirran has to choose a bride, they must put aside their hurts and fight to uncover the truth.
And in the process, maybe, just maybe, they’ll find a second chance to fight for each other.
The Midnight Prince, a retelling of Cinderella, is part of Once Upon A Prince, a multi-author series of clean fairy tale retellings. Each standalone story features a swoony prince fighting for his happily ever after.
🌟Review (3/5) 🌟
It’s Cinderella 1 and Cinderella 3 mashed in a good old, clean, romance retelling.
Plot
This is a unique retelling of the classic fairytale. It was closer to Cinderella 3 than the original Cinderella storyline mainly because of the memory alteration plot point.
The meat of the plot revolves around the misunderstanding that caused Prince Kirran and Alia’s breakup and their quest to know the truth. However, it’s great that other plot points were able to shine through as well. There was enough information to flesh out the world, discuss aspects of Prince Kirran and Alia’s families, some political structuring that can build a promising sequel, and interesting side characters that can have their own spinoffs such as Alia’s best friend and the captain.
The pacing is good. The main story happens over the course of three to four days. The flashbacks and POV switches added a great layer of storytelling. As for the ending, the story attempted to address that a 7-year pain shouldn’t be mended so quickly yet it does it anyway. If you expect and love an HEA ending then this won’t be a huge issue in the reading experience. The ending would just feel a little more generous than deserved but it’s tolerable. In the words of Disney’s Cinderella movie’s lead: “I do love a happy ending.”
Characters
The characters resonate more with a general teenage audience than someone like me in her … 20s (wow, sudden realization there for me). The reason I say that is because the characters are pretty straightforward about their personalities and motivations. The angst isn’t too intense and there are some sprinkles of real-life lessons. And the actions and emotional turmoil in this book reflect the (im)maturity of the characters appropriately.
“But it’s still beautiful, isn’t it? Even if it’s different?”
Prince Kirran
My only conflict is that some characters felt underdeveloped.
For example, the stepmother, from Alia and Prince Kirran’s narrations, was painted to be cruel. However, she still sent Alia beautiful dresses. I know Alia says it’s because she was still part of the family and she didn’t want an embarrassment, but there were other ways to shun her without being generous. Besides, allowing her to have her own job as a servant contradicts that sentiment. Also, she had no problem giving out the ball’s events as she recollected it to Alia when the latter came into her home to interrogate her about it. I don’t think someone cruel would’ve just given that information especially since it was an obvious event related to Alia reconnecting with the prince. If she was really so selfish that she wanted one of her biological daughters to marry the prince, she could’ve at least struck some sort of bargain that would fall to her advantage.
Another example is the king. He was self-centered, judgemental, and elitist but he turned around so quickly in the end. He went as far as joking and laughing with Alia despite his stance in the entire book and Kirran’s entire life that she was never worthy because of her status. He and Alia didn’t interact enough for Alia to earn his approval so it felt really unearned.
Recommendation
I recommend this to readers who are looking for:
- A good Cinderella retelling that involves magic
- Decent world-building
- Romance-focused novel
- Second chances/reunion
- Quick story-telling pace
- Clean, idyllic, light romance
Check this out on Amazon! It’s currently free for Kindle Unlimited users.
The Stray Reader 
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