Review: Cinderella Screwed Me Over by Cindi Madsen

Thank you to Entangled Publishing for giving me an ARC of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Cinderella Screwed Me Over by Cindi Madsen

Dani's Rating: 5 stars

Format: ebook (pdf)

Pages: 311

Publication Date: October 22, 2013

Publisher: Entangled

Goodreads synopsis:

Darby Quinn has a bone to pick with Cinderella. Burned one too many times by ex-boyfriends, Darby has lost all belief in the happily-ever-after that the fairy-tale princess promised her. She's sworn off love, Prince Charmings, and happy endings and she's happy about it. Really. Or at least she was…until she met Jake, her gorgeous neighbor and the manager of her favorite restaurant. But Darby has rules about dating, ones she's culled from her years spent with so-called “princes,” and starting something with Jake would break all of them.

Charming, fun, and unwilling to give up on her, Jake doesn’t fit any of the profiles Darby has created from her case studies of ex-princes-gone-bad. Finally presented with her own Prince Charming, can Darby take a chance on a happily-ever-after?

Full of wit and sarcastic humor, Cinderella Screwed Me Over proves that sometimes the perfect love, like a perfect pair of shoes, is just within your grasp.

Dani's review:

When I saw an ARC sign-up email for this novel in my inbox, I immediately knew that I HAD to read it. The title, "Cinderella Screwed Me Over" reeled me in. How could this favorite fairytale princess, the poor and mistreated girl with the unexpected happily ever after that inspired a myriad of wannabe princesses across the world, "screw someone over"?

Darby Quinn grew up with divorced parents and a stepfather and stepbrothers. In a way, Darby herself was Cinderella. But did she get her Prince Charming? Nope. To the contrary, she's gone through a string of bad boyfriends or good boyfriends that have sadly moved away, leaving her to wallow in her sadness. Now in her mid/late twenties, she has transformed into a cynical woman who believes that relationships and love aren't meant to happen for her.

This was all before the perfect Jake steps into her life. He's handsome, charming, kind, and his last name is KNIGHT. Can you think of a better knight in shining armor? But...He's the owner (actually, co-owner, but same thing) of Darby's favorite restaurant, he lives in her apartment complex, and he's basically breaking ALL the rules she has set down for herself. After much courting, Darby decides to take a gamble on her anti-relationship stance, and well, the rest is history...

I love Cindi Madsen's writing style. Her sense of humor and her portrayal of how Darby thinks is phenomenal. She had me cracking up with many awkward scenes she put Darby through. Awkward scenes are one of my FAVORITE parts of books because they're just so funny! She also included "Case studies" that Darby wrote about how all her previous relationships went wrong, the Disney fairytale it paralleled, and the lessons she learned. Now that's original.

Darby and Jake's relationship was structured extremely well. My biggest pet peeve in reading is insta-love. Seriously, how is it possible that a guy and a girl can declare undying love for each other within the time frame of a month, get married, and have a happily ever after? Uh, that does not happen in reality. Lucky for me, this novel had a much more realistic relationship. At times, I wanted to scream at Darby for pushing away Jake and reverting to her "relationships suck, all men are pigs, I'm going to be a 40-year-old cat lady, blah blah blah) mindset. Please Darby, don't be so stubborn.

I also loved the way that each of the minor characters were developed. Each character, no matter the amount of pages they appeared in, had a significant role. For example, Darby's unfortunate and AWKWARD encounters with ex-boyfriends led into her case studies. The entire novel flowed so smoothly with wonderful transitions.

This is truly a fantabulous book. Cinderella Screwed Me Over is a heartwarming, laugh-out-loud, and sugary sweet novel with a whole lot of fairy tale allusions. If you're into chick flicks, cutesie romance books, or even NA books, this is your kind of book. Cinderella Screwed Me Over is totally PG-13 with NO detailed adult scenes. Definitely worth checking out. :)