Cinder House

About the book

Ella is a haunting. Murdered at sixteen, her ghost is furiously trapped in her father's house, invisible to everyone except her stepmother and stepsisters. Even when she discovers how to untether herself from her prison, there are limits. She cannot be seen or heard by the living people who surround her. Her family must never learn she is able to leave. And at the stroke of every midnight, she finds herself back on the staircase where she died. Until she forges a wary friendship with a fairy charm-seller, and makes a bargain for three nights of almost-living freedom. Freedom that means she can finally be seen. Danced with. Touched. You think you know Ella's story: the ball, the magical shoes, the handsome prince. You're halfway right, and all-the-way wrong.

Description: publisher’s blurb via Hardcover

Where the score comes from

The sources average 7.9 across 48 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 21% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Rankings average of 7.8. That is how 8.0 comes out.

Reader voices

The most-liked reviews on Hardcover (credited to their authors).

• “In this Cinderella inspired story, Cinder is a ghost bound to the house she died in but later decides she still wants to experience the life that was taken from her. I mostly enjoyed this novella and the way the author really made it her own but two things really frustrated me. First, the marketing was massively misleading and did not deliver the specific romance they promised. It was marketed as "sapphic" and "queer" but it really isn't. Sure, there are a few details that fall under both categories but it's not central to the story at all. The main romance is M/F and "poly leaning" might be …”

  ★ 4/5SWR_Laura on Hardcover

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