Cinderella Fairy Tale Retellings

Is Cinderella one of your favorite fairy tales? Then I guarantee this book list will have your next favorite read as it has a wide range of genres (contemporary, fantasy, sci-fi, historical) and so many stories with a great twist on the original story!

The best part is, this full list was built from recommendations from readers on Facebook so it think of them as a book rec from your friend!

As a side note, while I enjoy the Disney Cinderella movie, I am an active anti-fan of Cinderella’s prince because he is so useless! This is why I gave the prince in my retelling (Cinderella and the Colonel) a much more active role. My version of Cinderella is the third book in my fairy tale retelling series and it's available to read in Kindle Unlimited or buy on Amazon right now!

But back to the retelling list! I’ll start with some of my favorite Cinderella retellings, followed by tons more suggestions from my followers on social media. (There are 100 books in this full list!)

Here are my favorite Cinderella stories:

Ella Enchanted by Gail Carson Levine – Can a Cinderella retelling be more perfect than this story? Tons of fun world building in this book as well (the movie doesn’t give it justice).

Just Ella by Margaret Peterson Haddix – Unusual in that it tells the story of what comes after the big slipper reveal. The book cover makes it look like a modern story but it’s actually a YA epic fantasy world setting.

The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey  – This retelling isn’t squeaky clean, but it’s a fun reimagining of Cinderella that puts a really interesting twist on the typical fairy tale world retellings take place in.

And of course, there is Cinderella and the Colonel by K.M. Shea  🙂 (Buwahah, yes, a daring plug of my own story.)

And now for a mega list of more suggestions from my reader community! (I asked for no spice and low language recs but check the reviews if that is a concern for you.)

Of Glass and Glamour by Chanda Hahn

Cinder by Marissa Meyer

Princess of Glass by Jessica Day George

Bewitching by Alex Flinn

Before Midnight: A Cinderella Story by Cameron Dokey

Cinder Luna by Marie Soleil

Cinder & Ella – by Kelly Oram

The Captive Maiden Melanie Dickerson

Meet Me at Midnight by Monique Brasher

Ashes by MK Harkins

Ella & the Billionaire's Ball by Catelyn Meadows

Kingdom of Cinders by Deborah Grace White

Traitor’s Masque by Kenley Davidson

Cinderella by Jenni James

The Ugly Stepsister by Arisa May

Ella by Jessilyn Stewart Peaslee

Cinders, Stars, and Glass Slippers by Brittany Fichter

Soot and Slipper by Kate Stradling

Midnight’s Curse by Tricia Mingerink

The Mystery Princess by Melanie Cellier

The Midnight Prince by Angie Grigaliunas

Chasing Cinders by Elizabeth D. Marie

Out of the Ashes Alicia Buck

Charm by J.A Armitage

Fated by Kaylin Lee

Isabella and the Slipper by Victorine E. Lieske

Geekerella by Ashley Poston

Phoenix & Ashes by Mercedes Lackey

Ellie and the Prince by J.M. Stengl

The Amaranth Enchantment by Julie Berry

Enchanted by Alethea Kontis

Princess of Midnight by Lucy Tempest

Disenchanted: The Trials of Cinderella by Megan Morrison 

Back by Midnight by Dee J. Stone

The Reluctant Godfather by Allison Tebo

Riches to Rags by Casey Bond

The Stepsister's Lament by S.R. Nulton

Cinders By Finley Aaron

A Lady Most Fitting by Sienna Peake

Met by Midnight by Janeen Ippolito

The Vampire's Masquerade by Nellie Peters

The Midnight Heiress by Ashtyn Newbold

So this is Love by Elizabeth Lim

The Glass Gate by Hanna Sandvig

Cold Hearted by Serena Valentino

Brass Carriages and Glass Hearts by Nancy Campbell Allen

The Stepsister and the Slipper by Nina Clare

The Blood Spell by C. J. Redwine

Shard of Glass by Emily Deady

Glass Midnight by Kayla Eshbaugh

Heart of Glass by Laura Burton and Jessie Cal

The Midnight Blizzard by Mary Mecham

Cinderstellar by J M Page

The Earl of Highmott Hall by Nina Clare

The Coronation Ball by Melanie Cellier

Not Cinderella’s Type by Jenni James

Callie and the Pumpkin Seed by Sarah Beran

Bella at Midnight by Diane Stanley

The Peasant's Dream by Melanie Dickerson

Stepsister by Jennifer Donnelly

At Midnight by Suzanna Fowers

If the Boot Fits by Karen Witemeyer

Princess of Mirrors by A. G. Marshall

Hidden at Starshine by Leialoha Humpherys

Ella & the Seven Dwarves by Sara Farnsworth

Bride of the Midnight Prince by Anastasis Blythe

Framed in Florals by Abigail Manning

To Shatter a Slipper by Abigail Manning

A Lady Most Alluring by Amy Newbold

Ashen by H.L. Burke

The Other Slipper by Kenechi Udogu

The Secret Slipper by Amanda Tero

The Stroke of Eleven by Kyle Robert Shultz

Curse of the Midnight King by Yakira Goldsberry

Dragon's Maid by Kimberly Rogers

Dance of Hearts by Byrd Nash

Mask of Scarlet by Sarah Pennington

Sinful Cinderella by Anita Valle

Reign by Chanda Hahn

Iron by Madisyn Carlin

Of Stars and Ashes by K.M. Carroll

Cursed Beauty by Dorian Tsukioka

The Swan and the Slipper by Sarah Beran

Once Upon a Midnight Clear by Michelle Miles

A Midnight Hope by Stefanie Lozinski

Once Upon a Dragon by Amberlyn Holland

Football Stars Don't Date Cinderella by Lucy Winton

Slippers and Thorns by Erin Halbmaier

Rook Di Goo by Jenni Saur

Of Glass and Cinders by Tiani Davids

Fae of Cinders by Cara E. Ruegg

Cinders of Glass by Celeste Baxendell

Legacy of Glass by Melanie Cellier

Flaming the Cinders by Katelyn Daliath

Ella and the Elf by Anabelle Raven

Pumpkin War by Kendra Elise Ardnek

Crown and Cinder by Kendra Elise Ardnek

Whew, that was a lot of books! I hope you found something new and happy reading!

If you love other fairy tales too I have a whole series of these blog posts featuring book recommendations and lists of book retellings. Click here to start reading or use the Book Lists category to filter them.

Reign of Magic Available in Paperback!

Meg has done it again! She broke through my wall of excuses and wove together the paperback version of Reign Of Magic! (Which, Meg describes as being big enough to beat off a mugger with.)

Amazon.com | All other Stores

The best news is that Amazon has already linked it up to the ebook page, so if you want your own copy just click on the paperback option on the Amazon page.

If you get it, you best prepare to do some weightlifting. This thing is massive. I was skimming through it while lying down and dropped it on my nose. Many regrets were had.

Once again a big thank you to Meg for putting this together, and a huge thank you to all the Champions who were patiently waiting for this. I hope you don’t smack yourself in the face with it! 😉 Thanks for reading, and have a lovely day!

Timeless Fairy Tales: Story Timelines!

The Timeless Fairy Tales book series spans 11 books, over 25 short stories, and two spin off book series (The Snow Queen Saga and the unfinished Fairy Tale Enchantress series). And because a lot of these books/short stories overlap it can be confusing to keep track of what is happening when!

So if you want some help figuring out the chronological timeline of the Timeless Fairy Tales series, or if you want to make sure you didn't miss any of the short stories, or maybe you just love extra book details then I have THREE great resources for you!

Warning: All of these timelines have spoilers as they also reference events that happen in the books, not just the book titles!

General Timeless Fairy Tale Events Timeline

This was written by me (author K.M. Shea) created this handy-dandy timeline for reference. I didn’t want to use a specific year timeline (I have a horrible time keeping our world history in line, it would be even worse trying to make up my own year system) so “year zero” is when trouble begins stirring on the continent. It's a general overview, so if you want more details check out the other timelines below

Click here to look at the General Timeline!

Detailed Events Timeline by Season and Location - by Liz

Champion reader Liz created a beautifully detailed–color coded by season–timeline of events that include everything from the books and short stories. She also created sortable columns for the specific event location, the book/books it’s found in or mentioned in, the time of year–seriously, this thing is a work of art.

If you want a time-accurate reading order you can use the "book it occurs in" column! This column also shows just how much Timeless Fairy Tales and the Fairy Tale Enchantress series are intertwined.

Click here to look at Liz's full detailed events timeline by season and location and use the helpful sorting options.

Detailed and Color Coded Events Timeline - by Mikayla

The second timeline option was also made by a Champion reader! Mikayla created an accurately detailed timeline at it is also color coded and she divides everything out by country! If you’re trying to get a better picture of what each country in the Timeless Fairy Tales series is going through at a specific time, this is going guide will be invaluable!

Just like Liz's timeline, Mikayla included all the books and short stories, and she even included the events from my free novella, The Princess and the Pea.

Click here to look at Mikayla's full detailed events timeline by country with color coding.

Liz and Mikayla deserve a special shout out for all the time and effort they’ve put into their masterpieces and mad props because they’ve sorted through events and times that I as the author am not even 100% certain about the timing! This means you might not necessarily agree with the placement of all details depending how you interpret the books, but these are really fantastic guides and both of these Champions deserve our thanks as a community! (Thank you, Mikayla and Liz–we appreciate all your efforts!) This is another example of the way you Champions never fail to amaze me, and nothing makes me happier than witnessing the ways you guys share, create, and come together.

If you'd like a map to make it easier to visualize where the events of the Timeless Fairy Tales series are taking place I have a continent wide map of all the countries, and also a country specific map for The Snow Queen Series. You can find both of them on the Fairy Tales Extra page (click here).