Godmother: The Secret Cinderella Story by Carolyn Turgeon

Godmother was a book with a twist ending. There was moderate foreshadowing that hinted at the ending. I guessed it might end that way at some points. It's a little disorienting that the author presented something as reality through pretty much the whole book only to take it all back in the last chapter. I hope I didn't give too much away there.

So the book is the story of Lillian, a former fairy godmother. She had been tasked with getting Cinderella to the ball to meet the prince. Because fairies obviously control the destinies of all humans. Lil screwed up and fell for the prince herself. As punishment for falling in love with a human and failing to unite Cinderella and the prince, Lil was banished from the fairy world and forced to live among humans.

One day, a young woman named Veronica comes into the bookstore where Lil works. Veronica is a very magnetic, outgoing, in my opinion, a wee bit annoying. Lil decides that she will play matchmaker with Veronica and her boss, George. George owns the bookstore and has rich parents who invited him to a ball, the perfect first date for the second Cinderella and her prince. By initiating this match, Lil hopes to repent for her past mistakes and return to the fairy world.

I enjoyed the narrative style of the book. Lil gives little bits and pieces of exactly what happened on the fateful night when Cinderella didn't actually go to the ball. For instance, we learn that Cinderella was actually a suicidal cutter. I honestly wanted to like this book more than I did. They were asking me to believe an old woman was a fairy and I did. They asked me to belive that everyone has the Cinderella fairy tale wrong, and I believed that too. Somewhere around emo Cinderella, fairy deities, winged old ladies, and winged old lady fairy masturbation, I have to stop believing. That's just gross.