Midnight Wings: A Science Fiction Retelling of Cinderella
by Ariele Sieling
Book 1 in the Rove City series
Rating: 4/5
I love retellings. I can’t get enough of them but place them in outer space and I was hooked! I am in love with this new world that Ariele Sieling has created! I can’t wait to read more in this series. This story is more novella length but it tells the story well and surprisingly, doesn’t feel rushed at the end.
El, short for Eleanor, basically works as a slave for her stepmother and two stepsisters. Besides doing all the household chores, errands and cooking, she works at her space station’s mechanic repair shop, but all the money goes to her stepmother. She dreams of being free and becoming a fighter pilot. In a world based on flight simulators and social rankings, she is the best pilot with the lowest social rankings and despairs of ever being truly free. When an opportunity to prove her prowess as a pilot comes up, will El have the courage to try for her dream or will her stepmother’s abuse provoke her to give up?
Who doesn’t love a Cinderella story set in a sci-fi world? Slightly Black Mirror-ish with the social ranking stuff, but I love the premise and enjoyed every second of this story. The romance actually gets a chance to develop and the fairy godmother characters are believable. El’s struggles are believable and are more the focus of the story than the romance, which was is refreshing.
Highly recommend if you love retellings and sci-fi.
My thanks to the author and BookSirens for an ARC of the book. All opinions expressed here are entirely my own. No positive review was expected and no compensation received.
