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Title details for Glass Slippers, Ever After, and Me by Julie Wright - Available

Glass Slippers, Ever After, and Me

by Julie Wright
Caroline Shaffer
Audiobook
9 of 17 copies available
Borrow Listen to a sample Listen to a sample
9 of 17 copies available

Charlotte Kingsley loves to write and dreams of having her reimagined fairy tales published, but she keeps getting rejected over and over. And to top it all off, her best friend, Anders, gets engaged, making her realize she's going to lose the Prince Charming who lives next door. After yet another rejection letter, Charlotte decides to switch gears. What if she wrote a book about celebrating women for who they really are instead of trying to create a fantasy world for them to visit? She could call it The Cinderella Fiction, fill it with practical advice for living authentically, become ridiculously successful, and then find the confidence to tell Anders how she feels before it's too late.

Encouraged with her plan, Charlotte's new book practically writes itself, and a small publisher offers to publish it. As it's a small company with limited resources, Charlotte decides to sink money into hiring a premier publicity firm to make her book a bestseller. She also discovers that Anders has called off his engagement and wants to try a relationship with Charlotte. Suddenly her fairy tale dreams seem to be coming true.

However, Charlotte's publicist has very specific ideas about how to market the book—and the author. Charlotte, with her average looks, cluttered apartment, and penchant for ice cream, must undergo a total transformation in a social media makeover. People who see Charlotte through a carefully curated Instagram account will relate and naturally want to buy her book.

At first, Charlotte is excited to enter this fantasy world and play "dress up," and Anders reluctantly agrees to go along with it, even though it means he's largely out of the picture. But the toll of her new life soon proves exhausting. Telling women to "be authentic" even while she herself is undergoing elaborating staging to get just the right image makes her feel like a fraud. Meanwhile, her relationship with Anders is falling apart, since he suspects their relationship is just another one of her carefully curated images.

Charlotte must decide what she believes in: the fairy tale persona or the woman Anders has always loved—before he's gone forever.

  • Creators

  • Series

    Proper Romance Contemporary

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    January 20, 2020

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781094067056
      • File size: 278534 KB
      • Duration: 09:40:16

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      August 19, 2019
      Wright (Lies Jane Austen Told Me) spins a modern-day and very meta Cinderella tale. Aspiring author Charlotte Kingsley lives in Boston and writes ad copy for an eyewear company as she continues to get rejection letters for her fairy tales. Whenever a rejection upsets her, she leans on her friend Anders Nilsson, and soon a romance blossoms. Charlotte is inspired to write nonfiction and takes time off from her day job to work diligently on a book about living an authentic life, believing that all of her dreams have come true when a small press agrees to publish it. But her freelance publicist—whose fee has consumed every penny Charlotte can scrape up—wants to control every aspect of Charlotte’s life and believes she’ll be more marketable on social media if she pretends to be single, threatening her new romantic relationship with Anders. Charlotte’s friend Lillian Christie, a fellow author full of wise advice, provides her with the stabilizing force to remain true to herself. This fast-paced, lighthearted romance also carries a moral lesson about falsehoods getting in the way of the quest for true happiness.

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Caroline Shaffer narrates this contemporary friends-to-lovers fairy tale. When aspiring author Charlotte Kingsley receives yet another book rejection, she is inspired to write a bestseller about the myth of real-life fairy tales. As her writing career soars, her relationship with her best friend and neighbor, Anders, deepens into more. Shaffer gives an energetic performance, keeping the listener engaged with the characters' exploits. She navigates both the life-changing events and emotional roller coaster Charlotte experiences, managing to maintain the humor in the story without sounding contrived. In voicing the characters, Shaffer maintains clear differentiation. A modern-day Cinderella story, this is a delightful listen for those who like a sweet romance complete with a happily-ever-after. A.L.S.M. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
    • Booklist

      Starred review from September 15, 2019
      Writer of reimagined fairy tales Charlotte Kingsley is devastated when she receives yet another rejection for her latest book and is caught off-guard when she finds out that her best friend and downstairs neighbor, Anders, may be engaged. Angry as can be, she takes time off from her copy writing job, pounds out a self-help book, and sends it to her dream agent. She is shocked when she is invited to New York and ends up with a seven-figure advance. Alas, the publicist changes her name and makes her change her appearance, household furnishings, and social media accounts, dumping all her previous followers. Even though she has never wanted to marry or have kids she is happy when Anders, who wants a family, decides not to marry his girlfriend, and the two best friends start dating. Family issues arise, and while getting everything she ever thought she wanted, Charlotte feels as though true happiness may be slipping away. Anders is a hunk who is also thoughtful, kind, smart, generous, and loyal, but can Charlotte have him and her career, too? This sweet, heartfelt tale of authentic characters facing intriguing challenges is at once very romantic and charmingly chaste.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)

    • Kirkus

      October 1, 2019
      When a writer's life is turned upside down by sudden success, she finds that getting everything she wants comes at a price. Aspiring author Charlotte "Lettie" Kingsley writes fairy tales and hopes to be published. When she gets one more rejection, her feelings of pique lead her to an inspired idea: She'll write a self-help book called The Cinderella Fiction that will encourage readers to live their best lives. She takes vacation days from her full-time job--which consists of writing "descriptions about fun and sassy eyewear that leads to a fun and sassy life, which is actually the most fictitious thing I've ever written"--and pours all the life lessons she's learned from her own disappointments into the book. Amazingly, she attracts the attention of her dream agent, Jennifer Apsley. Meanwhile, Lettie and Anders, her Scandinavian hottie neighbor, have realized their feelings about each other have moved beyond friendship, and Lettie, who's never been interested in a long-term relationship, decides to give one with Anders a chance. Lettie's agent has big plans for the book and has created a team to make it a bestseller, including a PR firm that demands a complete makeover for Lettie. From wardrobe to apartment to a new nickname, "Char," every detail is changed to create an image that inspires admiration and a legion of followers. However, it also means that her real-life relationships are affected, and the new Char is so different from the old Lettie that she'll have to sift through what she wanted, and what she's gained, so she can live her own best life, authentically. Wright updates "Cinderella" with a modern twist and smart, satisfying details.

      COPYRIGHT(2019) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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