Review – Cinder House

Posted August 1, 2025 by Nicky in Reviews / 7 Comments

Cinder House

by Freya Marske

Genres: Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 144
Rating: three-stars

Synopsis:
Sparks fly and lovers dance in this gorgeous, yearning Cinderella retelling from bestselling author Freya Marske—a queer Gothic romance perfect for fans of Naomi Novik and T. Kingfisher.

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.

Rediscover a classic fairy tale in this debut novella from "the queen of romantic fantasy" (Polygon).

I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

I found Freya Marske’s Cinder House a little slower to get started than I’d expected from a novella: it felt like more than half the book was setup (though important things did happen!) and then the ending had to happen at an absolute gallop. A little more time in the second half for a good head of longing to build up would have really helped the ending, though I’m trying not to say too much about that.

The bones of the story are Cinderella, but it’s also much more than that, with quite a bit of worldbuilding woven in. The politics of the world were a bit difficult to grasp from the vantage point we have, which honestly makes sense since, well, Ella’s a house. Kind of. Interestingly, from the buildup I guessed two possible endings, and in the end they were both sort of right (and both sort of wrong).

I did enjoy the world-building, and the way the story works out — the way Ella’s sisters torture her into compliance was very well thought out and described, for instance, it’s all very thoughtful — it just felt like the pacing was a touch off.

Rating: 3/5 (“liked it”)

Tags: book reviews, books, Freya Marske, romance, SF/F

Review – A Marvellous Light

Posted May 1, 2022 by Nicky in Reviews / 2 Comments

A Marvellous Light, Freya Marske

A Marvellous Light is really enjoyable, both the characters and their slow journey to trust and being willing to depend on each other, and the magic and worldbuilding. Sometimes in romantic fantasy the world seems sketched in to provide the backdrop for the relationship, but both are important here, and I’m just as fascinated to see more of the world and how magic works as I am to see Edwin and Robin deepen their relationship. (A sudden thought — I hope we do keep following them and don’t switch to another character’s related journey, as sometimes happens.)

Edwin is not trusting, too burned by his family and his status and his past relationships to really open himself up. Robin is perhaps a little too good to be true: loyal and loving and cheerful despite everything that’s happening to him and his own scars from his parents. It’s not hard to see how they’ll get together for a while, very early on, but it takes time to make it seem like they’re building something that will last. I thought it was beautifully done.

There are lots of fascinating glimpses of side characters, too, and I’d love to see more of Maud and especially more of Adelaide and Kitty.

But mostly I really want to get on with it and find out more about the contract, and the fae, and all that stuff that we barely understand in this book (because Edwin and Robin know nothing about it, except that they must figure out what the heck’s going on).