In Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister, Margarethe flees to her home country of Holland with her 2 daughters, Iris and Ruth, after her husband has been killed in England. Margarethe hopes that her family is still alive and will be able to take care of her small family. Upon arriving in Holland, she learns that her family is no more. She is then forced to beg for work door to door. Margarethe stumbles upon a painter's house who is willing to provide work and shelter for her family. Margarethe is given the task of taking care of the home. Ruth, who doesn't speak and appears to be dumb, is given the job of gathering flowers from a field every day for the Master to paint. And Iris, who is plain to look at but very smart, is told that she will be sitting for the Master, who will be painting her with the flowers.
When the painting is finished, the Master takes the painting, and Iris to the home of the man who is purchasing it. The man, Mr Van der Meer, loves the Masters work. He comissions the Master to paint a new picture featuring his young daughter Clara and Tulips. Van der Meer then says that he wants to take in Iris and her family to help around the house. He wants Iris to teach Clara English and befriend her. Margarethe, Iris, and Ruth move in to the Van der Meer house and slowly Clara and Iris become friends. Things aren't going as smoothly between Margarethe and Henrika (Mrs. Van Der Meer). Henrika eventually dies and Margarethe marries Mr. Van der Meer in order to provide a better life for her daughters. Clara is upset by the marriage and eventually takes to cleaning and helping out in the kitchen (by choice, not forced to).
When the Van der Meers lose their fortune by a trade gone bad, Margarethe tries her hardest to fix the unwelcome situation. She manages to obtain invitations to a party featuring the former wife of Henry VI and her godson Phillipe who is looking for a wife. She gets 4 invitations, enough for her daughters, her, and Mr. Van der Meer. Mr. Van der Meer falls ill, so the 4th invitation is planned to go unused. Iris thinks that maybe Margarethe will let Clara go to the party, but Margarethe doesn't want Clara to attend because Clara is beatiful and will take the attention away from Iris if she attends the party. Clara doesn't want to go anyways, at first. Finally Iris convinces Clara that going to the party will be good for her, so she starts making a plan to get Clara to the party.
At the party, Iris talks to Phillipe and realizes that she might be a bit interested in him. Then Clara walks in, with veil covering her face, disguised as Clarissa from Spain. Phillipe loses all interest in Iris and takes Clara into another room. The rest of the party Clara and Phillipe remain unseen. When a fire starts and people have to escape, Iris is a bit worried about Clara, but later that night Clara sneaks into the house unharmed.
The rest of the story I will keep a mystery for you. Does it end in a similar way that Cinderella ends? Does Iris find happiness as well as Clara? Do the Van der Meer's regain their fortune? And what about Ruth, who seems to take a backseat in the entire book?
I really enjoyed the book a lot. After reading Wicked, I thought maybe this book would have some unnecessary explicit scenes as well, and was shown differently. It certainly puts an interesting spin on the classic Cinderella tale, but I really enjoyed it. I think most girls who like the Cinderella tale probably would like it as well.
Not sure what is next on my reading list. I have the 2nd book from the Stephanie Plum series checked out from the library, so I'll probably read that. I have a road trip ahead of me for Thanksgiving, so I'll have lots of time to read. I'm thinking about trying to read more books from my personal collection before I hit up the library again, so maybe that's what I'll do.
Until next time!
~Tara
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