Sculpting Fables

An Ancient Cinderella Retelling (The Mirror Chronicles, Book 3)

De: Rachel Huffmire

Narrado por: Rachel V White

Rhodopis is a kitchen slave who dreams of a life of freedom. Persecuted by her Greek master's conceited and beautiful daughters, Rho vows to ease other's burdens, never add to them. But when the gods hear her prayer and offer Rho everything she ever wanted, she'll have to fight to keep fate from slipping through her fingers.

Sculpting Fables is book 3 in the Award Winning Mirror Chronicles series.

©2021 Rachel Huffmire (P)2025 Rachel Huffmire

Reseñas de la Crítica

"For anyone who loves a good Cinderella story, this is a fascinating read, a classic fairy tale in its own right." -Readers' Favorite 5-star recommended read.

As clever as the other books in the series!

A YA SFF novella in the Mirror Chronicles series, narrating the story of Rhodopis with a time-travel twist.
The story of Rhodopis is most known for being the original Cinderella tale. In that sense, this book also works as a Cinderella retelling. And an unusual one at that! I loved how this not just incorporated the Cinderella story but also dealt with its logical flaws. The twisty take on the glass slipper was my favourite.
Rhodopis is, as expected, the star of this show. I love how well her true personality shines through even under the façade of submissiveness she has to maintain as a slave. She wasn’t portrayed as too weak or too strong, but with just enough gumption to be convincing. Her thinking and her behaviour feels appropriate to her age.
At just about 150 pages long, this book isn't as overloaded with characters as its companion novels. Other than Keltson, no main character from the earlier books makes an appearance in this work. The focus of the plot is mainly on Rhodopis, though we have three more interesting characters other than Keltson, each from a different timepoint and each sketched well despite the limited page space. Oh, and there is a very special guest appearance from a person I absolutely didn’t expect to see in this plot. I loved the way his life story and his work was threaded into this narrative.

The audiobook, clocking at 2 hrs 44 min, is narrated by the same talented narrator who read the earlier books of this series. Rachel White is one of the most talented narrators I have had the pleasure of listening to, and her performance enhances this already-great novella.

All in all, this was a clever little novella with a unique take on the Cinderella story. While I was a little disappointed to see that the book doesn’t *continue* the series and hence I still need to wait to discover what’s next after the cliffhanger of the second book, it was fun to read this sweet little retelling full of sci-fi magic and mayhem.

Much recommended to retelling fans. The book is written for the YA age group, but this story works well enough for older readers as well. As I said earlier, try to read the first book of the series before giving this novella a try.

4.25 stars.

Disclaimer: I received a complimentary copy of this book at my request. The above feedback is honest and voluntary.