A review by obstinateheadstrongcurl
A Kiss at Midnight by Eloisa James

lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

I read the second book in Eloisa James's Fairy Tales series several years ago and really enjoyed it, but this one didn’t quite live up to the mark. Cinderella has never been my favourite fairy tale, so this one was always going to suffer a bit in comparison to the Beauty and the Beast retelling. The prince’s ego was overly inflated, and it wasn’t something he ever reckoned with. The message was basically ‘princes be princing’. He was annoying to the point that it didn’t make sense that Kate would even be attracted to him. Also, this book came out in 2010 so I know we as a society were less aware, but a European prince going on archaeological digs in Africa and taking artefacts home is not a plot that has aged well.

I did enjoy Kate’s character, she wasn’t nearly so passive as most Cinderella characters, although she did have a bad case of ‘not like other girls’. Henry was a delight; she was such an entertaining character. I also appreciated the communication between Kate and Gabriel. There were a few times when I thought we’d get into the weeds of an unrealistic miscommunication trope, but James kept everything really true to the characters.