Ella Enchanted By Gail Carson Levine At her naming ceremony, Ella was "blessed" with Obedience. She has to obey any command given to her, no matter what. Ella has a fairly normal childhood anyhow, but then her mother dies. Her father, Sir Peter the trader, comes home for the funeral. Ella does not like him. At the funeral she meets prince Charmant, who is enamored of her. Her father, confronted with having a daughter, decides to send her to finishing school, where she is miserable. She runs away, and has many adventures before meeting back up with her father. His fortunes have changed, and he decides to marry her off for money. But the only suitor to come after her does not have enough money, and so he decides to marry a rich lady himself instead. He marries an awful lady, Dame Olga, with two awful daughters, whom Ella had already known from finishing school. Dame Olga marries Sir Peter for his money and is devastated when she finds out that he does not have any. This wouldn't bother Sir Peter, except that the same fairy who had cursed Ella comes to his wedding and confers the blessing of eternal love upon Sir Peter and Dame Olga. So Sir Peter stays away from home, and Ella is left to the whims of her Stepmother and stepsisters, who make her into a maid and otherwise mistreat her. This is a Cinderella story with meat. Well written, and it even explains why someone on her feet all the time has small feet! People who walk much generally have larger feet; that's why binding find and stopping people from walking will prevent feet from growing. But Ella has fairy blood in her, and so she has small feet.
Happy reading.
