The story rarely leaves the castle and then it stays in the city directly surrounding the palace. The weird part about this is that it all occurs off-page. However, this romance and personal journey is mixed with some hints that something larger is going wrong in the kingdom–riots and calls from the peasantry for lower taxes, more representation in government, etc.

I enjoyed it while it focused on Cinderella and her quests to make a life for herself and to possibly recapture the attention of the prince and see if they really did fall in love the night of the ball. I have more mixed feelings about the plot. Lim impressively captures the tone of Cinderella herself, writing a character who sounds sweet and sometimes naive, but not in a way that’s off-putting or cloying, She comes into more confidence over the course of the story, of course, and there are some nods to the idea that she couldn’t have really been as happy and chipper being an abused servant as the Disney movie suggests, but I did overall think Lim did a good job of embodying the voice of a Cinderella character. The cover art makes the story look dark (I realize this is just the branding of these “What If?” Disney stories), but overall it has the hope and cheer of the original “Cinderella,” even when things are going wrong. So This Is Love is largely the type of YA I often miss–a feel-good fantasy story where nothing too terrible happens and where what’s most at stake is something in the protagonist’s personal life, not necessarily the fate of the kingdom or the world.

So this is love elizabeth lim