I am not the girl he met at the ball.

Liar’s Kingdom by Christine Calella

My Review

I’ve never had a moment that sweet. Not even in my wildest dreams.

Liar’s Kingdom was one of my anticipated reads in the first half of 2025. Not only was it a fantasy novel, which I love, but it was also a fairytale retelling. And if you’ve read some of my other book reviews, you know how I feel about those. (As in, I can’t resist reading them if they intrigue me, lol.)

Though I enjoyed several aspects of the novel, it’s not my favorite Cinderella retelling. That honor still goes to The Lunar Chronicles. Liar’s Kingdom was definitely a very interesting take on the fairytale though, and I really liked the angle the book was going for.

Trude shrugs, a shy smile warming her face again. But she does not meet my eye as she answers: “I think anywhere, no matter how lovely, would begin to feel like a cage if you could never leave it.”

Ell was our protagonist. I really liked her throughout the first half of the novel, but aspects of her character started to irritate me the further I got. I did like how emotionally strong she was, however.

Bayard was the kind and handsome prince. He was probably my favorite character in the novel. I just loved how sweet and generally optimistic he was, and him being face-blind, and it being incredibly relevant to the novel, was very interesting.

Maxim was the a-hole edgelord type character, who the MC is inexplicably drawn to, that also secretly has a heart of gold. He kind of annoyed me from the get-go, honestly. Like, the second the description said he wore all black all the time, I was already Done with him. Not the character’s fault, I’m just starting to get tired of his archetype.

Trude was a sweet supporting character, and Ell’s first ever friend. I really liked her. We don’t get enough just nice and wholesome friend characters like this. I do wish she had a few more layers, though. She was a little bland.

But from now on, I intend to be honest. And I can honestly say that with my court of rodents and rogues and social climbers, I expect to live very much happily ever after.

I also enjoyed what the story did with Ell’s “evil stepsisters”, Amalia and Frieda. They had pretty good character arcs, and I loved them being dynamic characters capable of change as opposed to static bullies.

The plot of Liar’s Kingdom was a really cool take on the classic Cinderella story, and it’s by posing a pretty simple question: What if Cinderella wasn’t the girl from the ball but fit the slipper? What the author tried to do here was really interesting, even if I didn’t enjoy everything about the execution.

I didn’t really like the romance here either. I don’t consider it to really be a love triangle, because it was obvious who Ell was going to end up with, as well as who everyone was actually into. But occasionally it felt like it to me.

I can’t help it; I laugh in his face. “Please don’t tell me you intend to be petty and jealous.”

Maxim raises an eyebrow at me. “I’m never petty.”

“Oh, no?”

I think that the world building was okay, but I wish there was a more fleshed out magic system. Like, fairies seem to be almost all powerful in terms of what their magic is able to accomplish and only really have one weakness. Granted it’s highly specific, but still. I hated that the fairy realm was called Fairyland. I just, I hated it. It’s the worst name.

As a whole, I think that Liar’s Kingdom was pretty good. I think that those who enjoy fantasy YA will like it, and especially people who like fairytale retellings. It was also well written, for the most part.

As always, thank you so much for reading, and I hope you have a great day/night!

See ya ~Mar

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