Selena, having lost her mother at a young age, had been sent away to school. Upon returning home she finds things vastly different, most notably is the additions to her small family. Her father has remarried and her stepmother is unreasonably cruel to her, as are her stepsisters. However after years of being treated as a slave in her own home Selena discovers a magical way to attend the prince's ball, change her fate and fulfil her destiny.

Moonlight & Ashes is a Cinderella story with witches, wizards, werewolves and wishes. True love, mistaken identities, a journey, an assassination and destiny weave together to produce a story more fairytale then fantasy, a story that younger children will enjoy. However, as there are so many stories retelling, reinventing and reproducing this age old classic in new and differing ways, this particular tale unfortunately fails to stand out of the crowd. ( )

This is the retelling of Cinderella with a difference. While the first part of the book follows the traditional fairytale well, after the ball there is a dramatic change. Instead of a fairy godmother to help her when in need, Selena is more than capable of taking care of herself, and her prince, and restoring harmony to the empire. Parts of this book I quite enjoyed, but others dragged, and the ending felt rushed. However, I can see young teen girls enjoying "Moonlight and Ashes." ( )

Moonlight and Ashes
By Sophie Masson
Published: Random House Australia
Released: 2 July 2012
Reviewed: KJ
The word: a new take on Cinderella with a unique magical twist for the younger YA reader
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I was really excited about the concept of this book. I’ve really been digging the whole fairytale retell thing that’s been going on at the moment, but this book didn’t quite hit the mark for me. The book is targeted more towards the younger YA reader and reminded me a lot of the Deltora Quest series by Emily Rodda. Although the overall concept was really good it just lacked the depth usually seen in YA literature.

When Selena’s mother dies, her father, a wealthy aristocrat, remarries and his new wife convinces him to annul his marriage. Selena is forced to serve her step mother and step sisters and is ignored by her father. After receiving dreams from her mother – Selena learns she is a Moon-sister. Part of a secret magical society who have been hunted out of existence by the Mancers – a rivalry magical society.
Her dreams set her on a magical journey leading her to a chance meeting with Prince Leopold, discovering an obnoxious self-centred man, she befriends his best friend Max and the two go on an adventure to restore magical balance and equality back to the land.

Selena is a well-mannered strong independent and an incredibly brave character. She is likeable and is the type of person that stands up for what is right no matter the circumstances and befriends people easily because of this trait. She has the best luck – while running for her life she always ran into people willing to help her and her friends out. I found this a little irritating – things seemed a little too easy and I never really felt the characters were in any real danger.

Max, Prince Leopold’s best-friend mirrors most of Selena’s qualities and the two quickly fall in love. Again this was another sore point with me. I actually read the bit where Selena realises she loves Max a few times wondering if I had missed something because it seemed to come out of nowhere – there wasn’t enough of a build-up or romantic tension between the characters before they were shouting sonnets from the rooftops to each other.

I loved the magical aspect of this book. The moon-sisters magic is based closely on Wiccan magic – it is closely tied to the land and is a more realistic understanding of magic. The Mancers magic isn’t evil, it has just been abused for many years. The Mancer’s magic is based around affecting mental and physically abilities and the two types balance each other out well.

The ending kinda goes in a bit of a weird direction – the book goes off track for a little bit. The ‘twist’ ending was a little predictable but that wasn’t actually a bad thing. Overall I didn’t feel the characters struggled enough – this is hard to explain because they did end up in some sticky situations that seemed dire, but I never got that feeling of absolute desperation that you get when reading the dystopian YA and for this reason I think the book is catered to a younger audience. It was definitely an enjoyable read. ( )