I’ve read A.W. Exley’s Artifact Hunters Series and really enjoyed them so I had to read this fairy tale retelling, Ella, The Slayer.
Hey, there’s zombies in it!
Feast your eyes on the magnificent cover art.
Enjoy my review.
And don’t forget to enter the giveaway!
Ella, The Slayer
by A. W. Exley
My Review
I don’t read a lot of fairy tale retellings, so I figured it was time to do just that. And how could I resist a retelling of Cinderella, taking place after World War I, with zombies! Yep, zombies.
Now, the zombies don’t dominate the story. They are there, lurking in the background, threatening to burst onto the scene at any given time. Sometimes, they do. And that’s where Ella opens up a can of whoop ass.
Ella didn’t ask to be the town’s protector, executioner. She was kind of forced into it. Her and that katana she wielded so well. And that’s just one role she’d been forced into.
She didn’t blame her father for getting married again. She wanted him happy. She didn’t blame him when he came home from war catatonic. She hoped for and watched for him to recover.
She did blame her evil step-mother and two spoiled step-sisters. They relegated her to maid service, whipping her when she didn’t do something right or fast enough. Ella almost relished having to go slay a zombie or two.
Her world changes when she runs into tall, dark, and handsome. Seth, the Duke, is so far out of her league, but her heart wants what it wants. And that’s Seth.
Can Ella have a happy ever after? Or will her evil step family spoil her plans? Will Seth want a lowly maid ? Or will he want one of the snotty step-sisters? And can he see her as a protector, not a killer?
All of my questions are answered, and in such fun and delightful ways. Ella is no lightweight and she has some awesome friends who love and support her.
Seth, weighed down by responsibility, by proper appearances, steps into the shoes assigned to him with strength and fortitude.
And then there’s the zombie thing. The author offered a fresh take on them. I didn’t quite see where she was heading until the end. Very interesting.
I stayed up late and then got up early so I could finish this book and find out what happened. Such a fun retelling.
And did I mention zombies?
4 Stars
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Synopsis
The flu pandemic of 1918 took millions of souls within a few short weeks.
Except it wasn’t flu and death gave them back.
Seventeen-year-old Ella copes the best she can; caring for her war-injured father, scrubbing the floors, and slaying the undead that attack the locals. ‘Vermin’ they’re called, like rats they spread pestilence with their bite. Ella’s world collides with another when she nearly decapitates a handsome stranger, who is very much alive
Seth deMage, the new Duke of Leithfield, has returned to his ancestral home with a mission from the War Office — to control the plague of vermin in rural Somerset. He needs help; he just didn’t expect to find it in a katana-wielding scullery maid.
Working alongside Seth blurs the line between their positions, and Ella glimpses a future she never dreamed was possible. But in overstepping society’s boundaries, Ella could lose everything – home, head and her heart…
Goodreads | Amazon | iTunes | Kobo | B&N | Scribd
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About Author A. W. Exley
Books and writing have always been an enormous part of A.W. Exley’s life.
She survived school by hiding out in the library, with several thousand fictional characters for company. At university, she overcame the boredom of studying accountancy by squeezing in Egyptology papers and learning to read hieroglyphics.
Today, Anita writes steampunk novels with a sexy edge and an Egyptian twist. She lives in rural New Zealand surrounded by an assortment of weird and wonderful equines, felines, canine and homicidal chickens.
AUTHOR ONLINE: Website | Twitter @AWExley | Facebook | Goodreads | Pinterest
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