It shows that happiness isn’t something that is constant or easy to gain. It shows that sometimes people can be blinded and dazzled by something, and it’s not until afterward that they realize that they were wrong. It’s an attempt to show that sometimes happy-ever-afters aren’t how they appear to be, and that they can be hard to gain. Haddix challenges people’s perceptions of and reactions to fairy tales through Ella’s character. I found it humorous how Haddix poked fun at fairy tales in this book, because even though Just Ella is a continuation of a fairy tale, it’s not actually a fairy tale. Haddix does suspense/thriller/mystery often and well, so I actually had forgotten she had written a book like this until I saw it on the shelf. Cooney (and Diana Wynne Jones) were the authors I devoured during my high school years (apparently I have a thing for authors with three names). I’m sick of it.” I shoved back the covers and sprang from the bed. “Nothing, Princess.” Mary patted my hand again. “I prefer to think he was captivated by my charming personality.” I giggled to let Mary know I was trying to make fun of myself.

I seemed to be trying to do everything I could to annoy Madame Bisset, even though she wasn’t there. “But you looked so beautiful in it, Your Highness. Why would anyone wear that torture device?” “What’s too much sun? I barely saw a single ray of sunshine. “Of course I didn’t suffer too much sun,” I told Mary crankily. But I had never felt so alone in all my life, not even shivering in rags in my garret the day they came to say my father was dead. I was engaged to be married in two short months to the most handsome man I’d ever seen-the prince of the land, the heir to the throne. I remembered an old neighbor woman cackling as I rode by, astonished, in the prince’s carriage: “Now, there’s one who will live happily ever after.” And then everything happened so fast-the prince seeking me for his bended-knee proposal, everyone making wedding plans, me returning to the castle to stay, for good. Just being at the ball was beyond my wildest dreams. This wasn’t what I’d imagined at the ball, the stars wheeling above me as I danced with the prince.

But breaking her engagement proves more difficult-and dangerous-than escaping her stepmother’s tyranny.” Slowly, Ella comes to realize she doesn’t want the life she fought so hard to win. Why can’t she talk with him the way she can with Jed, her earnest young tutor? Wrong! Life for Ella has become an endless round of lessons and restrictions even worse, Prince Charming turns out to be more like Prince Boring. Now she’s comfortably ensconced in the palace, awaiting marriage to the man of her dreams. “It’s a familiar story: in spite of the obstacles put in her way by her wicked stepmother, Ella goes to the ball, sweeps Prince Charming off his feet, and is chosen to be his bride. Just Ella is written by Margaret Peterson Haddix.

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