Welcome to Refracted Light’s
blog tour stop!
Jane Montjoy is tired of being a lady. She’s tired of pretending to live up to the standards of her mother’s noble family-especially now that the family’s wealth is gone and their stately mansion has fallen to ruin. It’s hard enough that she must tend to the animals and find a way to feed her mother and her little sister each day. Jane’s burden only gets worse after her mother returns from a trip to town with a new stepfather and stepsister in tow. Despite the family’s struggle to prepare for the long winter ahead, Jane’s stepfather remains determined to give his beautiful but spoiled child her every desire.
When her stepfather suddenly dies, leaving nothing but debts and a bereaved daughter behind, it seems to Jane that her family is destined for eternal unhappiness. But a mysterious boy from the woods and an invitation to a royal ball are certain to change her fate…
From the handsome prince to the evil stepsister, nothing is quite as it seems in Tracy Barrett’s stunning retelling of the classic Cinderella tale.
She holds a Bachelor’s Degree with honors in Classics-Archaeology from Brown University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Medieval Italian Literature from the University of California, Berkeley. Her scholarly interests in the ancient and medieval worlds overlap in her fiction and nonfiction works.
A grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities to study medieval women writers led to the writing of her award-winning young-adult novel, Anna of Byzantium (Delacorte). Her most recent publications are King of Ithaka, a young-adult novel based on Homer’s Odyssey; and the fourth book in The Sherlock Files, The Missing Heir (both Henry Holt). In September, Harcourt will publisher her young-adult retelling of the myth of the Minotaur, Dark of the Moon.
From 1999 to 2009 Tracy Barrett was the Regional Advisor for the Midsouth (Tennessee and Kentucky) with the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. She is now SCBWI’s Regional Advisor Coordinator.
Tracy has taught courses on writing for children and on children’s literature at various institutions and frequently makes presentations to groups of students, librarians, teachers, and others.
For an example of Tracy’s presentations at writers’ conferences, please see this article from Clarksville Online.
She recently resigned from Vanderbilt University, where she taught Italian, Women’s Studies, English, and Humanities. Click here and here for articles about her double life as professor and writer.
She occasionally manages to combine her two “lives” as in her presentation at a conference on the Classics in children’s literature in Wales in July, 2009.
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Monday, June 9th –Fiktshun (Character Interview)
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Tuesday, June 10th –Harlequin Blog
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Wednesday, June 11th –Xpresso Reads (Guest Post)
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Friday June 13th –About To Read (Guest Post)
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Monday, June 16th –The Irish Banana (Author Interview)
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Tuesday, June 17th –On the Verge
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Wednesday, June 18th –Refracted Light Reviews (Guest Post)
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Friday June 20th –The Book Cellar (Guest Post)

I’m so excited for this book. I hope it’s like Ella Enchanted.
I am really eager to read this book!! It sounds fabulous. Love Fairy Tales 😀
This sounds really awesome! My favorite Cinderella story so far is Cinder!
Interesting retelling
I just love when stories that we grew up with are fleshed out or has a different spin on them.
I WANT TO READ THIS BOOK SO BAD
I really like the idea of Cinderella’s stepsister telling the story. It sounds so original
this sounds great! Thanks for sharing
I haven’t read any Cinderella twist stories yet.
A wonderful twist on a favorite fairy tale
I love fairytale retellings! My favorite one right now is Cinder
WOW!! That’s amazing!! I hadn’t heard about this book before now but now I’m so excited. This idea makes my mind spin – there are so many things you can do with this!! Thanks for the giveaway, I’m super stoked.
I haven’t ever thought about the story the way that Tracy explained in her guest post… now that I have that in my head I’m going to be going into this book with a new light
I can’t wait to read this one!!! Awesome post!!
I love fairy tale re-tellings and the book looks fantastic. I’m definitely putting it on my TBR list.
I really love fantasy books and fairy tales! So far my favorite Cinderella story or retelling has been Cinder, it was different and imaginative!
Awesome!!! This sounds great!
I don’t have a favourite Cinderella story… I can’t honestly say I have even read a retelling before but this one has my attention because of the twist it has taken! Thank you for the chance
I only found out about this book a little while ago… I almost missed it. I have a couple Cinderella retellings that I like for different reasons (I think it is one of the more popular fairytales to retell…)
I would love to read this story because i’ve always loved the cinderella story. Thanks for the awesome giveaway!