The Cinderella Society »

Kay Cassidy is the author of teen fiction she wishes was based on her real life. She is a former college cheerleader and sorority alum, an MBA and a member of Mensa. Kay is also the founder of the national Great Scavenger Hunt ContestTM reading program for kids and teens and the host of the inspirational Living Your FiveTM Web project. She hopes that The Cinderella Society, her first novel, will inspire readers to embrace their inner Cindy. Visit Kay online at www.kaycassidy.com.

Sixteen-year-old Jess Parker survives by staying invisible. After nine schools in ten years, she's come to terms with life as a perpetual new girl, neither popular nor outcast. At Mt. Sterling High, Jess gets the chance of a lifetime: an invitation to join The Cinderella Society, a secret club of the most popular girls in school, where makeovers are the first order of official business. But there's more to being a Cindy than just reinventing yourself from the outside, a concept lost on Jess as she dives tiara-first into creating a hot new look.

With a date with her popular crush and a chance to finally fit in, Jess's life seems to be a perfect fairy tale. That is until the Wickeds--led by Jess's archenemy--begin targeting innocent girls in their war against the Cindys, and Jess discovers her new sisterhood is about much more than who rules Mt. Sterling High School. It's a centuries-old battle of good vs. evil, and the Cindys need Jess on special assignment. But when the mission threatens to destroy her new dream life, Jess is forced to choose between this dream realized and honoring the Sisterhood. What's a girl to do when the glass slipper fits, but she doesn't want to wear it anymore?

Publishers Weekly

Sixteen-year-old Jess Parker is a good girl—not that that's gotten her anywhere socially. She's low on status at her new school, until she's plucked from oblivion by the Cindys, a secret society of girls who right social wrongs committed by the popular crowd. Unconfident Jess is shocked by this unexpected attention, but thrilled, too. This debut novel's resemblance to the Cinderella fairy tale ends with Jess's style makeover. It's mostly about an ongoing war between good and evil, mounted by the Cindys against the Wickeds, who “gain power by manipulating and dominating other kids,” as each group “battl[es] for the souls of the Reggies” (the Regular kids). With a largely black-and-white world view and rituals that sound like Sunday mass (talk of commandments, saving, and sacrifice is commonplace), the Cindys and their conflict with the Wickeds come across as a thinly disguised version of Christian spiritual warfare. Cassidy's novel reads like a mashup of a self-help manual for building girls' self-esteem and a conversion tool for a particular set of moral behaviors, with some nods to goddess spirituality. Ages 12-up. (Apr.)