Audiobook Review: Of Glass and Glamour (Daughters of Eville #2)

Author: Chanda Hahn

Narrator: Jesse Vilinsky

Audiobook Length: 9 hours 55 minutes

Something evil this way comes.
7 Vengeful Sisters
7 Fairytale Kingdoms
7 Daughters of Eville

Born under a hunter’s moon, abandoned as a child, I was raised to be a powerful sorceress—okay, a mediocre sorceress. All right, I’m good at glamour and can make things sparkle, if my spells don’t backfire. It was foretold long ago that I was a child of prophecy that would unite the fae and humans of Candor. The only problem, no one told me, and now the king wants me dead.

For I am Eden, one of the adoptive daughters of Lady Eville, and I have to attend the royal masquerade ball—not to win a prince, but to avenge my parents. Even if it means pretending to be a fairy godmother and wreaking a little havoc.

Of Glass and Glamour follows Eden, one of the adoptive daughters of Lady Eville. There were glimpses of her in the first novel Of Beasts and Beauty, but it was nice to see her have her own story. Following the events of Lady’s Eville revenge on the first kingdom, Eden is sent to seek revenge on the second kingdom. As each novel in the series is a fairy tale retelling, this novel does its own take on Cinderella. Eden is sent to attend the royal masquerade ball in the kingdom of Candor as part of her mother’s revenge and to learn more about her birth parents and history. Along the way, she ends up meeting Prince Evander and Dorian, a servant at the palace.

Eden is the best among her sisters at glamour, but she still does have the greatest confidence in herself. Throughout the entire story, she constantly compares herself to her “better” six sisters and to those around her. As the ball is to help Prince Evander choose his bride, Eden takes part in the competition for his hand. As multiple women are vying for Prince Evander’s attention, there is a lot of “catty” moments in Eden’s inner thoughts. This along with Eden’s back and forth about her confidence does get a bit much at times, but I could see where the author was trying to go with it. For this, I just wish it was explored a little more as the multiple times it comes up just felt like place holders as reminders of Eden’s personality and become her identifying trait.

Dorian was an interesting character and I love how he tries to help Eden when he can. Dorian has many secrets about his past, which are all explored in the story as there are reasons of how he ended up as a servant. It nicely tied together to Eden and Prince Evander, so all the characters meshed well together. There is a prophecy introduced in this story and becomes the main plot as it is weaved together with Eden’s original mission.

The pacing of the story is great at points where Eden arrives in Candor and begins her mission. It does become rushed towards the end as there are many plots that need to be wrapped up before the end. I wish these were spread out more to give each the time they needed to feel complete. There are some fun plot twists, like the first novel, where they are revealed later and help bring everything together. Overall, this was a fun addition to the series and unique take on the fairy tale. Even though not all the details were for me, the series is a fun and easy read where I would be interested in continuing to the third novel!