FICTION: SLIPPER

 

NOT THE FAIRY TALE YOU REMEMBER

SLIPPER is the story of a poor orphaned stepchild, a would-be princess, whose search for one true love or another takes her all over 17th-Century England, France and the Low Countries.  Born under mysterious circumstances, she grows up to be a dreamer, a cinder sweep, a runaway, a camp follower, a kisser of frogs, a beggar, a mother and an artist.  Along the way she learns what to do about men.

It is hardly an exaggeration to say that hers is a fairy tale come true.   

Available on  Amazon, Barnes & Noble, IndieBound or as an  e-book. 

 
 

Watch: The sauciest book trailer you've ever seen

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One of WAMC’s BEST BOOKS OF 2018

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"Slipper is the most engaging novel I have read in a long time.  Part romantic love story, part fairy tale, part feminist commentary, this is a wonderful, old fashioned novel to be savored. It is as if a graduate student had stumbled upon a handwritten, 19th century manuscript in the British Library, read it, and declared, 'There was a fourth Bronte sister --  and she was the most talented of the brood!'" — Daniel Klein, best-selling author of Travels with Epicurus and Plato and Platypus Walk into a Bar

"Although this novel mainly pays specific homage to Cinderella, Velmans laces the book with references to the other tales. The author builds this network with remarkable care, and although the resulting novel is a complex web of influences, it’s never a confounding one. Furthermore, she writes in a delicate, ornate prose style that has a transporting effect, bringing readers back to Perrault’s time and nestling them in a thoroughly alluring narrative. A satisfying blend of history and myth that breathes new life into Cinderella."  —Kirkus Reviews READ THE WHOLE REVIEW HERE  

"An unexpectedly honest modern novel clothed in the traditional tropes of historical romance. Despite thematically re-imagining the origins of several popular fairy tales (Cinderella chief among several), as a bildungsroman the story is refreshingly authentic in the growth of Lucinda from an unfettered idealist to a nearly-perfected realist. The story contains a depth of nuances and even on page one the author’s knack for joining the fairy tale statement “died of a broken heart” with an utterly direct, medically accurate description of Lucinda’s mother’s death effectively foreshadows the philosophical authenticity of this novel which is so neatly played out in the final scene through the metaphorical use of the titular slipper. The charm of the protagonist... is more than potent enough to draw the reader along through a story that both pointedly charges us with taking command of our own fate, and tasks us with deciding for ourselves what the moral of our own story should be." —Thomas A. Peters for Readers Favorite. [Readers Favorite Book Award Winner] READ THE REST OF THE REVIEW HERE.

"A unique take on the classic fairy tale Cinderella, Slipper blends historical fact with historical fiction to create a starkly realistic yet hopeful tale of overcoming hardship... It feels realistic in its skillful blend of history and fiction, adding historical figures to the ensemble as though the fictional characters alongside them existed too." — IndieReader  READ THE WHOLE REVIEW HERE