In the lives of children, pumpkins can turn into coaches, mice and rats into human beings.... We all have heard the story of Cinderella, the beautiful child cast out to slave among the ashes.

But what of her stepsisters, the homely pair exiled into ignominy by the fame of their lovely sibling? What fate befell those untouched by beauty . .

Extreme beauty is an afflictionSet against the rich backdrop of seventeenth-century Holland, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister tells the story of Iris, an unlikely heroine who finds herself swept from the lowly streets of Haarlem to a strange world of wealth, artifice, and ambition. God and Satan snarling at each other like dogs.... Imps and fairy godmotbers trying to undo each other's work.

Far more than a mere fairy-tale, Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister is a novel of beauty and betrayal, illusion and understanding, reminding us that deception can be unearthed--and love unveiled--in the most unexpected of places.