JUST ELLA

Ella Brown should be happy, and instead she's miserable. A strong and self-sufficient young woman, she is stifled by life at the palace while awaiting her marriage to Prince Charming. This fractured take on the Cinderella story is not great literature, but Alyssa Bresnahan's robust, unvoiced reading lifts it above the ordinary. Her pacing and pitch perfectly capture the resilient Ella; the simpering ladies-in-waiting; the nasty and not very clever prince; and the smart, just, but wavering Jed to whom Ella turns for help. In the end, Bresnahan makes the listener believe in Ella and her convictions. S.G. © AudioFile 2000, Portland, Maine [Published: DEC/JAN 01]