Rating: 
Summary: It was ok
Review: I was under the impression that Just Ella would be the sequal to Ella Enchanted. I found out I was wrong. I liked Ella Enchanted much better.
Rating: 
Summary: A little twist
Review: Fairy godmothers, Prince charming, midnight magic, its all a fairy tale. But this book gives this tale a little twist. It tells the story of how Ella realy came to the ball; under her own determination not with magic help. I loved this book and could not put it down! It is a great way to show girl power and how you can take charge of your own destiny. And with Ellas determination and will she finds her true "Prince Charming" on her own.
Rating: 
Summary: Cut Short
Review: Just Ella was a good book to read, if you don't want to believe in fairy tales anymore. Margaret Peterson Haddix takes the romance and the magic out of a favorite childhood tale and tells the truth. This book was actually good, but I think the ending was cut short and left me hanging. I think Margaret Peterson Haddix should write another book telling us about the future of our beloved Ella, believe me I would buy it.
Rating:
Summary: Just Ella was Enchanting
Review: I read "Just Ella" a couple months ago and I couldn't put it down. I found it very suspensful and smart. The author uses great wording and has a wonderful plot. The ending was a suprise as well. It was an excellent book and I recommend it to anyone who likes an age-old fairy tale reversed.
Rating:
Summary: An entertaining retelling of Cinderella
Review: More adult and reality-driven than Ella Enchanted, Just Ella is an interesting look at the "happily-ever-after" ending of the original fairy tale. Ella Brown in this story is fleshed out to become a realistic heroine forced to fit into the fragile and uncomfortable glass slippers of a princess. She shows herself to be resourceful and clever; however, for some reason, I never liked her as much as Ella of Frell from Ella Enchanted. Haddix, while very cleverly explaining the matters of the glass slippers and dress (think Ever After for the dress), never develops the characters enough to make them anything more than sketches of potential never fully realized. And I agree with a previous reviewer that the romance seemed a little predictable. (One of two eligible male characters in the book, the other of which is the insipid prince.) An interesting undercurrent in Just Ella was the true meaning of True Love, often mentioned so flippantly in fairy tales. Just Ella didn't quite satisfy me-- it was neither as charming as Ella Enchanted, nor as psychologically intense as Donna Jo Napoli's retellings. What it did provide was an often ironic, imaginative and creatively rewritten Cinderella that was a definite departure from the usual fairy tale. For another Cinderella retelling, I highly recommend Silver Woven in my Hair, in which magic is inherent, though not implicitly stated. If you liked the court setting, The Crown and Court Duet by Sherwood Smith provides a more realistic (and less mocking) description of court life.
Rating:
Summary: GREAT BOOK!
Review: "Just Ella" is a wonderful book. The writing in it brings you to another world where you are Ella and you are Prince Charming's bethroved. The book has wonderful detail and it is so intreaging you cant put it down! I know I couldnt! The cover of this book describes it prefectly. A girl that is being all dressed up to hide who she really is and then rips away from it all because she realizes she has made a mistake. This book is truly a diamond in the rough. Now if only there were a sequel......
Rating: 
Summary: Terribly Predictable
Review: While this continuation of Cinderella does somewhat make a compelling little tale, it goes wrong. She meets up with a male of her age and right up from there you just know, KNOW she's going to end up with him somehow. I don't want to compare this to other tales out there, but it does seem uncanny that Hendrix comes out with "Just Ella" nearly a year after "Ella Enchanted". But I must say, it was a simple read... a quick book for the weekend.
Rating:
Summary: This book is Haddix's best yet!
Review: 'Just Ella' is terrific! It starts up about right after Cinderella has gone to the castle to marry the prince, and tells how she struggled with that decision and ended up choosing to do what she did. It is great, and easy to read, clear, thoughtfull, and funny. It has lots of irony in it, and the reason I used it was I needed a book with irony in it for a book report, and so I had the book read in less than 3 hours.
Rating:
Summary: Nice story, but not Cinderella.
Review: If "Just Ella" had simply been a book that was not based on a fairy story, I would have given it a higher rating. However, the author was going for Cinderella and missing by a long shot. If you're looking for the fairy-godmother/magic version, look somewhere else. "Just Ella" takes the fairy story and distorts it into a bratty girl who isn't happy with what she's been given. Cinderella happens to be my favorite fairy story so I've seen quite a few versions of it, and this is way at the bottom of my list. I like when the storyteller adds something to the story (like an actual personality for Cinderella and the prince in "Ever After" or a realistic view of a prince and a commoner in "The Slipper and the Rose"), but this was simply too much. The author didn't just add a little feminist flavor like "Ever After" , but changes the whole entire story around it so that it becomes totally unrecognisable. The path to going to the ball in "Just Ella" is unique and well thought out and is the one positive addition to the story. However, the obsession over the royalty changing the story into a fairy story cancels it out. But what bothered me the most about this story was the language. Ella is completely vulgar and uses extremely modern references. She is supposed to be from the middle-ages and is using terms like "take a piss" and "the crap hole"! This totally ruins any remaining chance of affectiveness. As I said, if it were not attempting to be Cinderella, it would be a good story. As it is, stick with "Ever After".
Rating:
Summary: A lesson in gender equality
Review: So many fairytales end with a simple "happily ever after" ... but is it ever really so simple? Just Ella, by Margaret Peterson Haddix, turns the Cinderella story on its ear by exploring the young girl's motivations and examining gender roles that apply, honestly, more to modern times than they did in the medieval setting of the book. Still, young readers (and adults, too!) will enjoy this fractured version, which starts with Ella enduring lessons in etiquette, needlepoint and other princessly duties in the castle of her betrothed, Prince Charming. But, while the prince is, of course, charming and quite handsome to boot, Ella begins to wonder if that's a suitable foundation for lifelong romance. Of note, this book gives us a Cinderella who does not rely on fairy godmothers, talking mice or convertible pumpkins to make her way to and from the prince's ball. Determined to go despite the scorn of the "step-evils" who plague her life, Ella uses the resources at hand and no small amount of ingenuity to get herself where she wants to be (as explained in a brief but entertaining flashback, in which we learn that glass slippers hurt).
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