*Thank you to Netgalley and Disney Publishing Worldwide for a copy in exchange for an honest review*

Cold Hearted follows Lady Tremaine, mother of Drizella and Anastasia, stepmother to Cinderella. We follow Lady Tremaine as she turns into the evil stepmother we know from the movies.

This book is marketed as book 8 in the Villains series, and it REALLY is the 8th book. If you think you can only read this book of the series, you are sorely mistaken. I love how characters from the other books show up in this one. For example, we see The Odd Sisters (like usual, let's be real here), Circe, Nanny, and there are mentions of The Beast and Belle, Maleficent, Ursula, and more. I highly suggest reading all of the past 7 books in this series so you understand the world (The Many Kingdoms), and all of the characters.

With this retelling, in particular, I love how we see Lady Tremaine turn into the cruel stepmother we know her by. We get a backstory and see that she was nice and caring before she met Cinderella. It stayed close to the original tale from Disney, but Valentino adds her own style to it.

If you are looking for a (possibly) completed series of Disney Villain retellings, I highly suggest reading all of these books in order! I will put the reading order down below for it to be easier.

1) Fairest of All
2) The Beast Within
3) Poor Unfortunate Soul
4) Mistress of All Evil
5) Mother Knows Best (my personal favourite)
6) The Odd Sisters
7) Evil Thing
8) Cold Hearted