Yeah, I didn't expect it either! Perhaps it's stereotyping, but I'd assumed that lesbian Cinderella = Cinderella with agency. And that didn't pan out at all, which disappointed me.

I actually did like the portrayal of fairy and of the fairy-haunted Wood, but Sidhean's relationship with Ash was very, very strange, and felt out of place in the book. Especially when he just gave her up at the end.

I can't shake the feeling that this story would have been far better if Lo hadn't tied it to the Cinderella formula. A story about a brave and compassionate King's Huntress and her slow-growing relationship with a girl beloved of/in thrall of the fairies could have been really wonderful. But then, on the other hand, she wouldn't have had the immediate high-concept nature of 'lesbian Cinderella.'