Books like Ella Enchanted
The heart of it is freedom. These novels share Ella Enchanted’s delight in heroines who refuse the roles imposed on them, using intelligence, courage, and humor to become fully themselves.
If you liked Ella Enchanted, you’ll love these
Not lookalikes — kindred books. Each one shares something essential with Ella Enchanted, and we tell you exactly what.
Sophie begins under a spell that seems to dictate the limits of her life, but—like Ella—she proves far harder to control than anyone expects. Her growing boldness is wonderfully funny: once conventional politeness no longer seems useful, she discovers a talent for meddling, improvising, and ordering powerful people about.
Diana Wynne Jones gives the magic rules, loopholes, and personality; even the enchanted castle feels comically temperamental. At the center is a prickly, slow-burning romance between two people who must learn to see past appearances. A beloved modern fantasy classic, it offers the same exhilarating truth as Ella Enchanted: a curse may shape your circumstances without defining who you are.
Princess Cimorene is tired of being told what princesses do, so she chooses an entirely different life—one involving dragons, dangerous errands, and a great deal of practical work. Her rebellion is not merely announced; it appears in every sensible decision she makes while the supposedly wiser adults cling to ridiculous conventions.
Wrede’s wit is brisk and dry, and her fairy-tale world runs on recognizable rules that Cimorene keeps finding intelligent ways to overturn. Long cherished by readers who prefer capable heroines to passive princesses, this is perhaps the purest match for the mischievous, anti-damsel pleasure of Ella Enchanted.
This is the choice for readers who loved the deeper emotional journey beneath Ella’s humor. Ani has been trained to suppress her own instincts and let other people speak for her. When she is sent away for an arranged marriage, the fragile identity built for her begins to fall apart, and she must slowly find a voice that is genuinely hers.
Hale makes that growth feel hard-won: confidence comes through friendship, work, close attention, and small acts of bravery rather than sudden transformation. The romance is tender because it grows alongside self-knowledge, not in place of it. The novel launched Hale’s much-loved Books of Bayern and remains one of her defining works—a lyrical, deeply satisfying story about learning that gentleness and power can belong to the same person.