Finding Cinderella

Finding Cinderella by Colleen Hoover is a novella that tells the story of Daniel, a high school student who finds an unexpected and passionate connection with a girl he meets in a dark storage closet. When she disappears, Daniel’s life returns to normal. A year later, he forms an immediate and intense connection with Six, a girl with a strong personality to match Daniel’s. A series of events reveals that Six is his “Cinderella.” Their happy ending is threatened, however, when Daniel learns more about what Six endured during their year apart. 

This guide refers to the Atria Books 2013 print edition.

Content Warning: The source material and guide feature depictions of child abuse, child death, and cursing.

Plot Summary

Daniel Wesley is hiding in the maintenance closet during fifth period due to a scheduling error. He falls asleep, but the closet door soon opens, and a girl falls on top of him. He cannot see her but hears that she is crying. He hugs her and feels like she is Cinderella and he is Prince Charming. Cinderella, as Daniel refers to her, tells him that she hates everyone, and he agrees. She kisses him, and they kiss until the bell rings for the next period.

A week goes by, and Cinderella appears in the closet again. She and Daniel discuss the fact that she has a reputation for being “promiscuous” and that, while she has had sex before, she has never been in love. Daniel realizes that he is falling in love for the first time. He suggests that they pretend to be in love and have sex to see what sex is like with someone they love. They proceed to act out a fantasy in which they are in love, and they have sex. Afterward, they get dressed, and Daniel suggests turning on the light before she leaves so that she can see his face. Cinderella declines, saying that it will ruin everything because once they know each other’s identities, they will find something to dislike in each other. She leaves the closet. Daniel stays behind, sad that he may never see her again.

A year later, Daniel breaks up with his on-off girlfriend, Val, after an argument in which he realizes that they are wrong for each other because they try to change one another. After breaking up with Val, Daniel goes to his friend Sky Davis’s house. Dean Holder, his best friend and Sky’s boyfriend, is there as well, alongside another girl called Six, Sky’s best friend who has recently come back from a year abroad in Italy. Daniel is struck by her beauty and thinks she looks familiar.

Six jokes that he may recognize her because of her reputation for “promiscuity” and shares that she went to their high school before her year abroad. Daniel is immediately attracted to Six and flirts with her, but Holder forbids him from pursuing a relationship with her because she is Sky’s best friend. Daniel follows Six home, next door to Sky, and asks her out on a date.

On their date, Six and Daniel get to know each other better. Six admits that her real name is Seven Marie Jacobs but that she started going by “Six” after her parents made them move to Texas when she was 14. Daniel feels like he can be himself around her. Six admits that this is the first date she has ever been on; guys tend to skip the dating part to try and sleep with her. Daniel insists that talking to her at dinner has been amazing. They continue flirting until Daniel admits that he wants to kiss her. The kiss is electric, and Daniel suggests that they go to the park near his house to continue hanging out. When they arrive at the park, Six tells Daniel that she hopes he did not bring her there expecting sex because she is not the person she used to be. She admits that she has had sex with six different people but that she has not had sex in over a year, even though there was a boy in Italy whom she loved but does not want to talk about.

At the end of their date, Daniel drops Six off on her porch. They admit that the strength of their connection makes them want to be together, though they are both afraid of commitment. They agree to hide their relationship from their friends by pretending to dislike one another when they see each other at school. At school the next day, Daniel lies to everyone, claiming that he and Val are still together to hide his feelings for Six. Nevertheless, Daniel struggles to hide how he really feels about Six, and Holder is suspicious of his strange behavior. Six and Daniel find a brief moment to connect at school and look forward to seeing each other at Sky’s house later for a dinner honoring Six’s return.

At dinner, everyone asks Six questions about Italy, but only Daniel notices that she seems reticent to talk about it. Six asks Daniel to go next door with her to gather presents that she bought abroad. Once outside, Six worries aloud that perhaps they only like each other because everyone is trying to keep them apart. Daniel grabs her hands and pulls her back into Sky’s house, announcing to the group that he and Sky are in a relationship. He says that he wants to fall in love with her and that he does not care if anyone takes issue with their relationship. They expect everyone to react negatively to this news, but everyone is supportive and unsurprised.

A month goes by, and Daniel introduces Six to his family. They tease Daniel and Six, admitting that they can tell he and Six have not had sex yet. Daniel proclaims that he hates them all. Six states that she hates everyone, too, which makes Daniel realize that Six is Cinderella. Shocked and overjoyed, Daniel reveals his identity to Six, who becomes upset and begins sobbing before running out of the house. Daniel chases after her, driving to her house and begging her to explain why she is so upset. He asks her to meet him at the park in half an hour.

Six arrives at the park and shares why she is so upset to learn that Daniel is the guy from the maintenance closet: After their encounter in the closet, she became pregnant. She did not learn of the pregnancy until she was in Italy, and because she did not know the father’s identity, she made the decision to put the baby up for adoption on her own. Daniel becomes angry that Six did not try harder to learn the identity of the father, which further upsets Six. He accuses her of caring more about her reputation than the father’s identity, and Six slaps him across the face before running away. Daniel does not run after her, torn between his sorrow that Six had to deal with this all on her own and his anger at not knowing.

Daniel struggles the next day at school until he runs into Six at her locker. He asks her if the boy who broke her heart in Italy was the baby, and Six nods, unable to speak through her tears. Daniel fights the urge to envelop her in his arms. He walks away from her. Daniel does not see Six again until lunch, when their friends note that Six and Daniel are clearly going through something. Six puts her head down on the table and begins sobbing, and Daniel picks her up and carries her out of the cafeteria and into the hallway.

Daniel apologizes for letting her walk away the night before, admitting that he needs time to process everything. Six divulges that she thinks she made the wrong choice about the adoption, but it is too late to go back now. Daniel assures her that she made the best choice she could for their baby at the time and thanks her. He professes his love for her, even though it has only been a month. They embrace and kiss. Six begins to cry again, telling him that she is happy that he is the guy from the closet. Daniel shares that after meeting Six, he applied to college in Dallas, Texas, the same place where Holder, Sky, and Six plan to attend in the fall. When she asks if he has been accepted, he tells her that he and Holder already have plans to live together. She smiles, and Daniel thanks Six for never asking him to change. He silently thanks the universe for putting her back in his life.

In the Epilogue, Daniel meets Six’s four older brothers, who tease him but approve of their relationship. After dinner, Daniel goes next door to Sky’s house to tell them about meeting Six’s brothers, and Sky reveals that Six is not speaking to her, but she does not know why. Daniel goes back to Six, who admits that she found information online about Sky being adopted by her aunt as a child to escape her father’s abuse. She is unsure whether Sky knows and does not want to be the one to inform her. Daniel encourages Six to share what she has learned, and they go next door and tell Sky and Holder. They already know: Holder told Sky because he and Sky were neighbors as children and he witnessed the entire scene.

To honor what Sky and Holder have shared, Daniel blurts out that he got Six pregnant after having sex in the maintenance closet. Six is angry at him at first for sharing the information without her consent, but Daniel insists that they needed to share their secret with their friends so that everything is open. The four friends hug, and Daniel and Six leave to go to the park to make out. As they leave, Daniel has the feeling that it will not be too much longer before he and Six have sex for the first time—again.