Celebrity is the new royalty. Mia Troy has been a famous actress since childhood. She has come to the Victorian Rose Bed and Breakfast in North Salem for a month-long vacation before filming her new movie in Boston. Mia wants some time to be herself and not a famous actress. Sean O'Brien runs the bed and breakfast with his mother Maureen. He has spent his life taking care of his family. Still, Sean has not completely given up his own dreams and he has just completed his Master's from MIT in Physics. Both Sean and Mia are searching for something more. Mia feels instantly drawn to Sean. She asks him to the town's block party and is impressed by the way he protects her from the town drunk. As Sean and Mia get to know one another, Mia falls in love. Sean is unsure of his feeling. He feels tied to North Salem by the B&B. To complicate things further, his father, who walked out during his senior year of high school and left Sean to support the family alone, has reappeared. Mia helps Sean work through things with his father and half-sister. His mother ends up getting engaged and setting up the B&B so that a manager can run things. This leaves Sean able to live his own life for the first time in years. Will he be able to find love with Mia or will stubbornness spoil his happily ever after? This is yet another Cinderella story, though the prince is a princess. Ms. Tetreault uses gender inversion to try to breathe new life into an old tale. In some ways she is successful. Her characters are on an equal footing at the beginning of the novel. Sean is highly educated, though not living up to his potential, and Mia is famous and unhappy. Mia inspires Sean to get a job in his field and Sean makes Mia happy. Yet Mia stops acting and appears to become a housewife at the end. The story ends up raising Sean and lowering Mia so they can be together. Mia becomes the little woman. This does not seem to be the author's intent. Ms. Tetreault appears to unconsciously reflect masculine authority into her writing. Surely there is a way for Sean and Mia to come together that does not cause Mia to lose? This is a stereotypical contemporary romance and as long as its message is taken with a grain of salt, it is a good read. - See more at: http://www.theromancereviews.com/viewbooksreview.php?bookid=14141#sthash.xfuK9MD3.dpuf
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A modern Cinderella story, LORD BACHELOR examines our fascination with reality TV. Abby Forester is a down on her luck business major struggling to keep her dead father's record store afloat. This is particularly difficult as her father's common law spouse uses the fact that she owns half the business as an excuse to empty the till. Abby first meets Lord Edmund Rushwood while she fills in as a waitress at the bar her friend Tommy works at. He rescues her from some drunks and ends up following her home. Edmund, because of his father's will, must marry someone from a noble bloodline before his birthday. His friend Will is a reality TV show host and convinces him to star in Lord Bachelor to find his bride. Abby comes in because she has recently created a genealogy of Portland's finest families as a school project. Abby ends up on the show by accident when she goes to the studio to return Edmund's phone and is mistaken for a late contestant. Edmund struggles with his feelings for Abby as he knows he will lose everything if he marries her. Abby struggles with the way Edmund blows hot and cold. When Abby learns about Edmund's situation, will love conquer all? Ms. Bailey takes time crafting her main characters. The reader is allowed into their thoughts and follows their struggles. The more minor characters such as the contestants of the show tend to blur together a bit. It would help if they had more to identify them. Yet Bailey does give them ID markers. One is interested in charity work, another in fashion, etc. The reality show becomes background as Abby and Edmund mainly escape it to pursue each other. It would be nice to see more commentary on the shallowness and fakery of so-called reality TV, but what the author does insert is subtle and pointed. Love happens off camera. While Cinderella is a common fairy tale in romance, this version is well done and a good addition to the twisted fairy tale oeuvre. - See more at: http://www.theromancereviews.com/viewbooksreview.php?bookid=21500#sthash.9YF2kFIW.dpuf |
AuthorElizabeth Ramsay is English tutor and ESL Teacher. Archives
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