A case of love at first sight, in CINDERELLA BUSTED, billionaire Rhett Buchanan sweeps gardener Lily Foster off her feet. All Lily Foster has ever wanted is to make her father Hank's greenhouse Bloom & Grow the best it can be. She has succeeded in that dream beyond her wildest dreams, with Bloom & Grow becoming the best place to buy specialty trees in the U.S. The greenhouse has also just launched a wildly popular new interiors line. Yet, Hank didn't live to see Lily's success and some developer is trying to force her to sell by seizing the small cottage she lives in on the property. The cottage apparently violates the building code. Rhett Buchanan is the owner of BDC development. When he meets Lily at her greenhouse, he thinks she's a customer. Lily doesn't correct him because she doesn't think he'd ask a gardener out and she really likes him. Lily is a millionaire in her own right, but landscaping is hardly glamourous. She wants Rhett to fall for her as hard as she has for him before she admits she designs lawns, not gowns. Unfortunately, Rhett's ex, Delia, has other plans for Rhett and spills the beans. Rhett accuses Lily of being a fortune hunter and tells her he never wants to see her again. The second half of the book mirrors the first, as Delia breaks the once-again happy couple up by staging a scene where it looks like Rhett was cheating on Lily with Delia. Lily is devastated and immediately breaks up with Rhett. There is also the underlying question of just who the developer is after Lily's home and business, and what will happen when the truth comes out? Will there be a happily ever after for Lily and Rhett or just a new golf course for BDC? CINDERELLA BUSTED is a modernization on the classic tale. Yet this Cinderella has neither a stepmother nor stepsisters nor is she poor. She lives in her cottage alone and runs her business with the support of her best friends Rob and Tammy. The only element of the classic tale that Petie McCarty has kept is that billionaires are the princes of the modern world. Miss McCarty may be better off not drawing such a close parallel to the story of Cinderella as it twists readers' expectations in ways that her story doesn't go. Delia, Rhett's ex-girlfriend, and Whittenhurst, the lawyer, are the antagonists of this story. Had the story had a more neutral title, it would have allowed readers to draw their own conclusions. Instead, the title creates a preconceived storyline that Ms. McCarty then throws out the window. This is a pity as it undermines an otherwise interesting, though overly structured, storyline of love at first sight. Ms. McCarty not only develops Rhett and Lily as real people with real concerns, but creates a supporting cast of their matchmaking friends. Delia makes a great villain with her egocentric view of reality. As long as this is read with the understanding that Lily is not Cinderella, it is a great read. - See more at: http://www.theromancereviews.com/viewbooksreview.php?bookid=20255#sthash.eaKmaQCs.dpuf
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AuthorElizabeth Ramsay is English tutor and ESL Teacher. Archives
February 2018
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