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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AuthorElizabeth Ramsay is English tutor and ESL Teacher. Archives
February 2018
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