Review: Yet Another Wonderful Cinderella Tale
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 18, 2014
I am an absolute SUCKER for a historical romance based on the old Cinderella fairytale.  To that end, I freely admit, that I find most of them delightful, even if they do have some flaw or the other.  I do try to be as objective as possible when writing my reviews, but I have to admit a certain prejudice towards these types of stories.  That being said, I have read a couple that have sucked and was freely willing to admit it.The "Cinderella Debutante" is a really good rendition of the Cinderella fairytale.  Set in Regency times, the story is interesting, with well developed characters, and a plot which--while not in the least original--is engaging.  It was not, by any means, perfect, but in my experience few books are.In this story, I got a bit frustrated with the heroine, Lucy, because she was so self effacing and too willing to cater to her stupid step-mother and step-sister's selfish, ridiculous behavior.  Although, to be fair, she probably had learned to do so after years of being forced to endure their bad tempers should she do otherwise--in other words it was probably due to survival instinct.  Lucy's father, a baronet, got maneuvered into marrying her stepmother, a marriage that it seemed he grew to regret.  When he died in the midst of Lucy's first season, she is forced to return home.  Of course, since then her selfish, vile, stepmother has made no effort whatsoever to get Lucy married off.  Instead, she focuses all her attention on the beautiful, silly, just as selfish, and vain Belinda.  Belinda and her mother are hopeful that Belinda will make a brilliant match--not only is she exceptionally beautiful, but also endowed with a huge inheritance of some $40k.  Now at age seventeen, Belinda is to make her come-out; Lucy is to accompany them.At his godmother's behest, Alex, Viscount Devlyn, makes a courtesy visit to Lucy at her family's estate.  Alex's godmother, Lady Gainsford, and Lucy's grandmother are very close friends.  Lady Gainsford believes that Lucy and Devlyn will suit and wishes him to go to see Lucy for himself, furthermore she assigns him the task of inviting Lucy to visit her while in London.  When Lady Sinclair hears about Alex's impending visit to Sinclair House, she and Belinda immediately jump to the ridiculous conclusion that Dev has heard of Belinda's beauty and is coming for the express purpose of seeing her for himself.  Idiots!  In any event, when the day of the visit arrives, Lady Sinclair conveniently sends Lucy off to visit a tenant.  Thus, Lucy is not in residence when Alex arrives.  Fortunately, on his way back to his own estate, he encounters Lucy stranded on the road, after incurring an accident.  Alex renders assistance to Lucy and ends up taking her home.From there the story progresses.  It's only about 150 pages long, so it moves at a nice, quick pace.  Alex, a former soldier in the French war, experienced a lot of horrors in the war, including the loss of his older brother.  Thus, he is a plagued by a sense of emptiness, cynicism, and melancholy.  In Alex's own words, "I seem to have lost the ability to feel anything deeply."  He is convinced that he could never find a lady he admired enough to marry, and even if he did, he is not good husband material.  However, when he first lays eyes on Lucy, he is so moved as to experience a "sense of awe."As for Lucy, she has had a crush on Alex ever since she first espied him during her one and only season.Despite the instant attraction between the two, all is not smooth sailing, as the two must overcome interference from Lady Sinclair and the ever-irritating Belinda.  Lucy too is an obstacle to her own HEA as she is completely convinced that Alex must wants her stupid step-sister.  Lucy's belief is reinforced not only by Belinda's and Lady Sinclair's declaration that this is so, but also because the entire ton seems to agree with this conclusion.  Add to that a conversation Lucy overheard and Alex's determination to keep from drawing too much attention to Lucy--which means he does nothing to make his interest in Lucy obvious, thus leaving the ton to continue to believe his interest is in Belinda--and you can understand why Lucy felt the way she did.Intrigue is added to the plot by way of a man, who is intent on marrying Belinda for his own nefarious reasons, and will do anything to achieve that goal.I thoroughly enjoyed this Cinderella rendition, and would recommend it as a worthwhile read.  IMO, it only needed Belinda's marriage to Lord Sneyd (the vile, evil man who was intent on marrying her for her inheritance)to be perfect.  LOL  It may seem unkind to wish the girl such ill-will, but really I could not stand Belinda or her mushroom mother.  IMO, they both deserved to be miserable for the rest of their lives.  Of course, had Sneyd and Belinda married that would have suite his purposes to perfectly, so maybe that would not have been the appropriate outcome  Nonetheless, at the least Belinda should have been married off to some man who she couldn't control and who wasn't the least enamored of her.  In all honestly, I cannot stomach even the mere possibility that Belinda will now benefit from the connection to a Viscountess (Lucy) and maybe garner an exceptional match for herself at some point in the future.  I wanted that possibility scotched before the book ended--and yes, I know I am overthinking things.  LOL  My only excuse for such a evil wish, is that I have a vengeful streak a mile wide, and it only gets satisfied through my reading.  LOLFYI, this is a clean romance.  Happy reading!