Harlequin Duets, $5.99, ISBN 0-373-44089-8
Contemporary Romance, 2000
Cathy Yardley’s The Cinderella Solution starts out fun but it peters out into a predictable conclusion, thus ending up more of a fizzle than an explosive bang.
Charlotte Taylor, tomboy, and her best buddy and partner-in-crime, Gabe Donofrio, strike a bargain. She will undergo a make-over and receive a marriage proposal in a month’s time. Gabe hoots, “Get outta here!” The bet is on.
Charlie, with the book The Guide . . . How to Go from Miss Wrong to Mrs. Right in One Year in hand, then proceeds to transform herself into some sort of Julia Roberts does Cinderella beauty and has Gabe’s hormones all a-tizzy. And when Jack Landor, Eligible Hunk, moves in to zone on Charlie’s personal space, Gabe sees red.
Unfortunately, The Cinderella Solution soon plods and finally comes to a standstill. The same old same happens – she loves Gabe, Gabe loves her, but he decides she’s better off with Jack and pushes her away after their lovemaking, etc etc etc. Needless to say, the whole predictability ruins my mood. Next time, please let the characters do want they want without those formulaic contrivances spoiling everything, please!
This thing leaves me irritated; I want to be just like the evil stepmother and lock both Gabe and Charlie in the pantry until they promise to behave and never let the formula mess with their story again. Two oogies.
