Donna Kauffman, The Cinderella Rules

The Cinderella Rules

Donna Kauffman

Bantam, Jan 2004, $11.00

ISBN: 0553382349

Montana rancher Darmilla "Darby" Landon is very comfortable in jeans on her spread though that gives her international business mogul father apoplexy. She takes after her deceased mother while her younger sister Pepper, though frivolous especially with men, is a chip off the old male block.

Pepper needs Darby to cover for her escorting a Swedish businessman in DC while she has a tryst with her latest forever love. Reluctantly Darby agrees and receives a make over by Glass Slipper, Inc. At the DC airport, Shane Morgan notices the Glass Slipper, Inc limo and bums a ride from his deceased grandma's company. In the limo he meets Darby, who he considers a beautiful Amazon Cinderella. As he struggles with dealing with the business aspects of his inheritance and she with being an escort following the Cinderella Checklist, they fall in love as Shane goes out of his way to see his Amazon sweetheart. However, she is Big Sky while he is international risk taker making anything permanent seem remote.

Though it is difficult to accept that Darby has no finesse to pull off a role change, fans will appreciate this fine contemporary romance. The tale stars two attractive individuals who have similar ideals as to what they want from life thought neither realizes at first that is so of their companion. The support cast, including the male lead's deceased grandma, provides just enough oomph so that the audience fully grasps what motivates Shane and Darby and why. The audience will appreciate learning the Glass Slipper rules of making a worldly princess out of a country bumpkin.

Harriet Klausner