Thursday, May 3, 2012

'The Cinderella Blues' by Obren Bokich and 'The Throwbacks' by Stephanie Queen

2 reviews for tonight..wahoo!!!!

Reviewer: Lindsey

4 stars


‘The Cinderella Blues (Thuh Sin'-dur-rel'-uh Bluze)n.
1.The phenomena whereby otherwise intelligent, capable, successful professional women are convinced they need rescuing by a prince’ (Amazon Description- not much, I know)'


This story contains no sparkly vampires or over muscled alpha werewolves. Mind readers need not apply.

In all my years, I have NEVER used this description. This book was a delight.

Kat is a 30 yr old who has what I consider Cinderella Syndrome. She believed Disney was telling her how life would work.  Wait and prince charming shows up. You know the drill. For the next  50+ years every moment will be a love fest of such grand proportion you shall have no worries from this day on.

You just have to suffer till he shows.

This woman gets in car accidents constantly due to her wandering imagination. These daydreams go from Swashbuckling Pirates to James Bond…and reality sneaks in, and it is FUNNY.


Her bus trips alone are hysterical and sadly familiar.

She invests time in her attractive boss.

There are some interesting family dynamics, and the possibility of a ghost.

The story was a little slow to start, but hang in there. There are some serious LOL moments…lots of fun in this one.





Reviewer: Lindsey

3.5 stars

'She’s a vivacious, light-hearted young beauty from Beacon Hill

He’s a world-weary not-so-young exile from Scotland Yard.

She’s an orphaned decorator who longs for a family of her own.

He’s a rogue detective with a superhero complex.

She’s smitten with this superhero who is the last man she sees in the picket-fence picture of her future.

He’s smitten with this fluffy young romantic who he sees as kryptonite to his career and well being.

But if you saw Grace and David in a room full of people, and you had to pick one man and one woman who belonged together, you would pick them. They would be The Throwbacks.

Vivacious young decorator Grace Rogers sets her sights for that picket-fence life she longs for with the unlikely world-weary British exile, the not-so-young David Young. The ex-Scotland Yard detective joins the Boston Police Department to salvage his career. He hires Grace to decorate his Beacon Hill townhouse to salvage his life.


But this rogue detective’s plans for a new beginning are threatened when he can’t resist the seemingly unseemly romance with his too-young bombshell decorator. Grace turns out to be a key witness in his high-stakes kidnapping case--and like Kryptonite to his career and his well-being with her romantic notions of family life.
David put his life on the line to save her from the kidnappers, but now is Grace willing to put her dreams on the line to save her real-life superhero from himself?’(Amazon description)


First, the positives:  I liked David. There is some sickness in me that enjoys a more sullen, slightly burnt-out-on-life character. It helps if he looks like George Clooney of course!

I enjoyed the fact that he was on “suspension” from Scotland Yard. I won’t spoil why, but it was an intriguing tale.

The age difference was a positive and negative for me.  I am assuming there was a good 20 years between Grace and David. David was introduced to women his age, but he was attracted to Grace. 


The positive of this was not based on age; he just liked her.


The negative of this was that Grace seemed to act like she was 40 years younger than David, which became slightly irritating. There was one scene where the main characters started , uh, becoming …friendly? At one point Grace senses David is breathing too hard and panics that he is having a heart attack. It was almost as if the man had one foot in the bedroom and the other in a hospice facility.

My main problem, and it was mine and mine alone, was Grace.  Reading other reviews, folks LOVE her…LOVE her. I wanted to strangle her, at least in the beginning.

She reminded me of Marilyn Monroe, or at least the idea of what Marilyn Monroe personified--sweet, kind, naive and utterly stupid.

She got on my nerves. Yes, she was hot, young and all of the above.  My number one irritation? She thought David was a GOD.  She bragged about him to anyone who would listen, like a child brags about her dad.

Now, don’t get me wrong, this is all for a reason and later in the book it all comes together. 

This is a fun mystery, definitely light. It is well written, dialogue is snappy , characters are interesting. 

Chances are you’re a nicer person than me ,so you will probably find Grace enduring and sweet.

For you bodice ripping, swashbuckling,  smoochy lovers, there is a little, not a lot. I’m sure you can use your imaginations to fill in the blanks if needed.

Read the book.  I would love to hear what you think.

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