Book of the Week: The Cinderella Deal

We’re into the final countdown to Christmas – if you missed them over the weekend, my annual Christmas book suggestion post is up as is my annual begging post of which books I’d like for me.  On to this week’s Book of the Week and yes, I know, it’s probably too soon to pick another Jennifer Crusie book, but sue me, I can’t help it – this was my favourite read last week.

In The Cinderella Deal we meet Daisy and Linc.  The only thing they have in common is the fact that they live in the same building.  Daisy is free spirited, artistic and can’t help but gather waifs and strays.  Linc is buttoned up, serious and a total workaholic.  But when Linc goes for an interview for his dream job, he realises that the thing that’s going to stop him from getting the post is the fact that he’s single.  So he invents a fiancée.  But when he and his fictional other half are invited to visit the college for a final interview, he needs to find someone to pretend to be about to marry him.  And Daisy owes him a favour.  But it all gets a lot more complicated than either of them expected.

I enjoyed this so much.  I think that fake relationships/engagements of convenience are one of my favourite romance tropes, but it is one of the hardest to pull off in contemporary romance.  However when it works, it really works and this really, really worked for me.  Daisy and Linc are a perfect opposites attract couple and she softens some of his hard edges while he gives her the skills to get tough and step up her work to the next level.  I was interested (ad slightly worried) to see how the fundamental differences between their outlooks on life were going to get resolved without Daisy changing herself and her personality to conform to Linc was wanted, but I really shouldn’t have been because Crusie pulls it out of the bag.

This is quite an early Crusie, so the plot maybe isn’t quite as developed as in her later books, but the secondary characters are a lot of fun and there is a lot more secondary plotline than I expected considering that it was originally a Loveswept book.  It’s obviously not a Christmas-themed book, but if you’re looking for a fun flirty romance to take your mind off your Christmas preparations, then this might be it.

I borrowed my copy from the library, but you can’t get it that way then you should be able to get hold of a copy on Kindle or Kobo, in paperback from Amazon or pick up a second hand edition from somewhere like Abebooks.

Happy Reading!