Review: The Cinderella Moment by Jennifer Kloester

After some heavy duty reading earlier this week with Kiss Me First, it was nice to delve into this beautifully written young adult romance. Far from being a typical tale of teen angst, The Cinderella Moment is a fun and romantic rags-to-riches tale set against a backdrop of New York and Paris. Angel wants to be a fashion designer, but all of the odds are against her, as she has neither money, nor the right social connections to make it in such an exclusive industry. With her dreams of entering the Teen Couture competition cruelly snatched away by the spoiled and scheming Clarissa who steals Angel's designs and then blackmails her, and with her mother ill and in hospital, Angel's future is looking bleak. 

And then, Angel's best friend (and daughter of her mother's employer,) Lily comes up with a surprising scheme of her own. Lily, it seems, is desperate to study acting at a school in London, but her two weeks tuition clash with a trip to Paris to visit her grandmother, who she has not seen since she was five years old. By chance, Angel and Lily have an uncanny resemblance to one another. And thats where Lily's scheme begins. Why not send Angel to Paris in her place, while she travels to her acting school in London. And the best bit? Lily's grandmother just happens to be a close, personal friend of the designer who is judging the teen couture awards. And Angel might just get the opportunity to stop Clarissa from winning the award with her stolen entry ...

Of course, not everything goes to plan ... But to tell you what happens would spoil the story. (Though I will reveal there is a rich boy who falls for Angel believing that she is Lily.) A few things go horribly awry and truths are revealed in spectacular style before a wonderful, Cinderella style ending. I loved every moment of this cleverly plotted teen romance. The book feels very innocent in places, but that just adds to its charms. The romance between Nick and Angel is a sweet and respectful one. I understand that author Jennifer Kloester is quite a fan of Georgette Heyer and it shows in her work.

This is highly recommended for those moments when you just want to escape and read a beautiful, happily-ever-after tale ...

Comments

Amie said…
Great review. I've not heard about this book till now and your review made me want to read it so bad.
7 February 2014 at 02:46
Kathryn White said…
Thank you! The Cinderella Moment is definitely worth it.
7 February 2014 at 19:27
Veronica @ The Burgeoning Bookshelf said…
I'm always looking for books for my teenage daughter. After reading your review I think this book would be perfect.
9 February 2014 at 13:00
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Peppermint Patty: I Cried and Cried and Cried

Image
Unrequited love is a common theme in the Peanuts Comics and is one that I have previously explored on this blog. We know that Lucy loves Schroeder, Sally loves Linus and Charlie Brown has a crush on the unseen, unnamed and utterly unattainable Little Redhaired Girl. But perhaps the saddest unrequited love stories from the comic is that which ran in late June 1972. It was the series of strips where the usually self-confident Peppermint Patty came face-to-face with the Little Redhaired Girl with the intention of thumping her and then something surprising happened: Here we have a usually self-confident girl, who is funny, unashamedly herself and talented at sports reduced to tears by the realisation of who she is not and never can be. I really feel for her in this series of comic strips. She knows that Charlie Brown can never love her, when he is so hung up over a girl who represents a supposedly ideal feminine beauty. Fortunately Linus, the most spiritual member of the Pean
Read more

Charlie Brown, Lucy Van Pelt and the Football

Image
One of the longest, and arguably, most infuriating, running gags in Charles Schulz's otherwise brilliant Peanuts comic strip, is where Lucy promises to hold a football for Charlie Brown and then pulls it away at the last minute, causing Charlie Brown to fall flat on his back. A typical strip looks like this: Source: Go Comics The gag is one of the darker themes in the strip. It works on the concept that every year, Lucy promises to hold a football for Charlie Brown. Every year, Charlie Brown is initially filled with doubt but is eventually pushed on by a kind of optimism that perhaps, this time, Lucy might just let him kick it after all. As a metaphor for life, it is pretty simple. It talks of the moments when we choose to put our trust in people who have let us down only to be taken by surprise when they let us down, again. Lucy is, arguably, one of the crueller characters in the comic. Described as crabby by the other characters, she is often selfish, takes delight in wilfully hu
Read more

Phrases and Idioms: Tickets on Himself

To have tickets on himself: (Australian slang.) To be conceited or vain. To have an overinflated opinion of oneself.  He's got tickets on himself if he thinks that any woman would fall for that. I was thinking about this particular bit of Australian slang the other day, after my boss said, "He's got tickets on himself," to describe the actions of a particular individual. At the time, I smiled, knowing exactly what the boss meant. Later on, I started to ponder on this unusual phrase and wondered where it might have come from. A search on google helped me find the definition, but that was about all. There are no references to it being used in pop culture or literature (if you find one, let me know,) and at the time of writing this post, Tickets on Himself was not listed on Urban Dictionary. (I tried to add it, but the fuckers rejected my definition. They probably think I have tickets on myself or something for trying to add a relatively common piece of A
Read more