Reviewer: Robyn Roberts
Title: The Ex-Debutante
Author: Linda Francis Lee
Publisher: St. Martin’s Press
ISBN-13: 978-0-312-35496-1
Release Date: April 2008
Genre/Sub-genre: Women's Fiction
Year/Setting: Present Day Willow Creek, TX
Overall Rating: 4.5
Sexual Content Rating: Very Subtle
Language (Profanity/Slang) Rating: Mild
Violent Content Rating: None
Jessica's Website:
www.jessicabenson.com
Carlisle Wainright Cushing left Willow Creek, Texas and never planned to look back. However, when her mother calls her home to help with yet another divorce, she’s determined to get somebody to take her mom’s case and hot foot it back to Boston. In Boston she’s a sought-after lawyer in a prestigious firm. She has a wonderful fiancé (that her mother is unaware of) and a life outside of the Wainright Cushing name. Somehow, rumor got around that she grew up poor and Carlisle never saw the need to correct that error. So she must keep her fiancé away from mama’s mansion until she can break the news to him.
While in Texas trying to get out of town, she discovers that her mother may be left without any debutantes for the Symphony Debutante Ball. Carlisle receives a letter her grandmother wrote before she died. In it, grandma asks Carlisle to take over the debutante ball and make sure the tradition of their family putting the ball together goes on. Carlisle is no dummy and is determined to say no and go back home to Boston. Never say never because in a rash move, Carlisle takes on the ball.
The top-notch killer lawyer is now begging girls to be in the 100th Annual Symphony Debutante Ball. That might not be so bad—if bad boy Jack Blair wasn’t constantly showing up and throwing her libido into overdrive. Can she pull off a ball, clean up a messy divorce and keep her fiancé and job in Boston?? Only time will tell.
I found this book to be particularly witty and although it’s not listed as comedy, there were enough comedic moments to keep me laughing to the end. As Carlisle has to fight her attraction to Jack Blair, keep ducking her fiancé when he wants to visit her in Texas, keep her mother from flirting with every man she meets while trying to put on a debutante ball, I had to laugh. I loved Carlisle’s can-do spirit and her determination to turn lemons into lemonade.
A charming look behind the scenes of a debutante ball which is sure to delight fans (and opponents) of such balls.
Robyn
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