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Annie Burrows’ From Cinderella to Countess is an average read complicated by its overtly silly characters and stock plot choices. Burrows’ style raises the grade enough to take it above a D, but there are fresher historicals out there which I’d recommend before this one.
The impoverished daughter of nobility, Eleanor Mitcham has a crush on Peter, Lord Lavenham, even though he’s far out of her social league. Aware of his wealth, she’s also aware of her own position – her high-minded parents left her with nothing but books, and the lack of funds has caused her to go to work as a ladies maid for his great-aunt by marriage Lady Bradbury. Yet Eleanor and Peter have become great friends as of late, and the elderly lady knows just why Peter’s visits have suddenly become more frequent. While Lady Bradbury calls Lord Lavenham a rake, Eleanor has no knowledge of such behavior, and thus continues to have a pash for him, in spite of her mistress’ warnings that should she try to so much as speak to him she is at risk of losing her job.
Peter is attracted to the shy Eleanor, and when he learns about his great aunt’s edict he concocts a scheme. Partly to tick off his great aunt, partly because he really likes Eleanor but does not want to allow himself to be Ruined By True Love like his best friend and parents, and partly because he know he needs to Do His Duty and continue the Lavenham line, Peter decides to marry Eleanor.
Unfortunately, Peter’s proposal lacks couth and romance – he vows to be faithful to her for a month, and says she can have a man on the side if she so chooses, as long as it’s after he gets an heir on her. Thus, even after they plant a passionate kiss upon each other’s lips, Eleanor is horrified by the prospect of marrying for sex and heirs and not love and passion. She decides to flee Lady Bradbury’s employ in the middle of the night and by luck in a nearby town bumps into the Dowager Countess of Theakstone, whose footman is asking for directions. The Countess so takes a shine to Eleanor that she invites the girl to London, then styles the plain ladies’ companion over with furs and a put-on accent and introduces her as the mysterious Miss White.
Peter takes off in pursuit of Eleanor, but loses sight of her until London, then is incensed by both her choice to abandon him and her rebirth as Miss White. Yet the attraction between them remains strong. Can this relationship be saved?
From Cinderella to Countess is dragged down by the childish behavior of its characters. Peter is petulant and spoiled to a degree – his parents never loved him, ergo love is a trifle to be kicked around – and he gets very whiny when Eleanor dares to think the worst of him. Eleanor is a doormat with little personality, and a thousand times less interesting than The Countess of Theakstone, whose fraught relationship with her former-son in law was more interesting than Eleanor’s constant mousey meeping.
Eleanor and Peter go through the usual misunderstandings and inability to communicate with each other, but can’t stay away from each other because of their sexual combustibility – as much of that as we can get in the suddenly bowdlerized world of Harlequin Historicals.
The best part of the book is definitely the delightful Countess of Theakstone, who is unusual and daffy and fun in a way that makes her very entertaining. The setting is also decently researched.
Otherwise, there’s nothing particularly wrong with From Cinderella to Countess – there just isn’t anything particularly right about it either, and it doesn’t bear the spark or the mark of a worthwhile Harlequin Historical.
Buy it at: Amazon or shop at your local independent bookstore
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Grade: C
Book Type: Historical Romance
Sensuality: Kisses
Review Date: 30/08/20
Publication Date: 06/2020
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
Lisa Fernandes is a writer, reviewer and recapper who lives somewhere on the East Coast. Formerly employed by Firefox.org and Next Projection, she also currently contributes to Women Write About Comics. Read her blog at http://thatbouviergirl.blogspot.com/, follow her on Twitter at http://twitter.com/thatbouviergirl or contribute to her Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/MissyvsEvilDead or her Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com/missmelbouvier
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“Peter is petulant and spoiled to a degree – his parents never loved him, ergo love is a trifle to be kicked around”.
And if his parents had loved him, it would have been “therefore he was so devastated by their deaths that he decided never to risk his heart.” Some heroes are emotionally stunted by their parents in ways that heroines don’t get to be (or at least, don’t get to use as an excuse for why they won’t love anyone).
This is so, so very true.
YEP. Ugh, Romancelandia, please freshen this trope up.
I wrote a historical romance trilogy where there’s a recurring character who’s occasionally asked why he avoids relationships. Each time he comes up with a different excuse we’re all familiar with – his parents were so much in love that his father went to pieces when his mother died, therefore love = heartbreak, or he had a cousin who was abused by her husband, therefore love = abuse, and so on.
And each time, the person he’s talking to calls him out on his ridiculous reasoning (until the third book, when the secret behind his emotional repression finally comes to light). It was a lot of fun to write.
Agents and editors didn’t want the manuscripts, but it was still a lot of fun to write.
“Agents and editors didn’t want the manuscripts…”
Isn’t that always the way? They’d rather stick to the old tired tropes than leap at the chance for something new.
BTW, how many complete manuscripts have you written?
Just counting romance? Seven published by Samhain, one published by Loose Id, six unpublished. Of these six, three are m/f historical, one is m/f historical paranormal, and two are m/m fantasy.
I’m going over the m/m fantasy romances with a view to self-publishing them, because I know one or two people online who self-publish m/m romance, so I could ask them for recommendations on cover art and so on.
Wow! 14 romance novels written? You are prolific! And I assume based on your comment that you’ve written more outside of the genre.
“I know one or two people online who self-publish m/m romance, so I could ask them for recommendations on cover art and so on.”
It’s good you have some people to ask for cover art recs, because I’m definitely not the person for that. My lousy covers are proof enough of that claim. ;)
But for the rest of self-publishing, I’ve been really happy with KDP. They’ve streamlined it a lot since their early days, requires few technical skills. Just MS Word, Kindle Create (their free software), free template downloads for paperbacks (fully compatible with MS Word), and cover uploading. They have an in-program cover designer that’s fairly easy to use. Obviously for anything outside of erotica, you’ll want to have a cover already made nicely elsewhere and then upload it rather than using their in-program tools. Plus, the real-time sales reports are awesome.
There’s some debate about whether or not authors should enroll in KU, but I think it depends on the genre. If you enroll in KU, you can’t publish your book through any company except Amazon- although you can make your work available through other channels such as Barnes and Noble. Then, of course, it depends if you’re willing to accept a little less than half a penny per page on borrows. Romance readers are voracious, so that’s one point in KU’s favor.
As for going wide rather than exclusive, Smashwords is the other fairly well known self-publishing platform, but I’ve never used them. Over the years, they have gotten a reputation for attracting the really nasty stuff that Amazon won’t allow on their platform. But outside of erotica, I really couldn’t say. You’ll have to do some research.
Let me know if you have any questions. And good luck to you!
“You are prolific! And I assume based on your comment that you’ve written more outside of the genre.”
Thanks. :) When I started writing, I was really into fantasy novels, so my first few manuscripts were in that genre. Some day I should dust those off as well.
Cover art doesn’t worry me too much because it seems relatively easy to indicate that a story is a historical romance : have a woman in a ballgown on the cover. I don’t need anything special in this regard, at least not for historical romance. The m/m fantasy romances might take a bit more work, but nothing extraordinary (or extraordinarily expensive).
The parts that worried me were firstly, the technical work of formatting the manuscripts for publication and uploading them, so I’m relieved to hear you say that this isn’t too difficult. And secondly, promotion, which is the biggest headache for me. But if it has to be done… well, it has to be done. And to be honest, I think I’d just enjoy having my work available for readers who want it.
I probably will have questions for you in the future, so thanks again for your encouragement and advice!
You are so welcome!
KDP really is much easier than even a couple of years ago, I’m happy to say. Beyond the occasional glitch, which can be easily fixed by reuploading and resubmitting, I haven’t had any major problems.
As for promotion, the first thing to do is research Amazon keywords. This is crucial. Put on an in-private browser page so Amazon doesn’t tailor its search results to you. Then, type things customers might be looking for such as “regency romance blue stocking” (or whatever). See how many results there are. In erotica, the sweet spot is 2,000 – 5,000 results. Below that means not enough interest in the keyword/subgenre, above that means the keyword is too broad and needs to be narrowed down to promote visibility.
Another promotion tip: Amazon says you’re allowed 7 keywords, but that’s not exactly accurate. Instead, there are a certain number of characters allowed in each of the 7 keyword boxes, so you can actually write a phrase like “mm alpha omega fantasy romance” (as an example) as 1 of your keywords. A good cover and blurb comes next.
Other than that, I’m not a promotion guru. Erotica is the one genre that sells itself without advertising beyond the keywords and somewhat decent front-facing matter. But I have a feeling that’s not going to be true of romance, even with strong keywords, cover art, and product descriptions.
If you have any questions, I float around on AAR quite a bit. I’m sure I’ll find your posts. :)
Ugh, that’s a shame, it sounds like fun!
Thank you! And I decided to self-publish the trilogy, so hopefully readers will find it fun too. :)
Nice cover, though.
It really is quite lovely!