"an amusing Pygmalion-style tale"
Setting: Colorado Springs 1862 The Sullivan family, once a poor mining family, has moved
to Colorado Springs with their new found wealth. The
mother, Bridey, wishes to find a place in society and see
her three daughters married well. Belle, the oldest
daughter, is a tomboy with rusty hair and freckles. Belle
is considered rather plain and is ecstatic when
Christopher "Kit" Stanhope invites her on an outing to look
at rock formations. George Winthrop and Harold Latham
accompany Belle's sisters, Charisma and Grace on the trip.
Once there, Belle and her sisters go to the formation named
for the three graces to make a wish. The sisters think
that it is silly to make a wish, but they promised their
mother to wish for husbands. Before they can make a wish,
they overhear their escorts making fun of them. Even
though they were named after the three graces: Belle is
not a beauty; Charisma is plain-spoken not charming, and
Grace is clumsy. The sisters are mortified to learn that
their mother hired the men to be their escorts. Instead of
wishing for husbands, they wish for the characteristics for
which they were named. Belle, also, wishes for revenge on
the three men for their cruelty. Meanwhile on Mt. Olympus, the three graces decide to
interfere in mortal affairs. It is decided that they will
grant the girls' wishes, but they must be careful not to
attract Zeus's attention. Each girl is assigned to the
grace for which she was named and Belle's wishes will be
granted first. The next day, Kit arrives at the Sullivan house to
apologize to Belle. Kit realized that the sisters
overheard the men, and the only reason he was agreeing with
Harold and George was to make business contacts. His
father, a viscount, sent Kit to America to make business
investments after he was wrongly accused of ruining a young
woman and fathering a bastard. His family believed the
lies and sent him to America in disgrace. Kit hopes to
prove himself in this new country. Belle accepts Kit's
apology and gets him to agree to help her become attractive
and popular. She will need his aid to get into all the
society functions, which have thus far been closed to the
Sullivan family. Belle plans to reinvent herself and get
revenge on the three men, even Kit, whom she is half in
love with. Will all Belle's wishes come true? BELLE OF THE BALL is an amusing Pygmalion tale with lively
characters and some paranormal elements. Belle gets
herself into some amusing situations in her attempts to
extract revenge. I found this book quite funny in places.
Belle is young and inexperienced with a tendency to not
think before she storms ahead. This tendency got her into
trouble several times, and Kit, in true heroic fashion
helped her out. Although Belle performed some not overly
intelligent actions, she seemed to learn from her
mistakes. I was grateful that she was capable of learning
from her mistakes. Kit, also, was young and needed to
learn some lessons. All in all, BELLE OF THE BALL was a
good read, and I'm looking forward to Charisma's story. © Copyright 2002
For eBOOKISLE.com &
ParaNormal Romance Reviews
Reviewed by Marlene Breakfield
Posted December 22, 2002
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