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The Cinderella Factor
The French chateau is the perfect hiding place for Jo -- until its owner, Patrick Burns, comes home... At first Patrick thinks the runaway is a thief until he sees that what Jo's hiding is her painful past. Soon the brave, lonely girl is the woman he can't live without.
285 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2006
About the author
Sophie Weston
183 books43 followersJenny Haddon was born in London, England, where she always returns after the travels that she loves. When she was small, her mother couldn't bear reading aloud, so her mother taught her to read at an appallingly precocious age. She wrote her first book with her own illustrations at the age of four but was in her 20s before she produced her first romance as Sophie Weston.
She studied English Language and Literature at university. Choosing a career was a major problem. It was not so much that she didn't know what she wanted to do, as that she wanted to do everything. So she filed and photocopied and experimented. She worked as consultant at the Bank of England and all the time she drew on her experiences to create her Mills & Boon books. She edited press releases for a Latin American embassy in London (The Latin Afffair); lectured in the Arabian Gulf (The Sheikh's Bride); waitressed in Paris (Midnight Wedding); and made herself hated by getting under people's feet asking stupid questions under the grand title of consultant all over the world (The Millionaire's Daughter). She also is an active member of the UK's Romantic Novelists' Association's Committee, and was its twenty-three Chairman (2005-2007).
Jenny has one house, three cats, and about a million books. She writes compulsively, Scottish dances poorly, grows more plants than she has room for, and makes a mean meringue.
She studied English Language and Literature at university. Choosing a career was a major problem. It was not so much that she didn't know what she wanted to do, as that she wanted to do everything. So she filed and photocopied and experimented. She worked as consultant at the Bank of England and all the time she drew on her experiences to create her Mills & Boon books. She edited press releases for a Latin American embassy in London (The Latin Afffair); lectured in the Arabian Gulf (The Sheikh's Bride); waitressed in Paris (Midnight Wedding); and made herself hated by getting under people's feet asking stupid questions under the grand title of consultant all over the world (The Millionaire's Daughter). She also is an active member of the UK's Romantic Novelists' Association's Committee, and was its twenty-three Chairman (2005-2007).
Jenny has one house, three cats, and about a million books. She writes compulsively, Scottish dances poorly, grows more plants than she has room for, and makes a mean meringue.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
August 10, 2022
4½ Stars ~ I'm sorry to say that this is only the third book I've read written by Ms. Weston. I'm looking forward to correcting that with a bit of a reading binge. I found her writing voice to be compelling, pulling at my heart strings in all the right ways.
I'm a sucker for a brave heroine who has faced tremendous obstacles and yet is able to find joyful moments. Ms. Weston gives us such a heroine in her craftily developed Jo, a woman who at 19 has a learned wisdom from personal hardship and still has so many firsts to experience as a woman. Lead to believe that she had been so unloved her mother gave her away to the foster care system and that she was unappealing in every possible way, she struggled throughout her childhood. Both physically and emotionally abused, she knew her only survival was to runaway, and she did at 15. But she could never go too far, for behind her she left a foster brother, four years her junior. Her instinct for survival gave her the strength to adapt to just about any situation and enabled her to plan her brother's escape. She hoped Mark could hold on until he turned 16, but the defeat in his voice on the phone was too much to ignore and so she plotted their escape. She had kept in touch with a teacher, who now lived in France with his newly wed wife. It was to them that she took Mark, but immediately knew they were struggling financially and though Mark would never be turned out, Jo needed to continue to find her own way. Fate brought her Lacombe and the plight of a young man out of his depths handling a vintage Rolls Royce. Jo, ever so good with cars, came to his aid and found herself employed at a nearby estate looking after a garage filled with vintage autos worth a fortune. Here, for the first time she can remember, she is happy.
Our hero is at a crossroads. His has been a self-driven life that brought huge success as an investigative reporter while exposing him to all the horrors that man has created, both in war zones and in the powerful world of politics. While reporting in a war zone, a child places his own life at risk for Patrick. This selfless act shakes him to his soul and he realizes that his legacy really has no lasting worth. He then decides he can no longer just be the neutral observer reporting events and he helps locals cross borders to find refuge, in process getting shot in the hip. It's his recovery that brings him back to the estate in France he'd inherited from his godfather. He's expecting to find his half-brother Crispin, but instead he finds a willowy wood nymph joyously skinny dipping in his river. Patrick is enchanted and is soon to realize that this young woman is the guide he's been seeking to decide his future path.
Ms Weston has woven a poignant love story. Patrick and Jo are struggling to find peace and purpose to their lives and in discovering the depths of each other, they discover their own true inner dreams. I'm sure this romance will be a pleasure to read again and again.
I'm a sucker for a brave heroine who has faced tremendous obstacles and yet is able to find joyful moments. Ms. Weston gives us such a heroine in her craftily developed Jo, a woman who at 19 has a learned wisdom from personal hardship and still has so many firsts to experience as a woman. Lead to believe that she had been so unloved her mother gave her away to the foster care system and that she was unappealing in every possible way, she struggled throughout her childhood. Both physically and emotionally abused, she knew her only survival was to runaway, and she did at 15. But she could never go too far, for behind her she left a foster brother, four years her junior. Her instinct for survival gave her the strength to adapt to just about any situation and enabled her to plan her brother's escape. She hoped Mark could hold on until he turned 16, but the defeat in his voice on the phone was too much to ignore and so she plotted their escape. She had kept in touch with a teacher, who now lived in France with his newly wed wife. It was to them that she took Mark, but immediately knew they were struggling financially and though Mark would never be turned out, Jo needed to continue to find her own way. Fate brought her Lacombe and the plight of a young man out of his depths handling a vintage Rolls Royce. Jo, ever so good with cars, came to his aid and found herself employed at a nearby estate looking after a garage filled with vintage autos worth a fortune. Here, for the first time she can remember, she is happy.
Our hero is at a crossroads. His has been a self-driven life that brought huge success as an investigative reporter while exposing him to all the horrors that man has created, both in war zones and in the powerful world of politics. While reporting in a war zone, a child places his own life at risk for Patrick. This selfless act shakes him to his soul and he realizes that his legacy really has no lasting worth. He then decides he can no longer just be the neutral observer reporting events and he helps locals cross borders to find refuge, in process getting shot in the hip. It's his recovery that brings him back to the estate in France he'd inherited from his godfather. He's expecting to find his half-brother Crispin, but instead he finds a willowy wood nymph joyously skinny dipping in his river. Patrick is enchanted and is soon to realize that this young woman is the guide he's been seeking to decide his future path.
Ms Weston has woven a poignant love story. Patrick and Jo are struggling to find peace and purpose to their lives and in discovering the depths of each other, they discover their own true inner dreams. I'm sure this romance will be a pleasure to read again and again.
April 16, 2024
So good, wonderful characters.
May 17, 2009
An enjoyable read.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews