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The Cinderella Reflex
It’s time to stop waiting for prince charming and rescue yourself No matter how strong and independent Tess Morgan appeared on the outside, she was always let down by her inner five-year-old – who persistently believed that one day her Prince would come. Real life is tough. For Tess, her job with struggling local radio station Atlantic 1FM is very tough. Between dealing with the demands of her megalomaniac presenter Ollie Andrews, her neurotic boss Helene Harper and the crazy workload associated with her role as producer on the This Morning programme, sometimes she just wants someone who will make all the problems go away. Helene, meanwhile, is having difficulties of her own. Coming up to her fortieth milestone birthday, her career has taken a wrong turning down an unpleasant cul-de-sac and she’s becoming impatient for the day when her married lover will make an honest woman of her. Things go from bad to worse when Atlantic 1FM is suddenly bought over by mogul Jack McCabe, who immediately launches a competition for a new star at the station. Soon nerves are frayed and friendships strained as everyone battles to keep their jobs. Tess gets back in touch with the ex she still thinks of as The One Who Got Away. Helene tries to pull strings with her influential lover. But what will it take for both women to stop playing Cinderella and find a way to launch their own rescue?
338 pages, Kindle Edition
Published January 21, 2016
21 people are currently reading
49 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
April 12, 2017
This review was originally posted on Between My Lines
Who can ignore a book with the word Cinderella in the title? Not me, and I love that The Cinderella Reflex by Joan Brady has a twist on the fairytale. It’s not about dreaming and waiting for your prince to whisk you away from all your problems. Instead it’s about being proactive with your own life and planning your own personal escape route from whatever is dragging you down.
The Assets of The Cinderella Reflex by Joan Brady:
Entertaining Characters: I love that the characters are rounded out with realistic quirks and plenty of room for self-improvement. Some are characters you root for and some are those you love to hate, and together they made for an eclectic mix.
Radio Station setting: I love listening to the radio and have my favourite shows and DJ’s. So it felt very relatable to have tense radio show setting, where it’s all about trying to swell your audience figures. It was such a cut throat environment and that made it fun to read about.
Career Focused: Both of the main characters have issues in their life to sort out, romantically and career wise. I love that both got equal time, and that the romances didn’t take centre stage.
Lively: The book felt lively; I’m not sure if that’s exactly the right word. But the characters were full of life, the setting pulsated with energy and the pace was brisk. So it felt like a book that excited me and made me want to keep reading at a sharp clip.
The Liabilities of The Cinderella Reflex by Joan Brady:
Basically none! Honestly there aren’t any. I don’t know if it’s a book that I will remember for too long after I read it. But while I was actually reading it, I was entertained and invested in the characters.
Investment potential of The Cinderella Reflex by Joan Brady:
This is well worth picking up for when you want a character focused book with a vibrant setting and a believable story arc. I think if you are a fan of authors like Patricia Scanlan, Carmel Harrington or Sheila O’Flanagan then you might also like this one.
Thanks to Joan Brady for sending me a copy of this book for review consideration. As always this is my honest, unbiased opinion.
Who can ignore a book with the word Cinderella in the title? Not me, and I love that The Cinderella Reflex by Joan Brady has a twist on the fairytale. It’s not about dreaming and waiting for your prince to whisk you away from all your problems. Instead it’s about being proactive with your own life and planning your own personal escape route from whatever is dragging you down.
Balancing the books is a quick fire review where I list the assets and liabilities of a book (as I see them) and leave you decide if you think this book is worth investing in.
The Assets of The Cinderella Reflex by Joan Brady:
Entertaining Characters: I love that the characters are rounded out with realistic quirks and plenty of room for self-improvement. Some are characters you root for and some are those you love to hate, and together they made for an eclectic mix.
Radio Station setting: I love listening to the radio and have my favourite shows and DJ’s. So it felt very relatable to have tense radio show setting, where it’s all about trying to swell your audience figures. It was such a cut throat environment and that made it fun to read about.
Career Focused: Both of the main characters have issues in their life to sort out, romantically and career wise. I love that both got equal time, and that the romances didn’t take centre stage.
Lively: The book felt lively; I’m not sure if that’s exactly the right word. But the characters were full of life, the setting pulsated with energy and the pace was brisk. So it felt like a book that excited me and made me want to keep reading at a sharp clip.
The Liabilities of The Cinderella Reflex by Joan Brady:
Basically none! Honestly there aren’t any. I don’t know if it’s a book that I will remember for too long after I read it. But while I was actually reading it, I was entertained and invested in the characters.
Investment potential of The Cinderella Reflex by Joan Brady:
This is well worth picking up for when you want a character focused book with a vibrant setting and a believable story arc. I think if you are a fan of authors like Patricia Scanlan, Carmel Harrington or Sheila O’Flanagan then you might also like this one.
Thanks to Joan Brady for sending me a copy of this book for review consideration. As always this is my honest, unbiased opinion.
January 20, 2017
Rating ~ 3.5* -> 4*
‘It’s time to stop waiting for Prince Charming and rescue yourself’
Published by Poolbeg Press on 21st January 2017, The Cinderella Reflex is the debut novel from Irish writer and journalist Joan Brady.
The Cinderella Reflex is a story with the feelgood factor. It’s about finding out who you are and that you ARE good enough…
Please read on for my full thoughts…
Tess Morgan is a strong independent woman. She has qualified with a journalism degree and traveled the world looking for adventure. Suddenly she discovers that all her friends are married or in stable relationships, except for Tess. In a move to establish a little security in her life, Tess moves back home to Ireland. Aware that she has let her career slip, she takes a job in a local radio station in Killty, a town outside Dublin. Tess struggles with her role as producer on a morning show. The temperament of her colleagues makes her working day very difficult and not a day goes by that Tess doesn’t wish for better, to be swept away from all the troubles of 'Real life’
Her boss, Helene, is a woman with problems of her own. She is approaching a time in her life where she feels she needs to make a stand and straighten out a few areas that she is just not happy with. Helene is a very confused character. While she strives for success and has always seen herself as a high-achiever, she still finds herself heavily reliant on a man. This over-dependence is a weakness that Helene finds hard to control.
Helene and Tess, two very different women, but both looking for love to rescue them from the humdrum of life.
A shake up in the radio station is the catalyst that both Tess and Helene need to reevaluate their lives.
Handsome Irish business tycoon, Jack McCabe’s interest in the radio station causes quite a stir. With his proposed purchase of the station and the search for a star, the new face of Atlantic 1FM, Tess and Helene come to realise that life can throw many obstacles in the path of success.
‘The Cinderella Complex’ is defined as ‘an unconscious desire to be taken care of by others. The complex is said to become more apparent as a person grows older.’ Ref : Wikipedia
In the 1980’s, American psychotherapist, Colette Dowling was the first to use this term in a book of the same title. Her book referred, to a woman’s need to be looked after and their constant fear of growing old alone.
Joan Brady has taken up the baton in The Cinderella Reflex in a very light hearted manner, but yet with the underlying questions still the same.
In today’s society do women still crave the company and need of a male counterpart to feel worthy of themselves?
Can a woman still be strong in business in her own right, without seeking the assistance of a man?
The Cinderella Reflex is a very relaxed read, whimsical and almost photographic in it’s descriptions of the egos of many of the personalities. The overbearing radio presenter who thinks he’s broadcasting to international airwaves. The suave boss who thinks he has his life, wife & lover all boxed off. The ex-lover who will use anyone and anything to achieve success not caring who he walks over along the way. The gentle and happy-go-lucky guy who rolls with the punches and lets nothing or no-one get to him.
The Cinderella Reflex is a delightful and enjoyable read, a book that will brighten your spirits and leave the reader feeling rather hopeful of today’s society and the strength that a woman can find in herself if she is prepared to just look a little deeper.
‘It’s time to stop waiting for Prince Charming and rescue yourself’
Published by Poolbeg Press on 21st January 2017, The Cinderella Reflex is the debut novel from Irish writer and journalist Joan Brady.
The Cinderella Reflex is a story with the feelgood factor. It’s about finding out who you are and that you ARE good enough…
Please read on for my full thoughts…
Tess Morgan is a strong independent woman. She has qualified with a journalism degree and traveled the world looking for adventure. Suddenly she discovers that all her friends are married or in stable relationships, except for Tess. In a move to establish a little security in her life, Tess moves back home to Ireland. Aware that she has let her career slip, she takes a job in a local radio station in Killty, a town outside Dublin. Tess struggles with her role as producer on a morning show. The temperament of her colleagues makes her working day very difficult and not a day goes by that Tess doesn’t wish for better, to be swept away from all the troubles of 'Real life’
Her boss, Helene, is a woman with problems of her own. She is approaching a time in her life where she feels she needs to make a stand and straighten out a few areas that she is just not happy with. Helene is a very confused character. While she strives for success and has always seen herself as a high-achiever, she still finds herself heavily reliant on a man. This over-dependence is a weakness that Helene finds hard to control.
Helene and Tess, two very different women, but both looking for love to rescue them from the humdrum of life.
A shake up in the radio station is the catalyst that both Tess and Helene need to reevaluate their lives.
Handsome Irish business tycoon, Jack McCabe’s interest in the radio station causes quite a stir. With his proposed purchase of the station and the search for a star, the new face of Atlantic 1FM, Tess and Helene come to realise that life can throw many obstacles in the path of success.
‘The Cinderella Complex’ is defined as ‘an unconscious desire to be taken care of by others. The complex is said to become more apparent as a person grows older.’ Ref : Wikipedia
In the 1980’s, American psychotherapist, Colette Dowling was the first to use this term in a book of the same title. Her book referred, to a woman’s need to be looked after and their constant fear of growing old alone.
Joan Brady has taken up the baton in The Cinderella Reflex in a very light hearted manner, but yet with the underlying questions still the same.
In today’s society do women still crave the company and need of a male counterpart to feel worthy of themselves?
Can a woman still be strong in business in her own right, without seeking the assistance of a man?
The Cinderella Reflex is a very relaxed read, whimsical and almost photographic in it’s descriptions of the egos of many of the personalities. The overbearing radio presenter who thinks he’s broadcasting to international airwaves. The suave boss who thinks he has his life, wife & lover all boxed off. The ex-lover who will use anyone and anything to achieve success not caring who he walks over along the way. The gentle and happy-go-lucky guy who rolls with the punches and lets nothing or no-one get to him.
The Cinderella Reflex is a delightful and enjoyable read, a book that will brighten your spirits and leave the reader feeling rather hopeful of today’s society and the strength that a woman can find in herself if she is prepared to just look a little deeper.
March 1, 2016
I received this book in exchange for an honest review.
Tess and Helene both work at a local radio station, but the two women are as unlike as they could be, at least on the outside. Helene nearing forty, is bossy, exuding confidence in the presence of Tess, her underling. Tess, ten years younger, is meek and afraid to go after the job she really wants. What they don't realize is that, despite their differences on the outside, Tess and Helene have more in common than they think, starting with the fact that they both might be out of a job soon.
Yes, their pitiful little radio station is being taken over by a powerful businessman with cash to spend. He wants to change the station's image and that might just begin with its current employees. Both Tess and Helen, despite their own personal turmoil in their lives, are hanging on by a thread to keep their jobs and their dignity. Add in a motley cast of characters including a psychic, egotistical radio show host, a vindictive wife, and a best friend who is acting strangely, and you have the recipe for disaster in both of their lives.
This novel was a welcome diversion for me after the heavier novels I have been reading of late. It was fast paced with interesting characters, although I found myself disliking most of them...Tess seemed way too whiney and Helene was a little too bitchy for my tastes, but I'm pretty sure that was the author's intention. In the end, they've changed and maybe not in ways you would necessarily think. Check out this enjoyable novel that would make an awesome chick-flick (perhaps staring Ryan Gosling?????)
Tess and Helene both work at a local radio station, but the two women are as unlike as they could be, at least on the outside. Helene nearing forty, is bossy, exuding confidence in the presence of Tess, her underling. Tess, ten years younger, is meek and afraid to go after the job she really wants. What they don't realize is that, despite their differences on the outside, Tess and Helene have more in common than they think, starting with the fact that they both might be out of a job soon.
Yes, their pitiful little radio station is being taken over by a powerful businessman with cash to spend. He wants to change the station's image and that might just begin with its current employees. Both Tess and Helen, despite their own personal turmoil in their lives, are hanging on by a thread to keep their jobs and their dignity. Add in a motley cast of characters including a psychic, egotistical radio show host, a vindictive wife, and a best friend who is acting strangely, and you have the recipe for disaster in both of their lives.
This novel was a welcome diversion for me after the heavier novels I have been reading of late. It was fast paced with interesting characters, although I found myself disliking most of them...Tess seemed way too whiney and Helene was a little too bitchy for my tastes, but I'm pretty sure that was the author's intention. In the end, they've changed and maybe not in ways you would necessarily think. Check out this enjoyable novel that would make an awesome chick-flick (perhaps staring Ryan Gosling?????)
February 6, 2017
THE CINDERELLA REFLEX by Joan Brady is an easy, contemporary read that will make you smile in all of the right places. Tess and Helene are poles apart in personality but find themselves equally unsatisfied in where they are in their lives. While a lot of Tess' friends have established careers and are getting married, she has just returned from travelling her twenties away, and her only real relationship ended in heartbreak. Helene has worked hard to get where she is in the radio business but ever since starting an affair with her boss, her own goals have been pushed aside to be there for him. When it becomes obvious that things are going to get shaken up at the station with the arrival of the new station owner, it is obvious to everyone that life is going to change. With plenty of crazy characters and madcap misunderstandings along the way, will Tess and Helene find a way to be the main characters in their own lives? While at times the pace of the story was a little slow for my liking, overall I enjoyed The Cinderella Reflex by Joan Brady.
*I voluntarily reviewed this book from the Publisher
*I voluntarily reviewed this book from the Publisher
June 6, 2016
That ending. ugh.
April 6, 2017
I had seen both this book and the author, Joan Brady at the Wexford Literary festival and it had gone on my tbr straight away and so I was beyond thrilled to be offered it for review. But instead of starting with the beginning of the book, I’ll move to a little bit before that and turn to the dedication:
‘For Vera, who inspired me to write in the first place with these words of wisdom: “All you have to do to get good marks in English is to make things up.”‘
which, straight off the bat, I found to be so charming, and so, smiling, I settled down to read, happy to get going.
Tess Morgan is struggling at her job at a radio station. This setting was excellent, as we got a real feel for day to day events and issues and the problems that will kill a good, or indeeed sometimes average shows. These shows are more the problem for Tess, along with a highly strung presenter, Ollie Andrews, who she is charged with managing. This was coupled with the daily chore of dealing with her boss, Helene, who is constantly on her back, a falling listenership and talk of a takeover. The book is very much character driven and there were some characters I loved and others I didn’t warm to as much, but I loved that we got to know Helene too, that it wasn’t just Tess’ opinion of her.
The whole book had a lovely homely feel to it, very Irish, and I read it in two nights, very much engrossed and unable to put it down, in fact I was loathe to put it down and would easily have read in one night had I been able to. I predicted some of the occurrences and was thrilled when they happened exactly as I hoped they would. This was especially true for some of the comedy moments, which I really enjoyed.
At times there were a few niggles, some repetition in terms of wording, but that could have been me being a little pernickety. My other issue turned out to be quite a big one for me, that perhaps it felt a little like I’d read it in the wrong time, I felt that I’d have connected with all of that better a few years ago during the recession as opposed to ‘post recession’ (I know we’re not fully post recession but for some reason I just couldn’t reconcile this with the present day).
Even though the subject matter is one that could potentially and rightly cause debate, how talented, intelligent women don’t fulfill their destiny because they’re waiting for their prince to rescue them, I found this to be a very enjoyable, light, easy-going read, one for people who like some homely, charming comedy.
Thanks so much to the author Joan Brady, Poolbeg and to Tracy Brennan from Trace Literary Agency for the book in return for an honest review.
‘For Vera, who inspired me to write in the first place with these words of wisdom: “All you have to do to get good marks in English is to make things up.”‘
which, straight off the bat, I found to be so charming, and so, smiling, I settled down to read, happy to get going.
Tess Morgan is struggling at her job at a radio station. This setting was excellent, as we got a real feel for day to day events and issues and the problems that will kill a good, or indeeed sometimes average shows. These shows are more the problem for Tess, along with a highly strung presenter, Ollie Andrews, who she is charged with managing. This was coupled with the daily chore of dealing with her boss, Helene, who is constantly on her back, a falling listenership and talk of a takeover. The book is very much character driven and there were some characters I loved and others I didn’t warm to as much, but I loved that we got to know Helene too, that it wasn’t just Tess’ opinion of her.
The whole book had a lovely homely feel to it, very Irish, and I read it in two nights, very much engrossed and unable to put it down, in fact I was loathe to put it down and would easily have read in one night had I been able to. I predicted some of the occurrences and was thrilled when they happened exactly as I hoped they would. This was especially true for some of the comedy moments, which I really enjoyed.
At times there were a few niggles, some repetition in terms of wording, but that could have been me being a little pernickety. My other issue turned out to be quite a big one for me, that perhaps it felt a little like I’d read it in the wrong time, I felt that I’d have connected with all of that better a few years ago during the recession as opposed to ‘post recession’ (I know we’re not fully post recession but for some reason I just couldn’t reconcile this with the present day).
Even though the subject matter is one that could potentially and rightly cause debate, how talented, intelligent women don’t fulfill their destiny because they’re waiting for their prince to rescue them, I found this to be a very enjoyable, light, easy-going read, one for people who like some homely, charming comedy.
Thanks so much to the author Joan Brady, Poolbeg and to Tracy Brennan from Trace Literary Agency for the book in return for an honest review.
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