Seducing Cinderella

By: Gina L. Maxwell

Narrated by: Holly Fielding

Length: 5 hrs and 52 mins

Publisher's summary

Mixed martial arts fighter Reid Andrews’s chance to reclaim his title as light-heavyweight champ is shattered when he’s injured only months before the rematch. To make sure he’s healed in time, his trainer sends him to recuperate under a professional’s care - Reid’s best friend’s little sister, all grown up.

Disorganized and bookish Lucie Miller needs some professional help of her own. She’d do anything to catch the eye of a doctor she’s crushed on for years, so when Reid offers seduction lessons in exchange for 24/7 conditioning for the biggest fight of his career, Lucie jumps at the chance. Soon Reid finds himself in the fight of his life...winning Lucie's heart before she gives it to someone else.

©2012 Gina L. Maxwell (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Nothing new here

This love story about Luci (a divorced physical therapist) and Reid (a MMA fighter) in Nevada was a repeat of much of what’s in the contemporary romance book. Almost all of the plot devices were too similar to so many other stories: long-time interests in big brother’s best friend + protective big brother, friend agrees to help other friend become love machine or sex pot, one no longer seeks love but only compatibility, and lil’, good girl and big, bad guy, down to the clichéd tribal tatoos. There were other common devices that I won’t share, since they would give away too much of the story. To add to this, the way the devices were used were also too similar. So, within an hour of listening to this story, I began to get bored and look forward to “getting it over with,” as in, the story ending. If you’re someone who hasn’t listened to enough stories with these devices, then this story might interest you more than it did me. It was all very predictable. There were also several attempts at humor or wittiness. They didn’t work for me.
And I’m really, really not a fan of guys who end most sentences spoken to women with “sweetheart,” “darling,” or “doll” spoken, not as an individualized endearment, but as a way to downsize or minimalize females. Reid might not have meant it that way, but his constant use of “sweetheart” only at particular times came across that way to me. It’s not like it was used during sex or some romantic scene. Other problems included the reason for Luci and Reid reestablishing their childhood friendship being all-but forgotten during the story. At one point, it seemed crucial to Reid, and then it was barely addressed in the story. Similarly, there wasn’t any attention given to Reid being a MMA fighter beyond referencing as a fact. And Reid’s attraction to Luci came out of nowhere and seemed to have no basis. So his affection for Luci all seemed more about his ego and jealousy, not love.
The author’s attempt to add depth to Reed fell flat and seemed to require too much effort; it was not believable. Likewise, Luci’s “change” was too fast and too easy, thereby making her come across as fake and that aspect of the storyline as false.

The narrator fulfilled the minimal level of acting techniques, but with little inflection or passion when it seemed most needed, expected or required. So she sounded bland or bored much of the time. She also had an audible breath sound between the end of a sentence and the start of a new one that was a little bit irritating at times, primarily due to its frequency. And there was some kind of weird growl or something in the background occasionally.

I liked that Luci was not a va-va-voom girl. And I liked the last 40 minutes, but they were not good enough to make up for the other lost minutes. And there’s an especially cheesy statement at the very end that almost ruins those good 40 minutes. The second best part about the book is that it was mercifully not long and, since it was so shallow, common, and predictable, it didn’t matter when I fast-forwarded during parts of the story. I didn’t miss a thing.