Review: Cynders & Ashe by Elizabeth Boyle

Title: Cynders & Ashe

Author: Elizabeth Boyle

Publication: Self Published by Amazon

Release Date: March 2012

Ella Cynders is a hired companion with a romantic bent. So when she switches places with her charge--who is determined to find true love and elope--it is Ella who falls head over heals in love with the very eligible Viscount Ashe. In one masked night, the viscount and Ella find passion and romance, and then tragically are whisked apart before the midnight unmasking. Now five years later, Ella has once again found a way to steal inside the coveted ball, but can she rekindle the magic they found together before her deception is unmasked? This short story was originally published in The Mammoth Book of Regency Romance and in print is 33 pages long.

Note: This is a short story (less than 10,000 words) and not a novella.

Ella Cynders (Cinderella) has nothing and no one.  Her parents died years ago, and now she is just a lady’s companion that keeps getting let go from her jobs without a reference.

Sounds like I could be her back in the 19^th century.

That is until her latest job see’s her switching places with Lady Osborn who just happened to elope that very night with a Lord Percy Snodgrass.

 I didn’t have to put his name in there, but it was too funny not to. 

And so, to distract Lady Osborn’s mother until the deed was done, Ella had to impersonate her at a ball which was no easy feat except that both Ella and Lady Osborn have the same height and build.

I have to point out that Ella has done this before and had the same height and build as one of her past charges as well.  Isn’t that weird?

Anyway, the Ashe ball is held every few years or so in the hopes the prince will find his one true love.

Kinda cheesy but romantic in its own way.

However Lord Julian Ashe had found his one true love five years before in Ella.

I did mention that she switched places before right? 

But, like a true Cinderella she ran off at the stroke of midnight.  Five years later is when the story starts with the last Ashe ball of the season, hence the last time Julian has to find his missing love.

To make a uh, short story even shorter, they meet again at the ball but again Ella seems to vanish without a trace, but this time he knows where to go to find her.  He does, and they live happily ever after.

The End