When cautious, responsible librarian Phoebe O'Dunn gives in to a whim and goes incognito in a vintage Edwardian gown to a charity costume ball, her well-ordered life is turned upside down by an unknown swashbuckling swordsman. And wealthy California-based Noah Kendrick can't forget his elusive "princess." When he ends up staying in Knights Bridge to dog-sit for an old friend, it's only a matter of time before Noah and Phoebe reconnect--and must decide what to do about the sparks that still arc between them. VERDICT This enchanting Cinderella story brings a diverse pair together and solves a few mysteries along the way. With charm and a spot-on sense of time and place, Neggers returns fans to her idyllic Knights Bridge with a story that reprises a number of familiar characters and adds depth to the town's history. Neggers (Secrets of the Lost Summer) lives in Vermont.
[Page 82]. (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.In the pleasant but bland second contemporary in the Swift River Valley series (after Secrets of the Lost Summer), smalltown librarian Phoebe O'Dunn allows herself to find love. After being jilted, Phoebe closed her heart off to romance, and opened it instead to the needs of her friends and family. When she secretly participates in a masked ball wearing a gown she unearths in the library's hidden attic, she is inexplicably drawn to a swashbuckling swordsman who sweeps her off her feet and unintentionally involves her in a mystery. Soon Phoebe discovers that her dance partner was Noah Kendrick, billionaire friend of her best friend Olivia's fiancé, and she backs off--but Noah recognizes her and hopes to reconnect with her. This slow-paced romance uses an overabundance of cliché and unvoiced thoughts to replace meaningful dialogue, and the mysteries are entirely overblown. Even Neggers's many fans will find this lackluster yarn disappointing. (Feb.)
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