Title: Dirty Rich Cinderella Story
Author: Lisa Renee Jones
Publisher/Year: CreateSpace Publishing 5/18/18
Length: 298 Pages
Series: Dirty Rich #2
Overview
With only nine months left at Stanford, and despite being top of her law school class, Lori Havens takes leave to care for her sick mother. That means she juggles three jobs, the best of which is researcher for novelist, and syndicated columnist of “Cat Does Crime,” Cat Summer.
One evening after finishing up her work at Cat’s apartment building, Lori has an encounter with a sexy stranger, and does something out of character. She goes home with him. The night is perfect, he’s perfect, wealthy, powerful and from out of town. Morning comes, and despite their connection, Lori leaves before he finds out she’s far from the equal he believes her to be. She’s not a charity case and she’s not after his money. She will make her own. In other words, she leaves before her Prince Charming finds out she’s no princess.
Flash forward a few months, Lori’s mother is healing, and Cat’s husband, Reese, has merged his firm with another and Lori lands an internship there, with school credit and scholarship money.. Everything is falling into place. That is until fate reveals a wicked twist of events and Lori walks into a conference room to find her new boss, Cole Brooks, one of the partners, is her one-night prince charming. One sizzling shared look across a boardroom, and it’s clear: this man is not done with her. It’s not long before Lori is informed that she’ll be working high profile cases with her one night prince charming which will require long nights and travel, starting immediately.
My Thoughts
We’re dropped right into the midst of a story where our leading lady needs to catch a break and our leading man seems to have his life in order – or at least he thinks he does. As we’ve come to expect and appreciate from these types of stories, it takes a chance encounter, a one night stand, and limited information to go off for us to get a steamy and exciting story. That happens here just as it did in the first book.
From the beginning we want to root for Lori. I mean, who wouldn’t right? she’s brilliant, (just as Cat was), she was on a path to success, she put her life on hold to take care of her mom, while struggling to right the ship that her father left them in post his death. Things started to turn around when she got a job working for Cat, and that’s literally where she runs into her future.
Enter the hottest man that you could picture – Cole – the name says it all, his link to Reese firms it up and the presence that he has, even on a street corner is off the charts sexy. We know that he’s no match for Lori, except that she’s able to one up him. she gives him control one moment, and leaves the next, without even giving him her last name or identity.
This story is similar to the first book in the sense that we have mains that have had a troubled situation in some form on the journey to get their power and independence. These women are so strong on their own that maybe it’s their downfall, submitting to a powerful man is against all they know but it’s perhaps something good for both of them.
We spend much of our time with Summer & Brooks, the merger of 2 firms where Reese and Cole are partners. Reese and Cat make it so that Lori has a scholarship to finish law school, get an amazing internship and that puts her in the sights of Cole at the firm. She’s a skilled lawyer to be, a rising star, so while she’s potentially at risk to be thought of as a girl who’s slept her way to the top, she’s proved herself over and over again.
The way that Cole takes Lori under his wing is both selfless and selfish. He’s able to mentor someone who’s going to be amazing for his company, yet he’s also able to bring Lori closer to him personally and that’s wonderful and distracting.
Our author brings back various sentiments from past series here – we get to see a bit of the BDSM nature that Cole has without going in to the lifestyle. We see that he likes control and recognizes that maybe Lori needs to give it up to be free. The problem of course comes when he pushes too hard and it pushes her away (granted she’s done the same, so they are maybe too good of a match).
Because this is a series with law at the backbone, of course we’re put into the middle of several cases where the defendants are innocent until proven guilty, until they’re not. Cole this time around has to figure out how to defend a woman that has the cards stacked against her, and a cop who’s got a vendetta against him. Lori has the legal mind to help, but the dynamic between the couple makes things challenging. The secret of their relationship makes the case even harder.
It’s a roller coaster, but one that’s got some intense chemistry and passion. Just when we get lulled into the romance, catastrophe hits and there’s anxiety and angst. turmoil and heat are a great blend, one that makes the outcome less clear each chapter we read through. I don’t know what’s meant to be, either professionally or personally for our mains and the secondary characters that we come to love, but i do know that ms. Jones, our author can write these complex stories better than anyone else. So on that note, it’s on to the next installment if i’m able to track it down tonight. Enjoy!