Review: The Firefighter's Cinderella by Sonia Weiss

The Firefighter's Cinderella
(Fire and Sparks #3)
Sonia Weiss
Release: Nov. 18, 2019
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ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley

What’s a Cinderella to do when she’s accidentally kicked her Prince Charming in the face and broken his nose? Hold an audition, of course.

Harper Bailey is desperate to keep her family’s amusement park business up and running, but her employees keep quitting, and the man playing prince to her Cinderella in the company’s mainstage show is just the latest casualty. When sexy firefighter Rafferty Bradford, the most eligible bachelor in their small town, offers to step in, Harper agrees--reluctantly. After all, she and Rafferty are ex-best friends with a ton of past history. Surely they’ll have zero chemistry onstage.

Rafferty has his own reasons for agreeing to play Prince Charming, and none of them are good. If Harper finds out the truth, it’ll just reinforce every rumor she’s believed over the years about Rafferty’s bad rep. But when their chemistry explodes both onstage and off, he’ll have to choose between happily-ever-after for himself...or the Cinderella he’s fallen for.

Review:

I picked up The Firefighter's Cinderella because the blurb reminded me of Well Met, which I loved, where the characters had great chemistry in costume but fought IRL. It's actually more of a second chance romance since Harper and Rafferty were childhood friends who had a falling out years ago when one of them proposed dating.

I love the small town thing where everyone except the couple knows they're going to get together, as well as the meddling grandmother in this story. I also enjoyed Harper's fairy tale-themed amusement park, though I wish we'd gotten to see more of it other than the show. But I had some issues with the story as well, primarily that I found Harper really unsympathetic at first. I think if I had read the first two books in the series that feature Rafferty's siblings, she would have been even more so. I also felt like the timeline of their friendship was confusing.

The Firefighter's Cinderella is very much a Hallmark Movie waiting to happen due to its rushed HEA (although the short length contributes to that as well) and the lack of heat. But if you enjoy those fluffy, feel good romances you might want to give this one a try.

    

3  stars