Two disappearances, two murders, and a quest for Cinderella's bodice, or a spellbook...no one seems to know and it doesn't really matter in this convoluted plot and badly written 'tale'.

I absolutely hated this book and felt like I wasted two hours of my life reading it. The only good thing I have to say is at least I didn't make the mistake of buying it. ( )

I remember enjoying the first one of the series, but I didn't remember the characters very well. It took me a few chapters to warm up to them, but I enjoyed the mystery. The killer was on my list, but not at the top. Ophelia and Prue arrive in Paris looking for Prue's mother, but she is gone. Prue's stepfamily is very strange, but when her half-sister is found dead, in a Cinderella type dress, and on a pumpkin patch, they will need to use all their wits to find the killer. ( )

Synopsis: 'Variety hall actress Ophelia Flax’s plan to reunite her friend Prue with her estranged—and allegedly wealthy—mother, Henrietta, is met with a grim surprise. Not only is the marquise’s Paris mansion a mouse-infested ruin, but Henrietta has inexplicably vanished, leaving behind an evasive husband, two sinister stepsisters, and a bullet-riddled corpse in the pumpkin patch decked out in a ball gown and one glass slipper—a corpse that also happens to be a dead ringer for Prue. Strangely, no one at 15 rue Garenne seems concerned about who plugged this luckless Cinderella or why, so the investigation is left to Ophelia and Prue. It takes them through the labyrinthine maze of the Paris Opera, down the trail of a legendary fairy tale relic, into the confidence of a wily prince charmless, and makes them vulnerable to the secrets of a mysterious couturière with designs of her own on Prue’s ever-twisting family history. '
Review: This is a cozy mystery with a healthy helping of a romance novel. Interesting plot twists, and an interesting answer to 'who done it'. ( )

It was a strange twist to the Cinderella story... Not really my cup of tea
( )

took a loooong time to get into this book and there were too many characters to follow. the idea was a bit convoluted as well--trying to retell the Cinderella tale. finally interesting towards the end of the book as it was an unexpected ending and I would like to see how the next book goes. ( )