'The Sleeping Beauty Proposal' by Sarah Strohmeyer

ISBN: 0525950184
Format: Hardcover, 320pp
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Price: $24.95

Genie Michaels at 36 has pretty much everything she wants from life. She has a job - okay so it isn’t a dream job, but at least she’s employed and she has an apartment that she shares with her overly large diabetic cat. She even has the man of her dreams, Hugh, a dashing hunky British novelist who has just hit the big time.

When Hugh proposes on national television everyone assumes that the lucky lady is Genie, even Genie. But horror soon grips Genie’s heart as she watches Hugh talking on his cell phone to someone else - some other woman.

What are you supposed to do when the man you have been in a relationship for the past four years pops the question to someone else but everyone thinks it was really you? Well, according to Genie’s best friend Patty, you fake the engagement. So Genie does just that.

When her brother Todd tells her about a must-have house about to hit the market Genie can’t resist taking a look. Still haunted by the memories of a house she could have shared with Hugh she decides to take a step forward into a new life.

Genie’s life has always been on hold - until now. Suddenly she is doing all those things she wished she had done before. Moving out of her cramped apartment, getting a better job, and wearing a diamond ring - well, at least a fake one.

Soon the gifts are coming in, expensive china and fish platters, and the guilt is starting to weigh her down. And the house she wanted to buy? Todd’s friend Nick buys it right out from under her. But Nick is not just a carpenter working for her contractor brother, oh no, he is also incredibly handsome and interested in the engaged Genie.

There are a lot of great characters in The Sleeping Beauty Proposal, the kind you wished you had for friends. Genie’s brother Todd, her best friend Patty - plus her parents are fantastic, not to mention hunky Nick. Sarah Strohmeyer's dialogue is sharp and funny; and there are a few unexpected twists in the story to keep you turning pages, but for the most part the driving force is Genie and her blossoming life (including romance with Nick).

In the end it all turns out well, as you would expect it to, with loads of laughs along the way. The Sleeping Beauty Proposal is a quick fun read, the kind of book you will want to share with your friends as you compare ex-boyfriends to Genie’s horrible Hugh.