"AFTER MIDNIGHT"

Truck-stop waitress Luanne Evans spent one wonderful night 10 years earlier with a handsome stranger in her trailer park home. A night that left her pregnant and married to her 'best friend', Jeff Henderson.

Jeff married Luanne, raised her son as his own and pursued a career racing cars. His team was financed by Prince Alek of Carpathia, who also raced. Unbeknownst to Jeff or Luanne, Prince Alek was the stranger who unknowingly fathered Chase. Luanne is 7 months pregnant when Jeff is killed in a race and she is unaware that the wheels have been set in motion for Alek to discover Chase's parentage.

Alek goes to see Luanne and ends up taking her and a very unhappy Chase to Carpathia. Chase is grief-stricken over his father's death and 'acting out', but a change of scene helps and he quickly adapts to life in the palace. Alek's concerned Grandmother is determined that Alek marry Luanne and publicly declare Chase his son and heir. Meanwhile Luanne discovers she is farther along then she thought and has to take steps to protect her unborn child.

The synopsis of the plot sounds like other books you have read, all variations of the Cinderella tale. But, HTC goes into territory not usually explored in a category book. The characters are flawed, fully developed and very human. Alek has been a playboy/Peter Pan-type who has begun to finally grow up and Luanne is a woman who has lived with guilt for years over her inability to love Jeff, as she thinks she should have. An emotional revelation towards the end of the book takes us into unexplored territory, yet made the Happily Ever After ending extremely believable. Honky-Tonk Cinderella is just an exceptional book, the best of what a series book can be and deals with serious topics in a believable way. Bravo!

Reviewed by Linda Hurst
Posted January 1, 2002

Summary

In HONKY-TONK CINDERELLA, the second installment in KAREN TEMPLETON'S How to Marry a Monarch mini-series, the death of an old friend leads to Prince Aleksander Vlastos's discovery of a son he never knew he had. . .and a reunion after more than a decade with Luanne Evans, the Texan barmaid who'd come perilously close to winnowing past the soul-weary prince's defenses. But Prince Alek now has a potentially devastating secret of his own, one he's determined to keep from the already-stressed -- and very pregnant -- Luanne, who, despite her determination to overcome her trailer-trash background, is far from comfortable living in an eighty room palace. But the more time this unlikely pair spends in each other's company, the more they find themselves wondering if there's a chance of finishing what they'd barely begun that night in Sandy Springs, Texas so long ago, for not only their son's sake, but for theirs, as well. . .or is it too late for them to overcome the damage done by years of secrets and mistakes?