"REDNECK CINDERELLA is a combination Beverly Hillbillies and Debbie Reynolds' Tammy"

By selling their suddenly choice property to developer Cody Dean, Jolie Russell and her widow dad have become millionaires. With Cody's help they buy a new home in affluent Cooper Creek Estates. However, their country club neighbors scorn the nouveau riche father and daughter as something less than pond scum.

Jolie sets a goal for herself to attend the Cottonwood Ball without embarrassing herself. Cody's younger brother Brett offers to help prepare her; he also suggests she obtain speech lessons and etiquette training. As the redneck tries to become sophisticated she realizes she has fallen in love with debonair Cody. However, she also assumes he can have any woman he wants so would never settle for one with dirt between her toes.

REDNECK CINDERELLA is a combination Beverly Hillbillies and Debbie Reynolds' Tammy starring a likable heroine who feels like a fish out of water as a country bumpkin amongst urban sophisticates. The lighthearted story line is amusing as Jolie tries to fit in while her dad only makes a half-hearted effort for her sake. The key to this fun frolic is no one is Cruella de Ville though their class differences make Jolie feel doltish, but as Ms. Reynolds sang in Tammy: "Whippoorwill, whippoorwill, you and I know" Jolie's in love.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed by Harriet Klausner
Posted March 29, 2009

Summary

Raised by her widowed father, Jolie Russell could keep up with any man—that is, until wealthy and sexy land developer Cody Dean struts into her life.

Cody buys the Russell farm with an impossible-to-refuse multimillion-dollar offer, then relocates Jolie and her dad to the Copper Creek Estates. But the country club atmosphere isn't ready for Jolie's kind of country. As her two worlds collide, Jolie wonders how she can ever hope to capture Cody's heart without giving up her grits.