Main Characters: Carlisle Wainwright Cushing, Jack Blair
Series: None
Carlisle Wainwright Cushing, of the old-moneyed Willow Creek, Texas Wainwrights, is the daughter of larger-than-life Ridgely Wainwright… Cushing-Jameson-Lackley-Harper-Ogden. Given her mother’s predilection for divorce, is anyone surprised that Carlisle became a divorce lawyer, far away in Boston, where no one, including her fiancé, knows she’s an heiress. But now, three years later, Carlisle is lured back to Texas to deal with her mother’s latest divorce which has the whole town talking, and the family-sponsored 100th annual debutante ball which is on the verge of collapse. Suddenly the determined lawyer is weighing the merits of beads vs. crystals on ball gowns and teaching eighteen year olds to balance books on their heads, all the while trying to figure out how to tell her deeply Southern mother that she is engaged to a Yankee. Things go from bad to worse and she’s afraid she’ll never get back to Boston, at least with her reputation intact, especially when good ol’ Southern boy Jack Blair shows up on the opposite side of the divorce court, making her wonder if the man is going after her mother in the proceedings, or her given the pesky little fact that she left him three years earlier. Her trip home challenges Carlisle’s sense of who she really is and forces her to face the secrets her family has tried to keep, well, secret. Funny and smart, poignant and true, THE EX-DEBUTANTE is a story about the risks one woman must take if she stands a chance of finding herself, real love, and her place in that crazy thing we call family.
Carlisle Wainwright-Cushing is a lawyer from Texas, living in Boston. She’s made a life for herself in Boston and is happy with her life until she gets a call from her mother that sends her back to Texas to handle her mother’s latest divorce. What starts out as Carlisle making a quick trip home turns into a trip that shakes her life right up. She gets suckered into planning the Debutante Ball to bring honor back to her family name.
The main reason she’s not excited about being back home is her ex-boyfriend (you know the one that you never really get over) Jack Blair is the opposing counsel. This is one of those light contemporary chick lit romances that will leave you sighing when all is said and done because watching Carlisle and Jack battle wits was such an entertaining way to spend a few hours. On top of the Carlisle and Jack goodness, you have 8 girls that have no idea how to make their debuts into polite society and a chaotic family that just won’t quit. Seriously, the laughs are endless in this book.
I adored Jack’s niece and I adored Jack. Man was Jack a hottie, a smart man that just made me swoon with every page. I loved watching him with Carlisle, watching them go at it with each other was too much fun and made me love Jack a little more with each chapter.
Linda Francis Lee hit it out of the park with this one. This is one of those books that I wish I had written but am so glad that I read. I’m getting ready to start the other book by Lee that I found, The Devil in the Junior League. I can’t wait to see what kind of goodness will be in that book.
If you’re looking for a cute, light and fluffy contemporary chick lit book then you won’t be sorry with this one. It’s a good one.
Book cover and blurb credit: http://barnesandnoble.com
I loved The Devil in the Junior League, thanks for reviewing this one, battle-of-ex-lovers how can I miss this one?
I have TDITJL in my TBR pile, it’s why I picked up this book to read again…I’m going to read TDITJL soon though. I can’t wait!