Cindy and the Fella and Calling All Glass Slippers are two connected novels set in the college town of Clair de Lune, California. They share a common sensibility and many of the same characters. The main difference is the protagonists and romance in one are wonderful; in the other, not so much.

Calling All Glass Slippers is the title of a play written by Laura Ellison. Laura returns to her alma mater to stage the play for the first time and finds herself dealing with theater director Jared Benton. They had a brief relationship when both were students. It ended badly, and Laura is determined not to get involved with him again. Then her play starts to have a strange effect on people, sending previously bickering pairs into fits of passion. Laura can’t explain it, but soon finds herself unable to resist Jared, despite the fact that she’s not sure she can trust him.

This story may have worked well on its own, but reading it right after Cindy and the Fella, with the same supporting characters and similar events (Laura rents a room in the same house Cindy did; she gets a job at the restaurant where Cindy worked) only invites comparisons to the first story that Calling All Glass Slippers can’t achieve. It isn’t bad so much as lacking the elements that made Cindy and the Fella so good. The characters are less distinctive and their love story is less than satisfying. They’re making out the first time they encounter one another, they’re in bed together shortly thereafter, and Laura realizes she’s in love with him halfway through the book. That pretty much rules out any chance of seeing them actually fall in love. After reading about a couple who genuinely seemed to like each other, it was hard to see what drew Jared and Laura to one another.

However, the theater setting is rarely done in series romances anymore, which made this a nice change of pace. The play motif keeps this story more plot-driven, and there are enough characters and plot developments to keep the book from getting boring. At times the plot overshadows the romance, though I was far more interested in some of the secondary characters than in the main couple, so it wasn’t such a bad thing, even though some of the developments regarding the play are very predictable. The love story picks up in the end, particularly the last few chapters, and the closing is suitably romantic, but the rest of the story isn’t as satisfying.


Duets #89 demonstrates how the Duets line’s biggest selling point – two new novels in one volume – may also be the series’ biggest drawback. One story is usually better than the other. I’ve only read one where both stories were equally great reads (Duets #7 for the record, with Kristin Gabriel’s RITA-winning Annie Get Your Groom and Jennifer Drew’s Taming Luke). Duets #89 continues the trend of one story better than the other. Even so, Jacqueline Diamond has written two short books that avoid the usual series romance plots, offering a taste of something different. It’s worth checking out for Cindy and the Fella alone, but I recommend waiting a few days before starting Calling All Glass Slippers to give it a fresh chance. I bet it would be a better read.