I usually enjoy books modeled after fairy tales, but this Cinderella story didn’t live up to the ideal. While there were some parts that I enjoyed, there just weren’t enough to make One Night With You memorable.

Lady Jane Guthrie is a widow still very much connected to her late husband’s family, so much so that she is practically a prisoner (slave might be a better term). They have taken over her home, refused to allow her to come out of mourning, and demanded that she care for and teach her dreadful nieces. Jane desperately wants to be free and when she is offered an opportunity to join friends at a masked courtesan’s ball, she grasps it. While there, she recognizes the man whom she fell in love with as a youth who once loved Jane’s older, title-hungry sister.

Seth Rutledge, the new Earl of St. Claire, has returned to England after a stint in the British Navy serving in the Far East, a service forced upon him as punishment by his father. Tormented by guilt over an accident suffered by his sister that he believes is his fault, Seth reenters society in order to find a wife who will care for her in the event something happens to him. Scorned and humiliated by a past love (Jane’s sister), he has sworn never to let himself be that weak again and will marry only out of necessity. However, once he sees a particular masked woman, he finds his vow hard to uphold. This is compounded when he is reunited with his close childhood friend, Jane, who has grown into an alluring woman – one to whom he is very much attracted.

Circumstances bind Jane and Seth together and, once Seth discovers Jane’s alter ego, he believes she set out to purposely humiliate him as her family had in the past. Because of his pride, he refuses to let himself yield to his attraction to Jane.

While the story was interesting, I found Jane’s life depressing and didn’t believe her happily ever after. She goes from unwanted wife, to resented servant, to the once again resented wife who dreams of the boy she once loved. That carefree boy is replaced by a bitter man who doesn’t become carefree again until the epilogue, or so it seems. Seth is the type of hero who makes a vow and intends to keep it no matter how miserable he is or how miserable he makes others.

The conclusion to Jordan’s story also seemed rushed. For example, Seth’s sister is involved in a relationship that suffers its own setbacks within the story. This romance isn’t tidied up until the epilogue as well. Plenty of time was spent on the problems but very little time was spent on the resolution.

While this book wasn’t necessarily a bad read, it was one that didn’t really appeal to me. The HEA was provided, yet it wasn’t one that I could buy into.