Violets in the Snow is a Cinderella story set in the regency period. It has all the classic elements – an evil step-mother, two spoiled and nasty step-sisters, a handsome prince (O.K., he’s a duke), a fairy god-mother (O.K., she’s an angel), and a beautiful heroine who even has tiny feet.

Cinderella is the most popular story in the world with variations found in every country and culture you can think of. When well-done, it is a very satisfying story – good rewarded, evil punished and all that. Unfortunately, Violets in the Snow is blah, bland and boring, with characters who act childish and are so cute and fey that I kept getting the urge to slap them.

Isabelle Montgomery is the daughter of an Earl. Her mother died when she was young and her father re-married a widow with two daughters. When he died, Isabelle’s step-mother started to treat her like a servant and her two daughters spread rumors that she was crazy. Since Isabelle spends a lot of time wandering around playing her flute and talking out loud to her guardian angel a lot of people believe she is a mite touched in the head.

Isabelle has an older brother, Miles who has been away at school for years. Miles asks his friend, John Saint-Germain, Duke of Avon to sponsor Isabelle for a come-out and find her a husband. John is a widower who had a bad marriage and therefore distrusts women (where have we seen that plot before?), but he agrees and soon ends up sponsoring not only Isabelle, but her two step sisters too.

Isabelle somehow manages to charm John’s mother and aunt and all the servants for no reason I can figure out. She just floats around in a cloud of golden hair and flute music while talking to her guardian angel. Eventually, John falls in love with her and she with him, although they spend a lot of time doing the, “I love you, I hate you, I love you, I hate you, I love you” bit.

At Isabelle’s and John’s wedding, a former mistress manages to stop the proceedings by depositing a child with them and then disappearing. John insists that he has no idea who the child is (yeah, right), but Isabelle insists on keeping her. That manages to put a damper on the honeymoon for a while, but when Isabelle finds out that John wears black silk underdrawers, she is overcome with fey lust. But long before then, I had lost interest.

Violets in the Snow attempts charm and comes up twee instead. I am a sucker for a good Cinderella story, but this one was just way too sweet for me to tolerate. If you are fond of the Cinderella story and want to read a good one, I suggest you get Danelle Harmon’s recent book, The Beloved One and pass on Violets in the Snow.