Welcome to the Cinderella Countdown!
At the stroke of midnight New Year’s Eve, The Glass Slipper Sisters will present their new book, Cinderella Treasure Trove.
Fifteen romance authors have served up delicious samples of their modern Cinderella-themed stories, along with a feast of tasty treats and glitzy party ideas.
Genre: contemporary romance
Kristen Jensen, a Navy veteran, is at the end of her rope. She weighs almost three hundred pounds, and she2527s becoming a cripple. Desperate for help, she asks her VA therapist if she can go into treatment with the addicts and the alcoholics. In treatment, Kristen meets Sean Wesley. She melts when she sees his black hair, blue eyes and perfect body, and assumes the only reason he2527s speaking to her is that she2527s the only other person in the room. She has no clue, at first, who he really is, or what a rock star could ever see in her.
Sean thinks it2527s tragic that a pretty girl is trapped inside such a huge body, and when she shares her story, he2527s impressed by her openness and honesty. She2527s the bravest person he2527s ever met, sitting with her fruit and salad surrounded by people eating the day-old pastry donated by the local bakery. He finds himself drawn to her, but she2527s had decades to build her layers of defense.
Sean Wesley went into the snack room to help himself to coffee and a roll. He2527d probably gain weight while he was here without his personal trainer and weight room. He2527d been a fat kid—always the last to be chosen for games, and stuck in right field when he did play. He2527d been saved from a life of obesity by a growth spurt in his late teens, a judge who gave him a choice between jail and the Marines, and switching addictions from food to booze and then cocaine.
By rights, Sean shouldn2527t be at a VA facility. Celebrities like him usually got sober at places like the Betty Ford clinic or Hazelden. Actually, he2527d come from Betty Ford, but he2527d still felt shaky so his manager, Don Nelson, had done his homework. Danville, Illinois, was in the middle of nowhere. The program was different, based on Rational Emotive Therapy, and Sean was a veteran. While he made too much money to be treated at the VA, there2527s money and then there2527s money. Sean had money—the kind that opens doors and breaks down barriers. The kind that makes even the Federal Government say, “We2527ll see what we can do,” and then do it.
So here he was in the middle of a cornfield in bum-fuck Illinois at a shabby old VA hospital. An enormously obese woman came into the snack room interrupting his reverie, and Sean thought, That could2527ve been me. What a shame—she2527s so pretty.”
* * * *
Kristen noticed the table of goodies and the drop-dead-gorgeous man perusing them in the break room when she went in there to put her lunch in the refrigerator.
“Want one? I heard they send 2527em over every morning. I guess they2527re yesterday2527s leftovers.”
That2527s right. Offer sweets to the fat lady. She managed a tight grimace. “Thanks, but I2527m here because I2527m a food addict.” She held up her orange.
“I2527m Sean.” He prob2527ly wouldn2527t give a fat chick like me a second look anywhere else. Still, what is it about men with black hair and blue eyes that makes me go all mushy?
“Hi.”
“I2527ve heard of food addicts, but what makes ya call yourself that?”
“When my kids were little, I left them without a babysitter while I went to the store and wrote a rubber check for ice cream and M&Ms. I2527d say I2527ve been about as desperate for my fix as any addict or alcoholic.”
“Wow! Yeah, I guess so.” He held the door for her as they exited and then followed her into the Day Room.
Interested in helping with the release tour for the Cinderella Treasure Trove tour (January 1-7, 2015)