The Sleeping Beauty Proposal

Table of Contents

 

 

“Opening a book by Sarah Strohmeyer is like opening a box of chocolates—sweet, a little nutty, and absolutely irresistible.”

—Meg Cabot, author of
The Princess Diaries
and
Queen of Babble

“A big, cheery story with enough fairy tale and froth to let us escape the mundane, and with enough intelligence to make it worthwhile.” —
BookPage

“Takes the best of Bridget Jones and
Sex and the City
and makes it fresh and entertaining.” —
Romance Readers

“
The Cinderella Pact
is for every one of us whose foot was too big to stuff into that glass slipper. It's engaging, funny, and as hard to put down as a bag of M&M's.”

—Harley Jane Kozak, Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity Award- winning author of
Dating Dead Men
and
Dating Is Murder

“[A] delightful frolic . . . featuring an authentic woman who can't help but dabble in a little bit of fantasy.” —
Kirkus Reviews

“What a find! From the moment I read the first page, I was hooked. . . .
The Cinderella Pact
delights on all levels. I can't think of enough gushy things to say about it. You will
not
be able to put it down.” —Johanna Edwards, bestselling author of
How to Be Cool

"An uproarious, upscale, tongue-in-cheek tour de force.”

"Wicked, frothy fun ... Life may be steamy in the metropolis, but it's just as bawdy in the burbs.” —
Publishers Weekly

"[Strohmeyer] uses her observations to sharp comic effect.”

—
The Boston Globe

“A wicked, quick read.” —
Houston Press

"[A] frothy tale of love, lust and lies.” —
Kirkus Reviews

"[Sarah Strohmeyer] has a gift for snappy prose and comic timing ... amusing subplots, rollicking fun, and enough peril-and-romance to raise the pulse.... This frothy, funny fiction is a great escape.” —
Seven Days
(Burlington,VT)

"Bubbles Yablonsky is ... bright, slightly trashy, [and] outrageously funny.This is one to take to the pool.” —
St. Petersburg Times

“You're going to love her.”

—
New York Times
bestselling author Jennifer Crusie

“Bubbles is fun, and so is Strohmeyer's book.”

—
The Philadelphia Inquirer

"Possibly the first novel of its kind to offer beauty tips.”

—
The Boston Globe

“Fizzy as a bicarb, funny as Evanovich. Should bubble right to the top of the mystery bestseller lists.”

—Carolyn Hart,
New York Times
bestselling author

"A sexy, irrepressible heroine, riotous supporting characters ... and even a makeup tip or two.”
—Library Journal

“Wicked wit and playful intelligence.”

—Claire Cook, author of
Must Love Dogs
and
Multiple Choice

"Bubbles ... has evolved into one of the toughest investigators around. And she does it all with a rollicking sense of humor.”

—
Calgary Herald

“As much effervescent fun as its heroine's name.”

—Meg Cabot, author of the
Princess Diaries
novels

“Relentlessly funny. I love it!”

—
New York Times
bestselling author Linda Lael Miller

“The dumb-blonde shtick works well with the whole loony business, and Strohmeyer's sharp eye for styles and regional details adds to the realism and the charm.”
—Publishers Weekly

“There's a lot to be said for silly that's done so very well.”

—
Houston Chronicle

“In an era of pluckier-than-thou females, a nitwit heroine could be a welcome change. Enter Bubbles Yablonsky—a breath of fresh air.” —
Kirkus Reviews

ALSO BY SARAH STROHMEYER

New American Library
Published by New American Library, a division of
Penguin Group (USA) Inc., 375 Hudson Street,
New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto,
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Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices:
80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

Published by New American Library, a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Previously published in a Dutton edition.

First New American Library Printing, June 2008

Copyright © Sarah Strohmeyer, 2007

Excerpt from
Sweet Love
copyright © Sarah Strohmeyer, 2008
All rights reserved

REGISTERED TRADEMARK—MARCA REGISTRADA

eISBN : 978-0-451-22396-8

1. Marriage proposals—Fiction. 2. Self confidence—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3569.T6972S55 2007b
813'.6—dc22 2007012791

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For the indomitable Kathy Sweeney

You're engaged to be married.You're radiant, feeling a bit like a celebrity.... Do not panic
.

—MARTHA STEWART'S KEEPSAKE WEDDING PLANNER

Chapter One

If you ask me, the best part about the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale is that she didn't have to do anything to get a man. She just lay around for a hundred years. And one day a cute guy with lots of ambition and extra time on his hands rode up on an expensive horse, hacked through a bunch of brambles, ran upstairs, and kissed her.

Voilà! Instant husband.

This has been my problem. I'd like a husband in theory, but I don't want to have to work for one in practice.You know, keep my legs shaved and my figure trim. Dress well for all occasions. Learn how to grill a steak, twice-bake a potato, check my teeth for spinach, say no to desserts, look stunning in a bikini, bat my eyes, suck in my stomach, never burp, fetch beer, giggle at his every joke, wear thongs that ride up my butt, make nice to his sister, and play those games.

I am lousy at those games.

My mother loves them. She loves the whole challenge of baiting and trapping the elusive white-collar, upwardly mobile North American male. I think she wishes she were still single like she was back when she lassoed my father, the prudent bank president in a gray suit, the guy who never fails to lead strangers to the brink of suicide with mind-numbing lectures on the importance of building credit and pursuing equity.

For example, one day my mother sent me a present with a note on pink stationery that said: “Be the first to hang up and he'll be the first to call back!” It was a white plastic egg timer. I sat on my front step and stared at it, baffled.

Then I called my best friend, Patty Pugliese, who said, or rather yelled, as she tends to do, “It's so you'll know when to get off the phone with a guy, you moron!”

Patty's a successful lawyer at a boutique firm in Boston, unmarried and determined to stay that way. As the oldest sister of seven kids growing up poor in South Boston, she likes to say that she's already raised her family.To her, marriage means diapers and a husband who stops by long enough to get you pregnant again. She'd much rather sleep around and drive a Porsche.