Cinderella Steals Home

Cinderella #3

by Carly Syms

College baseball pitcher Doan Riley was always a good guy until things in his life started to change him. Now he’s reckless, angry and has a penchant for getting himself into trouble, though he’s always been able to find his way out. Until now.

Holly Shaw’s back in town for the first time in years, and she isn’t happy about it. She's only in Arizona because she has nowhere else to go and her dad’s letting her stay with him until she figures out her next move now that her mom jetted off to Europe with her new husband.

Holly just wants to make enough money to move away…until she gets involved in her father’s summer baseball league for the college guys in town.

When she meets her older brother’s friend Doan for the first time, she thinks he’s rude, arrogant and totally unlikeable, but as she gets more and more involved with the team, she starts to realize that first impressions shouldn’t always be the lasting impression.

--

Author's Note: This is a young adult novel of about 55,000 words. It features one scene with underage drinking.

Genres: Romance, Sports, Young Adult, Contemporary, Sports Romance, College, Contemporary Romance

402 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 27, 2013

About the author

Carly Syms Hill is a 30-something-year-old graduate of Wisconsin and Northwestern. She was born in New Jersey where she wrote her first book in the second grade and fell in love with the NFL's Jacksonville Jaguars a few years later, sparking her love affair with football that led to CINDERELLA IN CLEATS.


Carly lives in the Phoenix suburbs, and spends her days hanging out with her husband and stepdaughter, playing with her zoo of animals (3 dogs, 1 cat, 1 hamster, and 2 fish!), writing, working in marketing, exploring the desert and cheering on her favorite sports teams!

Reviews

[mads · Rating 3 out of 5]

beach reads from my old kindle lol

[Allison · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hm. Well. Uhhh. I'm not really sure what to say about this one. It was overall a really good story. I really enjoyed reading it.

This book really answered the question of "can you like a book and hate the main character?" for me. Yes. Absolutely. I strongly disliked Holly. She was mean, arrogant, and hated Doan for pretty much no reason. She seemed to think she knew everything. At the very beginning of the book when Holly was driving to her dad's house in Arizona she encounters Doan and a friend racing in their cars on the highway. This infuriates Holly and she decides she HATES Doan over it. To be clear, she doesn't just dislike him or think he's an idiot- SHE HATES HIM. Holly brings this incident up no less than 5 times. On page 70, I started counting. Literally AT LEAST 5 times. STAHP. LET. IT. GO. So because of Doan and his friend racing one time she now can't stand to be around him. She loathes him. This racing trigger thing is never explained. It's never revealed that Holly had a friend or relative that died in a car accident. The reader is just supposed to accept that hating someone because they did one dangerous/stupid thing is reasonable.

Doan, I really liked. He was a nice guy with obvious demons who was hell bent on befriending Holly (why, I have no idea, but we will get to that).

So yes, I liked this book. And if it wasn't for the next part of my review I'd have given it 4.5 stars.


HOLES GALORE!



I honestly kind of feel like there were some pages left out of the eBook I bought or something. Did I accidentally read the second book in the series first? I had so many questions while reading this book that I started writing them down:

1. Why is Holly and Justin's dad rich? It's very vaguely implied that he has something to do with baseball, but no one ever comes out and actually says that he's a former MLB player until the last third of the book.

2. Why does Holly think she's entitled to Doan's story upon meeting him? It's very weird to me that she's aggravated that he doesn't want to reveal his personal history to her when he first meets her.

3. I mentioned this before, but the amount of hate she feels for him over the racing incident is inexplicable to me.

4. Since when is Holly so awesome at baseball that she's asked to play in a summer league for NCAA athletes? That's preposterous. A co-ed NCAA summer league? No way. First of all there's no mention of any other girls on the teams. Secondly, the players would riot. A bunch of 18-22 year old college athletes do not want a girl on their team. They want to win.

5. The batting cage scene in the story was beyond explanation to me. I understand that the author wanted to throw Holly and Doan together, but for what reason does a pitcher specifically need to take her to the batting cages to freshen up her hitting skills? Batting cages = machines. Doan wasn't going to actually pitch to her. But this story totally required that a University of Arizona pitcher take Holly to the batting cages, not just you know anyone with hands that can press buttons. In reality she could have just gone by herself. I'm sure there's a batting cage attendant or something.

6.Where the heck did Natasha go and why is she bad news? That whole deal just kind of went away, huh?

7. Same with the thing about Doan and girls? On the boat, Allison mentions something about how she's sure Doan will be different with Holly? What the heck did that mean? Never explained.

Annnnddddd finnnallllyyyy the big question:

8. What the frack does Holly look like?



This is not addressed at all. I don't know how tall she is, what color her eyes are, what color her hair is. I know she's pale. That's it. This made it really, really hard to picture the story so I just imagined a freaking brown haired, brown eyed, every girl. If the author would have described her as "The Super Hot Chick" that I would have had understood to some extent what Doan saw in her and why he kept bugging her to be his friend/girlfriend after she acted like an asshole all the time.

[S.E. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Male and female protagonists meet under unfortunate circumstances; female finds male attractive but hates his guts; female is inevitably won over by male’s persistence and charm. This book, on the whole, is pretty formulaic, with the obligatory complications, uncertainties and teenage angst involved. Even so, I was moderately entertained. The only minor grouse I have is Holly’s refusal to put aside her prejudices and her righteous indignation over Doan’s flawed behavior at their first meeting and her repeated visits to this issue soon became a tedious mantra. To be fair to her, she did move on after a while, but a little while too late.

[Kate McMurry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun YA/NA contemporary romance

Ten years ago, Holly was 8, her brother Justin 11, and their mother and father had a happy marriage. Or so Holly thought, until her father, a wealthy, pro baseball player, fell in love with another woman and asked her mother for a divorce. The family split in two, Holly leaving with her mother to live in Pennsylvania, and Justin staying behind with their father in Arizona. During the intervening years, Holly has seen her brother rarely and her father only once, when she attended his wedding to his long-time lover five years ago. Currently, Holly has just graduated high school, and has come to live with her father as a last resort, because her mother has married an Italian count and moved with him to Italy and Holly has no desire to live outside the US. Justin, her father, and her newly pregnant stepmother all welcome Holly to their home. But Holly feels alienated from all of them, especially her father, whom she has never forgiven for betraying her mother and destroying their family.

Just before she arrived at her father's home, Holly had spotted a handsome, reckless young man drag racing in his truck on a public street. Enraged at his endangering other people, Holly had scolded him loudly when they both pulled up at a stop light. She is surprised and dismayed when he shows up minutes after she reaches her father's house and joins a party Justin is having at the huge pool in the back yard. She learns the young man's name is Doan, and he's a good friend of Justin. Doan is also a talented college pitcher with a good chance at being drafted into the pros--if he can overcome his reckless behavior.

Doan makes it obvious that he is interested in Holly, but she refuses to go out with him, in spite of her unwilling reciprocal attraction to him. Then her father and Justin strongly urge her to participate in the summer baseball league her father coaches for a group of college players, two of whom are Justin and Doan. In spite of her unresolved resentment toward her father, and her desire to resist temptation by staying away from Doan, the chance to play baseball is too hard to resist. During her childhood before she parted from her father, she played baseball constantly and was quite good at it, and she longs to play again.

Holly and Doan are two wounded souls, but they compensate for their pain in opposite ways. Holly needs to feel in control at all times, and in Holly's opinion, Doan seems to prefer to be out of control at all times.

There is plenty of sexual chemistry between Holly and Doan and lots of fun repartee as they move from antagonists, to mutual respect, and very gradually to romance. I enjoyed their relationship very much, and though initially in this novel both Holly and Doan have a lot of rough edges, it soon becomes evident that each of them has a huge capacity for love, a great deal of loyalty, and an innate depth of emotional courage. The author does a terrific job of conveying Holly and Doan's romantic journey from distrust to trust as they gradually confide their deepest secrets and fears to each other and risk being emotionally vulnerable to one another as they never have to anyone else.

The subplots of the baseball league and Holly's relationship with her father and brother are very well done. I also appreciated the chance to reconnect with Natalie and Shane, the protagonists from Cinderella in Skates, as they live out their happily ever after. Natalie attends college and works in the same town as Holly's father and brother, and Shane, who attends college in California, comes to visit her.

Though the protagonists are "new adults" rather than teenagers, I think this book could be classified as both YA/NA, since the subject matter is appropriate for older teens 17 and above. The hallmark of most NA these days seems to be a lot of raunchy sex, foul language, heavy drinking and sometimes drug use, and the story lines are often very dark. That kind of "edginess" is not as apparent in this book. Yes, there is some swearing, and occasional heavy drinking, but there is no consummated sex, only very sweet, affectionately passionate kissing between the protagonists.

The writing in this book overall is excellent. The characters are sharply drawn, the setting in Arizona is vividly conveyed, and the scenes with baseball are quite interesting, even for people like me who are not big fans of that particular sport. Best of all, Carly Syms is terrific at writing romance. I have read all her YA/NA contemporary romance novels so far, and I look forward to reading anything else she offers.

I rate this book as follows:

Heroine: 5 stars
Hero: 5 stars
Subcharacters: 5 stars
Romance Plot: 5 stars
Baseball Subplot: 5 stars
Family Drama Plot: 5 stars
Writing: 5 stars
Overall: 5 stars

[Mackenzie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I feel a little bad about rating this book only 2 stars because I've rated worse books higher but I expected more from this book than I did from those others so I don't feel bad enough to change my rating.

Cinderella Steals Home was not a bad story, it just wasn't all that great either. It was the type of story I enjoy when I go in with low expectations and no interest in being emotional invested. That may sound like a jab but it wasn't meant to be. Sometimes that is what I'm looking for. I think if I were to reread this book while I was in that mood, I would have enjoyed it more. There were a few things that kept this book from being good: poor character development and Holly and Doan' s relationship a couple.


Character (and sometimes story) development was seriously lacking. There were loads of characters whom we learned next to nothing about. Justin, Natalie, Natasha and Tanya were just a few examples. Justin, Holly' s brother, could have been such a strong character and had serious subplot potential (estranged brother and sister reconnect after nearly a decade apart?) but no such luck. He was in the book plenty but he was pretty much just there, in the background flirting with girls, playing baseball, swimming or throwing teasing "meaningful" looks at Holly that weren't really all that meaningful. We really didn't learn much about him besides that he played baseball, he didn't mind sloppy seconds and he didn't mind pushing his emotionally damaged, player friend on his sister. Seriously, was he trying to hook his friend and sister up from the very beginning? Why? And what exactly was his story? What did he think about his father, mom and sister and all of their issues? Especially his Mom, she pretty much abandoned him. None of these things were at all addressed. What about Natalie? I know we met her in Cinderella in Skates but these are stand alone books and therefore she should have been properly re-introduced. She was supposed to be Holly' s new BFF but they never interacted outside of work and we learned nothing about her outside of her boyfriend Shane was a pro-hockey player, they were deeply in love but in a long distance relationship, she knew Justin and some of his friends from high school, and her grandma owned the cafe. And what was the point of Natasha? How did she add anything to the story? Then there was Tanya. Did Dad marry a trophy wife or did she have some redeeming qualities that we weren't privy to? And if she was just a trophy wife, doesn't that sort of negate his and Holy's cathartic moment. There was just so much material here that Syms did nothing with. Even Holly and Doan could have been better developed.

Holly's and Doan's relationship bugged me sometimes. I routed for them but there were a few things that just got under my skin. First, why is Holly so angry about Doan racing down a busy street at the beginning of the book but it barely registers later when it really, truly should have? Second, what exactly does Doan see in Holly at first? He just seems to like her immediately for no apparent reason. Third, talk about anti-climatic and luke-warm. Finally, I find it really hard to believe that Holly would not have caught on to Doan' s "secret" and even harder to believe that no one would have clued her in.

There are very few books that I would encourage people not to read and this is not one of them. However, I won't likely be recommending to anyone either.

[Goddess Of Blah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really liked the 2nd book in the series Cinderella in Skates starring Shane and Natalie. I loved how we got to understand Ice Hockey, Wisconsin's Germanic traditions and the chemistry between the two was hot.

However, in this story had far too many negatives:

Negatives:

1. The hero, Doan Riley's "secret" was pretty obvious and didn't warrant his attitude. If you go to war, there is a likely chance that you will die.


2. The heroine, Holly Shaw's behaving was melodramatic and far too angst-y. She also change dyer mind over the smallest things - if something is really important to you like singing or playing baseball then the actions of a guy really wouldn't change that for you. Holly stops her show (singing live) twice due to Doan. I can appreciate the first time but the second time didn't make sense. If singing is so important to you then why do you need a guy you've just met to influence your actions so heavily? Singing has been with you far longer.


3. Some of the actions didn't make sense. It was like adding adversity for the sake of it.


4. The Propaganda was silly. Doan's brother James was NOT fighting in Iraq for our freedoms - there were no WMD. It was for oil. Let's not change history. I'd be worried if my kid read that.


5. There was a lack of chemistry and not much character development in this book compared to Cinderella in Skates.


6. Holly's mum marries an Italian count - I mean seriously? There's loads of normal people in Europe. Enough with he counts. And I doubt any of them own their own castles anymore. They're even poorer than us in England.


------------------------------

Positives:

1. Shane and Natalie make an appearance in this book but they don't dominate it, and its not all "awwww" etc - she added them in subtlety


2. Enjoyable details regarding baseball. Now I know where the phrase "step up to the plate" comes from.


3. The family story was sweet (although I still feel sorry for the poor mum)

[Makenzie Sayers · Rating 5 out of 5]

My parents have been divorced for a couple years and I have been living with my mom in Pennsylvania and my brother, Justin, has been living with our dad in Arizona. Our mom soon got engaged then got married and decided to move to Italy with her new husband. I had no desire to move out of the US so my dad, his wife, and brother invited me to live with them. So I packed up my stuff and moved across the state to Arizona. When I pulled into the driveway at my dad’s house, I was greeted by my brother and I gave him a big hug! I have not seen Justin since our parents got divorced. When I got settled into my new room my brother came in a knocked on my door. He asked me if I wanted to come join him and a bunch of his friends at the pool. I said sure and got in my swimsuit and walked down to the pool. I found a chair right in the sun and laid down and started to tan. All the sudden I feel all kinds on sun screen landing on my back. I immediately sat up and it was a handsome looking guy. His name was Doan...

When I started reading it “Cinderella Steals Home”, I didn't know what to think of the book. As I read more and more I really got into the book and couldn't put it down. This book is realistic fiction because it could actually happen in life. The author, Carly Syms, is a great author. She wrote many other books and I definitely recommend them. I would rate this book a 5 stars out of 5 stars because I loved this book and would read it again!

[Jessica Vickery · Rating 3 out of 5]

What to say about this book?
Honestly I loved the story idea, the basics was really cutesy. But… It wasn't written that great, it was good but there were flaws, quite a few.
My rating is actually a 3.5 but I decided to go with a three.
I was looking forward to a baseball related book and it lacked. The characters were good but it took too long to really understand them or more to the point for them to come to the light. You can figure out early what happened to make them the way they are but you'll come up with 100 ideas that are way off. I say read it if you want a quick cutesy read but it's not one of my top. And I'm not trying to be harsh cause I did enjoy the book but it just wasn't a wow kind of book for me.

[Alina · Rating 3 out of 5]

So, the cover is definitelt gorgeous.

The book itself? I dunno, but I feel like it had a lot more potential. Don't get me wrong, the story is written well enough and the characters are likeable enough, but the plot is just underwhelming and it feels like there is barely any progression.

The stereotypical hate to love plotline doesn't get enough playtime imo and other issues are also only covered superficially.

Yes, it's a quick read but I think I'd have preferred it if there was a bit more to the story even if that meant it'd take longer to read.

Also, I was kinda weirded out by the name Doan. Who calls his kid Doan?

[Purple]

Too snobish. Hardly believable - what kind of custody is that anyway??? Siblings that barely recognize eachother, daughter that has vague memories of her father... A father that is RICH and can easily afford to pay for plane tickets or money for car gas to send his daughter or arrange some kind of meetings/holidays to see eachother. I mean, c'mon, that's rubbish - not even emails, pictures anything??? And that's just a part of it...I don't want go any further...

[Lburt · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Stars. I liked the idea of the story and the characters were good, but I felt the story was forced. Doan and Holly's relationship felt off. Then there's the ending and the accident. I didn't get the point off the accident at all they could have had that conversation any where, not in a hospital room. And what person goes from waking up in a hospital bed to who cares I was hurt in the accident I want to talk about our relationship. It just didn't make since.

[I · Rating 2 out of 5]

I felt that the book made such a big deal about Holly leaving Arizona and the tension between her and his father and brother, and it didn't felt real, first because they never explained what happened between Justin and Holly, moving with your mom to another state doesn't mean you stop talking with your brother and only see him once in over a decade, and Justin and Holly never talk about their relationship

I liked that Nat and Shane made a little appearance in the story, I didn't expected that

[Cait · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5, this was middle of the road until the end which just: ugh. Doan didn't really have an excuse for acting the way he did & the car accident at the end was such an eye roll moment

I just learned this is part of a series, so I'm tempted to read Cinderella in Skates, because they were cute in this book.

[Marly Quitorio · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't plan to read this book and I didn't even read its synopsis I just downloaded it so, when I started reading... mind as well finished it right?

well, for me there's nothing really interesting bout this book and what kept me going was the reason that I just wanted to know Doan's secret and when I finally knew... my initial reaction was just "ok. so, that's it??!" but as a whole it was really ok the idea and all the characters were ok and the other readers might just find it amazing!

[[michele] · Rating 2 out of 5]

From 63% to 100% I just skimmed. BORING.

Mother marrying an Italian count? Ugh. Fine.

Glossing over dad's infidelity because everything worked out for the best? Ugh. Fine.

An 18 year old girl who hasn't touched a baseball in YEARS playing on a summer league team with college guys? Wtf? Ugh. Fine.

Doan pursuing Holly for most of the book and then suddenly being all "I don't let people get close to me". NO. Just no.

[Jessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked this book. But I didn't love it.
I wasn't a big fan of Doan, maybe because he wasn't really the boy-next-door I've been enjoying recently.
But I did really like Holly. She stood up for herself but, grudgingly, changed and was happier and could admit that she was wrong.
Overall pretty good. I would recommend this. :)

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was disappointed in this story. It could have been great but the storyline was convoluted and lame. Nothing was really resolved but then again then wasn't much of a problem to begin with. There wasn't much of a romance storyline and it was too simple.

[Sinead · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the romance was cute, but there was nothing overly spectacular about the story as a whole. Plus, it shouldn't be that easy to get a summer job! She didn't even interview her for crying out loud. Not realistic; fictional or not.

[Crystal Feaster · Rating 4 out of 5]

I Loved the idea of the book but some parts could have been written better where is the sizzle you know what I mean also didn't like how it would skip to two days later either...... like we kissed and bam two days later lol

[Erna · Rating 2 out of 5]

Holly is a most aggravating character. She is self centered, a complete drama queen and quite an ass. I don't know how Doan tolerated her cause he is a sweetie. Her bad behavior spoilt this book for me

[Violet-Elisabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

All of these Cinderella Books by Carly Syms are absolutely amazing. I recommend this to every girl or guy (if they want to read about a girl playing a guys sport or being on an all guys team) but it's very inspirational.

[Huong · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story felt too superficial + lacked any depth.

[Sheena Weber · Rating 2 out of 5]

too confusing

[Jennifer Showalter - · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review coming soon. Technically 2.8 rounded to 3.

[Mari · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like the idea of the plot but I felt it was a little rushed especially the ending... There were some characters that I wanted to know better and their relationship with Holly.

[Irene · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Irene · Rating 5 out of 5]

loved it!!!! Hate when you get to the last chapter and realize your almost done :/ lol

[Louise Ann D. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Cute story but pretty dragging.

[Tayla Nicholas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Solid story with a sweet ending

[Dunja *a chain reader* · Rating 2 out of 5]

review comming soon ;)