A Fun Read | The Ex-Debutante | Linda Francis Lee

An insider's look at society - Texas style | The Ex-Debutante | Linda Francis Lee

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	• The Ex-Debutante Linda Francis Lee St. Martin's Press, 2008 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 10 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Funny Romance

The Ex-Debutante is a good book! I just felt like the beginning was slow but half way thru the book I was addicted.

A Fun Read

Divorce lawyer Carlisle Wainwright Cushing returns home to visit her family and is lured into taking over her mother's current divorce case and the family sponsored 100th Annual Willow Creek Symphony Association Debutante Ball. The bad news is that the once highly regarded ball was disgraced last year when conductor Rinaldi was caught slipping on a $10,000 ball gown that belonged to one of the debs by a reporter who snapped a photo that ran on the front page of just about every newspaper across the state of Texas.

To make matters worse, opposing council in her mothers divorce case is none other than the bad boy, Jack Blair, who prompted Carlisle's abrupt move to Boston three years earlier. Carlisle tries to overcome her feelings for Jack by remembering that both she and Jack are engaged to seemingly perfect partners.

This is my second book by Lee. I absolutely loved The Devil in the Junior League and was highly anticipating this book which didn't disappoint even though I feel the story wasn't as original as The Devil in the Junior League. The ending was typical but the story was a lot of fun and Lee's writing was witty and entertaining. I recommend this book to fans of chick-lit.

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An insider's look at society - Texas style

Carlisle Wainwright Cushing fled her small Texas town for Boston and is now a successful divorce lawyer. In demand at her firm, she penned an ironclad pre-nup for one of the partners that made her a legend, and none of her co-workers - even her fiancé - is aware that she's a southern deb. When her often married mother calls and says she needs her, she heads home and comes face to face with opposing counsel Jack Blair - the boy she's loved since she was 13- who is all grown, has a chip the size of Texas on his shoulder, and a fiancé of his own. As they negotiate the terms of what should be a straightforward divorce, Carlisle is also tapped to host the town's 100th annual debutante ball - a Wainwright has overseen it since its inception - but a disaster the previous year has all the proper families choosing to debut their daughters elsewhere.

As she gathers a group of what most would consider second string girls, she hopes to plan an event that will make everyone forget about her own embarrassing debut (she fell over when trying to do a Texas dip). She's also dragged into other assorted family dramas including dealing with a delinquent niece who wants to be a debutante, an absent brother and a feminist sister-in-law who don't pay attention to the gaggle of noisy children (including his namesake who they refer to as Cinco), and an older sister who isn't willing to accept that she can't have children of her own. And then there's Jack, who she can't seem to stop running into at the most inopportune times. Can she reconcile her feelings for Jack, get a fair settlement for her mother, and put on a successful ball without losing herself?

Former Texas debutante Lee has penned another endearing novel with a romantic subplot; the style is similar to chicklit, though I wouldn't classify Lee's writing in that genre. She breathes life into her characters, giving each a distinctive voice, enabling readers to really connect with her characters. It was truly an enjoyable story.

© Tracy Vest, October 2008

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A delight

This was the first book I'd read by this author and, like another reviewer, found it hard to put down. Characters who were both complex and original, a plot that moved on three different levels/generations, humorous situations and an interesting setting in Texas [didn't realize that debs in Texas are as big as in the South] made for a book that was a delight.
Less delightful were the various legal issues referred to in Susan Reimers' review here and the errors in chronology. How could the hero have turned from bad boy to a lawyer in three years, including three years of law school, several years in the District Attorney's office and some time in private practice? The time frame for the heroine is off, too, as she couldn't possibly have accomplished what she is supposed to have done by age 25. I think the author/publisher needs to do more checking before the book goes to press.

I look forward to this author's next book.

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Decadent fun . . .

and yet I wouldn't call it "fluff." The story is well-written and cohesive. The author would be well-advised, however, to consult with some legal professionals about their experiences and trial practice before writing another novel with lawyers as characters because, while certain references might have moved the storyline along, others were incorrect to the point of requiring the reader to suspend reality. But, overall, it's a worthy read, and Ms. Lee is a most enjoyable writer.

When Carlisle Wainwright Cushing left her native Texas to start a new life in Boston, she had no regrets. The former Texas debutante, who never felt at home in her Southern skin, had found liberation--or so she thought. Until the day she gets an urgent call from her mother, reporting that: one, the Symphony Association Debutante Ball, which Carlisle's family has sponsored for years, is about to be called off; Two, her mother's divorce has the whole town talking; And three, the family's good name is at stake and Carlisle is the only one who can fix it all. So Carlisle takes a leave of absence from her law firm and goes to Texas to help. Her fiance, who has no idea she's an heiress, can't know that she's organizing the ball, handling the dramas of the girls involved, settling her mother's suit--and coming face to face with the true love of her life, whom she ran out on when she left Texas. Her trip home challenges Carlisle's sense of herself and brings the pieces of her past togther, so that when she finally re-meets the man of her dreams, she's in a perfect place to tempt fate.

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