The Cinderella Mission, by Catherine Mann

The Cinderella Mission (excerpt), by Catherine Mann is part of the Family Secrets continuity series (see here the titles and the order). Actually, if I'm understanding this correctly, this title is one of 3 prequels to the continuity series itself, but well, the book does have a little "Family Secrets" logo on the cover, so the "not part of the series" thing must be relative.

Millionaire Ethan Williams risks his life daily as a CIA agent to save innocent lives. And they don't come any more innocent than Kelly Taylor, his longtime friend and new partner on a mission to intercept jewel thieves with information on the whereabouts of a missing agent. Ethan has his doubts about working with Kelly until he watches her, the sweet girl next door, transform herself into a seductive siren capable of conquering any man she wants - and she wants Ethan.

But this mission means more than finding a missing agent. Ethan has spent his life searching for his parents' killers, but the answers are closer than he thinks. In a dangerous gamble, Ethan must choose: Would he rather fulfill his need to know his past, or protect Kelly, the woman who could be his future?

This book is not the kind of thing I normally read. I tend not to go for SIMs, since they all seem to be about secret agent types and worldwide conspiracies - very definitely NOT my cup of tea. As for gimmicky continuity series, not my thing, either. However, it turns out I recently added one of the late entries in this series to my Wish List, a book titled Fever (I did so because the review kind of reminded me of that Dustin Hoffman movie, Outbreak). Then a friend mentioned she had the first 3 in the series (all three prequels... yeah, it's confusing!), so I thougth what the hell, how long could it take me to read them?

Aaaanyway, that's how I found myself reading a book I never would have chosen by myself. The beginning wasn't promising, but I ended up kind of enjoying it. It was readable, at least. A B-, just because I feel generous.

Let's get the problems out of the way. The first thing that bugged me was how the whole secret agents setup was so idiotic, with absolutely no realism at all. The worst was the big boss doing some nice matchmaking by pairing up Ethan and Kelly for the mission. Give me a break, the guy is dealing with national security issues and this is a consideration?

Then's the matter of the heroine's virginity, and how she wants the experienced hero to relieve her of it. *Big sigh*. Why, why, why? Why do authors feel the need to do this? Plus, her justifications as to why she was still a virgin felt forced.

And how about her "make-over"? That element felt so out of place. Here's this woman who insists on being given a chance to go on the field as a secret agent, who wants to be given the chance to deal with whatever, and the make-over has to be done slowly, trying not to hurt her feelings?

Finally, the suspense plot felt oddly incomplete, as if I should have known more than I did. I'd understand this if I weren't reading what's supposed to be the first in the series.

But, in spite of all this, I found myself enjoying the developing relationship between Ethan and Kelly. They had good chemistry, and Ethan was a really nice hero, even if he felt a little clichéd. As for Kelly, her wanting to be a secret agent and prove that she can do it well didn't degenerate into feisty, TSTL behaviour, as I had feared, so no strong complaints there.

I might read the other 2 books in the series that I have, but really, the overarching story didn't really capture my imagination enough to look for the other books, at least, so far it didn't.