Prah, Constantine, and Baryeh Review: Pumpkin: a Cindermama Story (A Cindermama Story #1) by Ines Johnson

 A little bit of great yet bad news. This week it's only Baryeh and I reviewing. Our wonderful Constantine has a brand new book coming out on the 10th of this month called Incense and Peppermint and she's a little busy preparing for the release - be on the lookout for it.

We went the fairy tale route this month. A retelling of Cinderella from a completely different perspective. Make sure to check out Baryeh’s review.

The Blurb

Single mother Malika “Pumpkin” Tavares lost faith in fairytales after she fell for a toad. Now she believes she’s not cut from the storybook, heroine cloth and searches for Mr. Good Enough amongst the sidekicks and supporting men of the town.

Love at first sight isn’t a cliche for town royalty Armand “Manny” Charmayne. For generations the Charmaynes have spotted their soulmates by seeing a golden aura the first time they laid eyes on The One.

When Manny meets Pumpkin he sees…nothing, but sparks fly off the richter scale. The more he gets to know her the more he considers defying fate, if only he can convince her to take a chance on love again.

My Review

This was a wonderful story. A fairy tale for the contemporary woman. Malika has gone through so much in her life, from childhood straight through adulthood. I really empathized with her and that added a depth to the story. Armand was a true prince- his backstory wasn’t as intense as Malika’s, but it didn’t make him any less of a complete well rounded character.

I loved the way Malika challenged Armand and made him think in a different way than where he’d originally been heading­­— which in turn made him a better person and character.

The romance was heart warming The concept of destiny was heavy in the story and drove it forward in the most engaging way. I won’t give any spoilers, but when that moment occurred, I was like – Ahhhhh, because it was so incredible and smile worthy just like the story.

I’ll warn you that there are a lot of references in this story to the 80’s and 90’s. If you are a child of this era then you will get them and really enjoy how Ms. Johnson incorporated them in. I did have an issue with the constant references of fairy tale in the story by almost every character – I found it to be a bit much, but not annoying.

I give this story four out of five Mustang shaped white chocolate bars.

I purchased this book from Amazon.