Ella returned to her family ranch for the summer, hoping to make it her final project in order to graduate, and thus, invoke the trust to make it hers permanently. She arrived only to find that her stepmother had leased the ranch to the Duke family. However, she's determined to do her project... By hiding on the ranch as the new groundskeeper. // Stone keeps his two identities separate... In public, he's the Duke heir, but when he needs his alone time, he's just Stone. And going to the ranch as the new operations manager is his Stone time. Meeting Ella asleep in the room was a surprise... And it's clear Ella is hiding something from him... // Ella cannot afford interference from ANYONE, including Stone, who cannot know she's the rightful heir to the ranch... For she just learned that her stepmother claimed to be the owner and leased it to Dukes with option to buy, withOUT mentioning that the title is actually in a trust. But Duke can tell she's more than just the groundskeeper when she clearly knows much more about the ranch than merely a groundskeeper. But when the stepmom found out, and exposed her, is it all over for her dreams? Or will Stone recognize the threat and protect the one who needs it most?
While I like the way the fairy tale (for it's obviously a takeoff on Cinderella) was setup, the darkest hour feels really forced. Also, the ending attack is not chemically or physically possible. Valium CANNOT be used as contact sedative. While it *can* absorbed through the skin, a valium laced smoothie, soaking through the clothes, would not get enough on the victim to act as a sedative. And Ella is simply TOO naive and lacks self-preservation instincts, falling into TSTL category. I really wanted to give this a 4/5 but in the end, Ella's TSTL means this can't be more than 3/5.
Category: Contemporary / Romantic suspense
Overall Rating: 3/5
NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below.
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