Genie Michaels is not approaching forty gracefully. She’s in a long-term relationship with Hugh, a successful British author, and she thinks everything is just peachy…that is, until he proposes to another woman on live television. Not willing to take her humiliation lying down, Genie does what every smart woman would do: she fakes her engagement to Hugh and starts reaping the numerous bennies of being a bride-to-be. Hilarity abounds, with her social-climbing barracuda mother and oh-so-perfect sister pushing for details and dates, her smart-mouth friend Patty adding in her own fake engagement, and her brother’s hunky, single friend who suspects that all is not as it seems in engagement land.

Sarah Strohmeyer is a hoot and a half! Her work never fails to blast me out of the doldrums and into sidesplitting guffaws of semi-hysterical laughter. Genie is a wonderful character, someone with whom we can all identify, and her insecurities really spoke to me as a reader and as a woman. Patty, Genie’s best friend, added more comedic punch to the story, and other secondary characters were entertaining and well drawn. Ms. Strohmeyer is to be commended for her efforts here in helping each one of us to awaken our own Sleeping Beauty, and her helpful hints for digging yourself out of a blasé and boring life will have you giggling as well as perhaps re-thinking your choices. Five Angels and a Recommended Read for The Sleeping Beauty Proposal!

Reviewed by: Michelle