Carlisle Wainwright Cushing is no stranger to pressure. Coming from an old moneyed Southern family, descended from nobility, she has long been under scrutiny by all to be the perfect lady. Escaping north, to Boston, where nobody knew who she was, was a welcome relief. Blanketed in anonymity, Carlisle has been free to move on with her life, to live as she pleases. A successful divorce attorney, she is satisfied with her life and happy in her engagement to Phillip Granger. Though how she’ll break it to him that she is an heiress and not a poor girl made good is anyone’s guess. Not to mention how she’ll break the news to her Southern mother that she’s engaged to a Yankee.

Everything comes to a head when Carlisle finds herself pulled back into the family fold, much against her will. Her mother is getting divorced…again. The Willow Creek Symphony Association Debutante Ball, sponsored by the Wainwrights’, is in major trouble following last year’s fiasco. And who do you think everyone turns to to solve these and their problems? Carlisle, that’s who. As if she doesn’t have enough on her hands already. But through all the drama that is about to unfold, Carlisle will come to a new understanding about herself, her family and what it means to truly live.

I do not usually read chick lit, preferring my reading to be romance all the way, but I have to say that The Ex-Debutante by Linda Francis Lee is a simply fantastic read that captured my interest from the first moment I read the blurb and more than kept it as I read the story. Carlisle is a marvelous character, with many dimensions. She felt three dimensional and I could see her as though she were a real person rather than a fictional character – and seeing how Ms. Lee was once a debutante herself, I do wonder just how much she drew on her own experience to create Carlisle and this story. Carlisle is very different from her family. Her mother and sister have made their way based on their looks, whereas Carlisle has always used her mind. She has seen how her mother defines herself by her beauty and her relationships and has always been determined to take a different route – hence why she ran from Jack Blair in high school and college. This bad boy, now her opposing counsel in her mother’s divorce, is the only man to engender the degree of love and lust that could irrevocably break Carlisle. Carlisle learns much about herself during the story and as a reader it is impossible not to be drawn in, not to empathize. The story is wonderfully built up, with plenty going on though not overwhelmingly so; the plot flows smoothly and consistently. There are some intimate scenes, but most are glossed over and certainly are not graphic in their depiction. Linda Francis Lee’s The Ex-Debutante is a charming, amusing tale of one woman’s discovery of herself, her family and her life. I highly recommend it!

Reviewed by: Elizabeth