The chateau has seen better days, but Ella knows she can put the ruined house to rights. The life-size portrait of its first owner, Jean-Daniel Girard, seems to watch her work with approval, even pleasure. With bright blue eyes, strong features, and an athlete's body, the viscount is a tempting sight even now, more than three hundred years after his tragic death. But the more she looks at the portrait, the more convinced Ella is that she's met Jean-Daniel before. In another life, perhaps-or maybe, as the form who haunts the halls at night, invading Ella's dreams...
REVIEW:
Though I was intrigued by the idea of a retelling of the classic Cinderella tale, this books sadly didn't live up to its initial promise. Ella was a completely unbelievable character in either of the centuries in this book, and Jean-Daniel never fully developed as a character at all. Frankly, the darn dog in the picture was a more sympathetic character than either of the protagonists. Everyone was simply too starkly drawn and therefore too one-dimensional to make for a nuanced story. There were also significant problems with the time-travel aspect of the story, though I can't say more without spoiling a key plot element. Between Ella's rank immaturity (her internal dialogue reads like that of a gushy teenager in the throes of a first crush) and Jean-Daniel's overwhelming obsession with sex, this book was a frustratingly poor read.
