Publicist Valerie Wagner has got the job of her dreams - launching a new magazine entitled Glass Slipper. Valerie's job record isn't the best, having failed at every job she's had. This job means everything to her. Glass Slipper is owned by a trio of women, known as the godmothers, who are expanding their already successful business - The Cinderella Rules, also by Donna Kauffman. Valerie has proven herself to the godmothers, especially by getting the popular Dear Prince Charming to be spokesperson for the launch.

Eric Jermaine has written the ultra-successful column for a few years, has several best-selling books, but has managed to keep his identity a secret.

With a half a million dollar advance offered and accepted, Eric is going to reveal the Prince Charming's identity to millions of waiting women.

However, Eric phones Valerie and tells her he can't do it. He can't go public. Though he will fulfill the contract of writing an exclusive column for six issues, he doesn't want his face or identity public. Eric has a secret - one he reveals to two people: lifelong best friend, Jack Lambert, and Valerie. Valerie has to do damage control and quick. Valerie feels that both she and Eric owe the godmothers, and the public. Dear Prince Charming will make the magazine sink or sail. Eric has a plan - get Jack to pretend to be Prince Charming.

Jack's a sportswriter. Not anyone's Prince Charming. However, he owes a huge debt to Eric and would do anything for him - including temporarily interrupting his life to do some publicity, including at least one photo shoot, as Prince Charming. The trick here is to fool the public, and the godmothers! Can it be done? Can the edgy, sexy Jack pull it off as a sensitive man who understands women's problems?

It has got to work. This means Eric's career, the success of the magazine and Valerie's job. Valerie has always been a workaholic, but this scheme takes her to the limits of her patience time and again. The scheme itself is stressing, but being around Jack, whose charm becomes irresistible, wears on her. They are so not compatible, or are they?

Jack is a jaded man, whose brief marriage years ago made him swear off relationships. Why he's so attracted to Valerie is beyond him. He works abroad much of the time, so once he's fulfilled his promise to Eric, he can be far gone. Yet, he begins to wonder if there is something there with this beautiful, but harried woman.

Humor is the name of the game while Eric deals with his secret, Jack and Valerie continue the scheme, and the three shrewd godmothers are kept in the dark. Dear Prince Charming is a delight, often touching, read. Ms. Kauffman has written a story guaranteed to entertain. This one is not to be missed, especially when readers consider Eric's secret, how it affects his friendship with Jack, and how all of this new publicity affects everyone's life. The romance aspect of this book is done very well. All of the characters play their roles in an exceptional fashion, making this book an excellent summer read.

-- Robin Taylor, In The Library Reviews

Game, set, match (making)

When a mysterious advice columnist who's a hit with his female readership turns out to be a tall, gorgeous example of eye candy, what's a hard-driving publicist to do but make him the centerpiece of a fledgling magazine, Glass Slipper , about life makeovers for women? Except, columnist Eric has one teeny-tiny little flaw—the man's man who lets women in on all guys' secrets happens to be gay. So publicist Valerie Wagner and erstwhile columnist Eric concoct a scheme to use his best childhood friend Jack as a photo double. Donna Kauffman's fairy-tale romp, Dear Prince Charming , is as fast-moving and zingy as the world-class pingpong matches down-on-his-luck sportswriter Jack Lambert used to cover. With Eric and Valerie doing the persuading, Jack abandons his protestations and goes along with the game. Everyone's a winner, especially readers!

-- Sandy Huseby reviews from Fargo, North Dakota, and lakeside Minnesota....

Valerie Wagner is convinced that she has finally found her niche in the fashion world, which she has longed to be a part of for most of her life. Having obtained a position as publicist for a magazine, the newest venture of the successful Glass Slipper life-makeover corporation, she is determined to prove herself the best and brightest in the business. To that end, she secures the reclusive author of a wildly popular advice column, a man known only as Prince Charming, as spokesperson and cover model for the premier issue. Imagine Valerie's distress when the handsome gent bows out of the necessary live engagements. Not-to-worry, he assures her, he has a friend who can stand in for him.

Jack Lambert, a globe-trotting sports writer, agrees to fill Prince Charming's stylish shoes, believing that he owes his friend a debt of gratitude. Jack gallantly refuses to accept payment for his part in what becomes an increasingly complicated deception. Valerie is both relieved and concerned when she meets the substitute Prince Charming. True, he is charming, but in a naughty way, which puts her in mind of rumpled bed sheets rather than royal robes. Will people really accept this virile man as the author of the sensitive romantic advice column? Ah well, he'll have to do. If only they didn't have to deceive the three wonderful, albeit eccentric women who run the Glass Slipper empire. And if only Valerie wasn't so flustered by the flare of attraction that disrupts the normal operation of her well-organized mind whenever she gets anywhere near Jack Lambert. With both her career and her personal life on the line, Valerie finds herself wondering if she will soon be needing a life-makeover herself.

This latest novel from Donna Kaufmann is light and, as the title suggests, charming. The complexities of Valerie and Jack's personalities are revealed in the rare moments when their flirtatious, or sometimes contentious, banter turns unexpectedly tender. Secondary characters, such as the original Prince Charming, and the three women who own Glass Slipper, known collectively as the godmothers, add a colorful dimension to the story.

Sexy, funny, entertaining...DEAR PRINCE CHARMING may not solve real-life romantic dilemmas, but it will certainly bring a smile to your face!

-- LDRS RL Dazzle