I loved fairy tales as a kid. One of me earliest television memories was watching Rogers and Hammerstein’s Cinderella on television. It was in black and white and my mom and dad let us stay up late to see it. Mainly because I bugged them. 🙂 I remember my brother falling asleep, but I stayed up all the way through. I think sometimes that those very early memories have colored a lot of my writing. They certainly drove my fascination with the Cinderalla archetype and I’m sure was the origin of Redeeming the Stepbrother.
A Tale from St. Giles
Family can be a blessing and a curse, but for artist Florian, it’s a nightmare he longs to escape.
As chief designer for Bartholomew Porcelain Studio, Florian specializes in painting birds. He also watches them in the wild to distract himself from his short-tempered mother, at least temporarily. Florian’s heart is too soft to leave his stepsister, Ella, to suffer alone. Still, he can’t help dreaming about one day finding happiness and love.
When Count Dieter von Hollenbach arrives in town to visit a friend and present an award, he isn’t looking for romance. Then again, he doesn’t expect someone as perfect as Florian to come into his life. To make sure Florian is all he seems and that their connection is genuine, Dieter keeps his title to himself.
But he isn’t the only one with a secret. At a masquerade ball to celebrate the award, some of the masks fall away, but those that remain in place could destroy the love beginning to grow between them.