The Ex Debutante Review

Carlisle Wainwright Cushing grew up in Willow Creek, Texas. Willow Creek is a town full of old money families who are extremely wealthy. Carlisle left Willow Creek and moved to Boston three years ago to escape the craziness of her family. She became a successful lawyer and is engaged to a man named Phillip.

Carlisle’s mother needs her to come home to help with her latest divorce. Carlisle’s plan is to find her mother a good divorce attorney and then return home to Boston. But Carlisle’s mother doesn’t want any old attorney, she wants Carlisle! So like always, Carlisle drops everything and everyone in her life to be at her mother’s beck and call. She leaves her job and her fiancé back home to help her mom save her assets in this nasty divorce.

When Carlisle left Willow Creek while in college, she also left behind the love of her life Jack Blair. Carlisle went to the same Law School as Jack but she left him when she started to realize he might hold her back from being successful in life. Carlisle swore to herself that she would never end up like her mother, a woman dependant on men for reassurance and happiness. Carlisle has pushed men away her entire life and has always been afraid to truly love and get close to someone.

Returning to Willow Creek, means returning to Jack Blair and all the problems she left behind. Carlisle agrees to be her mother’s attorney in the divorce case but she is in for a big surprise when she enters the court room and low and behold, there is her lost love Jack Blair, as the attorney for her mother’s husband!

How will Carlisle work a case against Jack when one look into his eyes makes her weak in the knees? Will Jack hate her for leaving him with no explanation three years ago?

While working her mother’s divorce case, Carlisle is also planning Willow Creek’s Debutante Ball. She needs to find eight wealthy girls who come from good families to showcase in the ball. The Symphony Hall is in need of money so Carlisle realizes the importance of picking just the right girls to make this Ball a success. But when the girls turn out to be less then classy, have no manners, and all hate each other, Carlisle realizes she has a lot of work to do to make this Ball succeed and make her mother proud. Will the Debutante Ball be a huge success or will Carlisle completely embarrass herself in front of her old hometown?

Even though Carlisle’s family is wealthy and has everything they could possibly ask for, they are still unhappy. Carlisle’s sister longs for a baby of her own, her mother longs for a man who won’t leave her and Carlisle longs for the man she loved and lost. Together these women will learn that love takes a lot of work and sometimes you have to follow your heart and see where it leads you.

The Ex -Debutante is a beautiful, eloquently written book that I absolutely loved. There is plenty of humor, romance, and heartfelt writing that will tug at your heart strings. There’s something special about the way Linda Francis Lee writes that really made me take notice. The story has many emotional elements that you can’t help but relate to.

The Ex - Debutante is about more then just a Debutante Ball. It’s about family, true love, friendship, and becoming the real you whether other people like it or not. The writing in this story is captivating and I was left very satisfied and indeed breathless as I read the last line in this book. Linda Francis Lee is definitely an author to look out for!