Grace Cavanaugh is working on her PhD in women's studies.
Grace's dissertation is based on the premise that being
beautiful
leads to an unhappy life. The summer before she finishes
her PhD she is invited by her great aunt Sophia to stay
with her as she convalesces from hip
surgery. Grace is hoping to use her great aunt as a subject
for her dissertation as a former bombshell and B-movie star
who is now old and virtually alone ostracized from family
and having no real friends.
When Grace arrives at Sophie's Pebble Beach estate she
isn't prepared for the force that is Sophie. Her great aunt
challenges her to try and become a bombshell and see for
herself if beauty equals misery. Sophie claims that the
happiness and self-confidence found in beauty is not just
skin deep but how you carry yourself and feel about
yourself. Grace starts to tell Sophie what she can do with
her challenge but then Sophie raises the stakes and offers
to give Grace the money she needs to pay for her school
loans which is something Grace can't refuse.
During her transformation Grace attracts two attractive
men. Each man has their strong points. Declan is smoking
hot and the potential for steamy sex is something Grace
finds hard to
resist. Dr. Andrew is intelligent and treats her with
respect and has the potential to offer her a nice
comfortable marriage. As the summer progresses Grace goes
through a drastic transformation but now she isn't
sure if she is becoming Sophia or if she is finding the
woman that was always inside her.
GREAT AUNT SOPHIA'S LESSONS FOR BOMBSHELLS is hilarious and
entertaining. The relationship between Grace and Sophia is
charming. I loved the battles between the two, my favorite
was when Sophia buys Grace lingerie and expects her to wear
a corset. Grace and Sophia have witty banter and we
also are treated to Grace's journal where we get her
internal monologue about the bombshell transformation.
GREAT AUNT SOPHIA'S LESSON FOR BOMBSHELLS teaches
readers that not only is beauty only skin deep but you
should never judge a book by a cover. There are plenty of
surprises that I never saw coming, which helped make this
book a summer sleeper for me. I expected a simple sweet
story and what I got was so much more. Thank you, Lisa
Cach for this delightful and fascinating story; you have a
new fan in me.
Grace Cavanaugh is
hell-bent on proving her Women’s Studies dissertation thesis
that beauty only leads to misery. And what better research
subject than her great-aunt Sophia, a former B-movie star?
Now eighty-five and facing surgery, Sophia has asked Grace
for company. . . .
Grace imagines a helpless, lonely
old woman, forced to turn to a great-niece she barely knows.
Instead she finds the aging diva holding court in a Pebble
Beach mansion, oozing a bombshell-itude—arthritis and
wrinkles be damned—that captivates every male in sight. To
Grace’s dismay, her greataunt decides a perfect distraction
would be transforming the frumpy feminist into a femme
fatale who purrs for her suitors . . . or devours them. She
ordains classes in everything from carb cutting to lingerie,
culminating in a challenging final exam. The newly svelte
Grace must test her wiles—on both devilishly handsome and
morally corrupt Declan and sensitive but painfully awkward
Dr. Andrew.
Newly unleashed desires—and the discovery
of a closely held family secret— threaten the
bookworm-turned-babe’s entire feminist upbringing. Her
thesis gone sadly awry, Grace wonders if her great-aunt is
right: Will trusting her heart lead her to find beauty in
the most unexpected places?