This book was just pure fun from start to finish.  Okay, it may not have been pure, but it was certainly an entertaining read.  At the Stroke of Midnight is a clever and amusing story that follows three very different women as they forge a friendship and a new business partnership.

While this is a romance at heart, I think that I was equally swept up in this unlikely friendship that formed between Cynthia, Ariel, and Isabelle.  This book introduces us to all three women, but this particular book focuses on Cynthia.  Cynthia was a rags to riches story.  Coming from an unhappy, impoverished life, she strived to be the ideal wife, mother, PTA President, neighbor, and bake sale maven.  But while she appeared to be the picture of perfection, her life was falling apart.  Her husband didn’t turn out to be quite the dream come true that she had originally hoped he would be.  Nope.  His armor was about as tarnished as it could be.  He not only left her for their babysitter, but he left her practically penniless and with heaps of mounting bills.

What does a thirty-two-year old woman do when she needs money but has no college education or work experience?  Well, she steps out – very far out – of her comfort zone and partners up with two other women who are in desperate need of some fast cash.  These three women, who couldn’t be more opposite, team up to start a stripping business.  What ensues from that endeavor is nothing short of laugh-out-loud mayhem and hijinks. 

Tara Sivec has created a story that is Disney Princesses Gone Wild meets Desperate Housewives.  From the chapter headers to the story itself, it was brimming with hilarity, girl power, and heart.  It was impossible not to root for this trio of women.   Between watching Cynthia break out of her shell and come into her own, Ariel’s tell-it-like-it-is, unfiltered potty mouth, and Isabelle’s cornucopia of random facts and trivial knowledge, this story was just a fun-filled romp from beginning to end.

*4 Stars

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