Sleeping with Beauty (39 page)

However, she’d been objective enough to realize that maybe makeup and hairstyling weren’t her strengths. So she’d stared down at her flat chest and thought . . . hmm. Valerie had been the only girl in her sixth-grade class secretly thrilled not to need a training bra. After all, she’d never walk the runways in Milan if she had boobies.

Unfortunately, she’d forgotten about the height clause. By sixteen, even in wobbly heels, with hair gelled to within an inch of its life, she barely flirted with the five-eight mark. Much shorter than the five ten she knew from her by-then slavish devotion to
W
was the minimum of industry standards.

Cruelly, the now-welcome boobies had never appeared.

Undeterred, she’d resolutely turned to design. If she wasn’t made to model fashion, by damn, she’d create it. Which would have worked beautifully except stick figures sporting Magic Marker–colored, triangle-shaped outfits weren’t exactly going to win her any scholarships. And yet, she’d hung in there, convinced her calling was still within reach. She’d go for a degree in fashion merchandising and work for an upscale chain as a buyer. She envisioned trips to Paris, London, Milan. So what if she had as much chance of balancing her checkbook as she did of discovering the formula for cold fashion? It wasn’t like she was going to be spending her own money, right?

Then had come the Big Breakthrough. In her senior year of high school, the brokerage firm her father worked for had transferred him to Chicago. She’d gotten a summer job with
Madame
magazine—for full-figured gals, not call-girl employers—though as switchboard operator she’d heard every hooker joke and pimp pun on the planet. She hadn’t minded.

She’d found her people.

Obviously she’d just misinterpreted the gospel according to
Elle
. It wasn’t the people populating those glossy pages that called to her. It was the glossy pages themselves. Fashion magazines, the force that drove the industry, deciding what was hip and what was hopelessly last year . . . that was her true calling, her primary function, her niche.

Ten years later she’d become a serial niche killer. There wasn’t a job she hadn’t held. Or gone on to abandon, feeling more unfulfilled and depressed with each failure. Fortunately, she’d stumbled upon her last hope before getting a prescription for Paxil.

When she’d heard that the owners of Glass Slipper, Inc., the company renowned for performing
life makeovers
, were looking for a publicist for their new endeavor, the bimonthly glossy
Glass Slipper
magazine, she knew she’d found the career Holy Grail she’d been searching for. And it was do-or-die time.

And look for the next Glass Slipper novel . . .

NOT-SO-SNOW WHITE

Coming in Summer 2006

Tennis anyone?

Meet the tennis world’s latest phenomenon: Tess Hamilton. Not only is she a fantastic athlete with enough Grand Slam trophies to rival the careers of the best in tennis history, she’s also gorgeous, passionate, and supremely stubborn—a female McEnroe.

At the pinnacle of her career, Tess suddenly sustains a career-threatening injury and is faced with one of the toughest decisions of her young and gifted life. And on her heels is a new rising star, Gabby Fontaine, almost half her age and with enough moxie and brazenness to go toe-to-toe with Tess on any playing surface, not to mention the commotion they both can stir up in the media pit.

Now, newly retired Tess takes on the new kid—as her coach—and finds herself in the constant presence of the young upstart’s savvy, unflappable manager and brother, Max. And from the French Open to Wimbledon to the U.S. Open, the tennis world’s three brightest stars will find themselves on the verge of match point both on and off the courts. Advantage Miss Hamilton? Max may have a thing or two to say about that.

And look for fairy godmother, Aurora Favreaux, to return with her Glass Slipper wisdom in tow to help Tess see beyond the proverbial mirror on the wall.

SLEEPING WITH BEAUTY

A Bantam Book / July 2005

Published by

Bantam Dell

A Division of Random House, Inc.

New York, New York

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved

Copyright © 2005 by Donna Jean

Bantam Books and the rooster colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Kauffman, Donna.

Sleeping with Beauty / Donna Kauffman.

p. cm.

1. Single women—Fiction. 2. Women teachers—Fiction. 3. Class reunions—Fiction. 4. Self-realization—Fiction. 5. Elementary school teachers—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3561.A816 S55 2005

813'.6 22                                                                                          2005041117

Published simultaneously in Canada

www.bantamdell.com

eISBN: 978-0-553-90164-1

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