At the Stroke of Midnight by Tara Sivec

Meet the Naughty Princess Club: a brand new series from USA Today bestselling author Tara Sivec that introduces readers to Fairytale Lane and the hilarity—and romance—that ensue when three women start a new business to make it rain.

Once upon a time Cynthia was the perfect housewife. Between being the President of the PTA and keeping her home spotless without a hair (or her pearls) out of place, her life was a dream come true. Her husband was once her knight in shining armor, but now he’s run off with all their money…and the babysitter.

Dressed as a princess at the annual Halloween block party on Fairytale Lane, she meets two other “princesses” also facing money troubles: antique store owner Ariel and librarian Isabelle. When the women are invited to wear their costumes to a party where they’re mistaken for strippers, Cindy, Ariel, and Belle realize that a career change could be the best way to make their money problems go bippity-boppity-boo.

But can structured Cindy approach a stripper pole without sanitizing wipes? And could the blue-eyed anti-prince that has been crossing her path become Cindy’s happily ever after? At the Stroke of Midnight is a hilarious, empowering story where princesses can save themselves while slaying in stilettos.

Book 1
Buy Links

Amazon US  ~  Amazon UK  ~  Amazon Au  ~  Amazon Ca
B&N  ~  Google Play  ~  iTunes  ~  Kobo

Reviews by the Wicked Reads Review Team

Ruthie – ☆☆☆☆
4.5 stars of naughty princess magic!

This heralds the beginning of a great new series from Ms Sivec. This is an inspired take on a well-known fairy tale, with plenty of twists which ensure that it is not easy to predict the plot.

The three women who form the Naughty Princess Club are a wonderful mix and provide the classic humour for which Ms Sivec is so renowned. Alcohol may have been involved in the loosening up of the uptight Cynthia, aided and abetted by Ariel's prompting and Isabelle's wonderful factoids. So many fun moments that even on a bad day you will feel your face stretch into a smile.

PJ is the perfect leading man, and whilst the owner of a strip club is hardly the usual Prince Charming, you'd be hard pressed to find a better guy. He even behaves perfectly with Anastasia, Cynthia's daughter.

Really, I don't want to say more as you need to get the full blast of passion, comedy, and the perfect ending! I am looking forward to future installments very much indeed.


Mary Jo – ☆☆☆☆
I really enjoyed this story about three very different women who become friends under the most unusual of circumstances. The classical perfect wife, the brainiac, and the sarcastic "other" woman meet and re-learn that appearances can be deceiving.

Cynthia is trying to maintain outward appearances since her ex-husband ran off with their babysitter. Once you leave the trailer park behind, Cynthia knows that going back there will be the ultimate rock bottom and wants to protect her daughter in any way she can. When Ariel shows up on her doorstep, she knows she's one step closer to rock bottom. What she doesn't expect is the offer of friendship that Ariel extends, along with introducing her to Isabelle, the local librarian.

Each of the women have their own issues, but together they put together a plan to work their way out of the holes that men have dug for them, to find their own happily ever afters.


Shelby – ☆☆☆☆☆
Tara Sivec's writing is ALWAYS entertaining! At the Stroke of Midnight was touching, funny, sweet, spicy, and overall, a great read.

Cynthia finds her world imploding with the help of neighborhood harlot, Ariel, and innocent librarian, Belle. Together the ladies find themselves coming up with a plan to improve their circumstances, and the Naughty Princess Club is created.

I am not going to go into details, I will say this was a story about a woman finding herself – defining herself. This is a story of women coming together and besting life. It's the story of women learning themselves, finding their strengths, and taking life by the horns (or frickle, if you will)!

Zany circumstance, funny one-liners, and fantastic characters – I loved everything about this story. I zoomed through the entire book without any breaks because I was that engrossed. There weren't any slow or boring moments, and by the end I wanted more!

This isn't a story of a woman depending on a man, but just the opposite – the woman defines herself and finds a man that complements HER.

I loved this and I cannot wait to read Belle's story!!


Veronica – ☆☆☆☆
At the Stroke of Midnight is the first book in Tara Sivec’s new series the Naughty Princess Club. This is Cynthia’s story. In her early 30s, her husband has run off with the barely legal babysitter and left her with no money or a way to care for their 13-year-old daughter.

When we first meet Cynthia (Cindy), she is pretty much a Stepford wife and it took me a bit of time to warm up to her. I wanted to shake her and tell her to wake up and get with it. Lucky for Cindy, Ariel comes along, takes Cindy under her wing, and tells her repeatedly to take the stick out of her you know where.

Ariel is outgoing, opinionated, and crass. She brings with her young, naive librarian Belle. You add in Cindy, who is prim and proper, and these 3 different ladies join to form the Naughty Princess Club in an effort to make money to support themselves.

I had great fun watching Cindy learn who she is, and how to stand up for herself while she learned how to be a stripper. Strip club owner PJ is her love interest and early on I wasn’t sure about him, so I wanted to see the story from his point of view too. But as the story progressed I realised the story wasn’t about PJ, he really is just the romantic interest – Cindy is the star.

At the Stroke of Midnight is full of fun, plenty of laughs, friendship, a steamy romance, and a kick-butt woman finding her way to a happy life. I loved it.

Tara Sivec is a USA Today best-selling author, wife, mother, chauffeur, maid, short-order cook, baby-sitter, and sarcasm expert. She lives in Ohio with her husband and two children and looks forward to the day when they all three of them become adults and move out.

After working in the brokerage business for fourteen years, Tara decided to pick up a pen and write instead of shoving it in her eye out of boredom. Her novel Seduction and Snacks won first place in the Indie Romance Convention Reader’s Choice Awards 2013 for Best Indie First Book and she was voted as Best Author in the Indie Romance Convention Reader’s Choice Awards for 2014.

In her spare time, Tara loves to dream about all of the baking she’ll do and naps she’ll take when she ever gets spare time.

Connect with Tara

Facebook  ~  Twitter  ~  Website  ~  Goodreads
Google+  ~  Instagram

Reviewers on the Wicked Reads Review Team were provided a free copy of At the Stroke of Midnight (The Naughty Princess Club #1) by Tara Sivec to read and review.