The American writer Colette Dowling made the New York Times bestseller list in the 1980s with The Cinderella Complex: Women's Hidden Fear of Independence. After the feminist movements of the 1970s had supposedly liberated women to live and work how they wanted, Dowling used her own experience as a divorced mother-of-three to examine the legacy of male dependency and its psychological effects on women. Irish journalist Joan Brady explores similar themes in her debut novel, The Cinderella Reflex, with her story of two female journalists battling work, each other and various men at a local radio station in a fictional seaside town. Typecast characters and descriptions abound in this untaxing read, but Brady's background in journalism also provides plenty of laughs and knowing nods to real life. She asks if Irish women are still waiting for a prince to ride in on his post-recessionary horse.
