Loving Jenny

by Theresa Weir

From the book

A strange man in the house:

Turning the corner, she practically barreled into the broad chest of the man coming through the kitchen doorway. He was carrying a can of beer and a bag of potato chips.
"There's more beer in the refrigerator," he said almost absentmindedly, popping the tab on the beer. His gaze went from the can in his hand to her face. For a fraction of a second it seemed as if a spark of something flashed in his eyes, then he was edging past her.
Jenny watched in stunned amazement as he continued into the living room. He switched on the TV, then plopped his large muscular frame down in the overstuffed chair, nudging the footstool closer with the toe of one boot.
The sound and picture came on. "Green Acres," he commented, stretching his long, Jean-clad legs to the stool, crossing his feet at the ankles. "I love Arnold." He tilted his head back and took a long drink of beer, then opened the bag of chips. "One smart pig."
All Jenny could do was stand in the doorway and try to keep her mouth from going slack. This was Twilight Zone material. She remembered seeing an episode where a person could simply walk through walls and become a part of total strangers' lives.
"What's for supper?" The words were casually tossed over the man's broad shoulder, as if he took her presence for granted, as if this were routine for them both.
She stared at the back of his head. Wavy, dusty hair fell almost to the neckband of a blue T-shirt. His hair color would probably be called medium brown, except for the long sun-bleached strands running through it.
Jenny finally found her voice. "What are you doing here?"
"Great." He pointed his beer toward the TV. "This is the episode where Arnold gets amnesia,"
Enough was enough.
Jenny strode into the room, flicked off the television and turned to glare at him, arms crossed at her waist, one hip out, a small bare foot tapping the floor in front of her. "Who are you, and what are you doing here?" she demanded. Her voice came out loud and angry, but slightly shaky.
The man looked up, eyes bland. "You mean my grandmother didn't explain it to you?"
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm Lucas Tate. Stella's grandson."
The bad feeling she'd had ever since she'd heard his footsteps in the house intensified tenfold. "And?"
"I guess you could say I come with the house." He paused. "I live here."
She let out a strangled gasp.
He popped another potato chip into his mouth, regarding her as he chewed, assessing her reaction.

Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Contemporary Romance, Fiction, Chick Lit

189 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 1989

About the author

Theresa Weir (a.k.a. Anne Frasier) is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of novels and numerous short stories that have spanned the genres of suspense, mystery, thriller, romantic suspense, paranormal, fantasy, and memoir. During her award-winning career, she's written for Penguin Putnam, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins Publishers, Bantam Books/Random House, Silhouette Books, Grand Central Publishing/Hachette, and Amazon's Thomas & Mercer. Her titles have been printed in both hardcover and paperback and translated into twenty languages.

Her first memoir, THE ORCHARD, was a 2011 Oprah Magazine Fall Pick, Number Two on the Indie Next list, a featured B+ review in Entertainment Weekly, and a Librarians’ Best Books of 2011. Her second memoir, THE MAN WHO LEFT, was a New York Times Bestseller. Going back to 1988, Weir’s debut title was the cult phenomenon AMAZON LILY, initially published by Pocket Books and later reissued by Bantam Books. Writing as Theresa Weir, she won a RITA for romantic suspense (COOL SHADE), and a year later the Daphne du Maurier for paranormal romance (BAD KARMA). In her more recent Anne Frasier career, her thriller and suspense titles hit the USA Today list (HUSH, SLEEP TIGHT, PLAY DEAD) and were featured in Mystery Guild, Literary Guild, and Book of the Month Club. HUSH was both a RITA and Daphne du Maurier finalist.

THE ORCHARD

An Oprah Magazine Fall Pick
Featured B+ Review in Entertainment Weekly
Number Two on October Indie Next List
BJ's Book Club Spotlight
LIbrarians' Best Books of 2011
Maclean's Top Books of 2011
On Point (NPR) Best Books of 2011
Abrams Best of 2011
Publishers Lunch (Publishers Weekly) Favorite Books of 2011
Eighth Annual One Book, One Community 2012, Excelsior, Minnesota
Target Book Club Pick, September 2012

www.theresaweir.com


Title List

Writing as ANNE FRASIER
Hush, USA Today bestseller, RITA finalist, Daphne du Maurier finalist (2002)
Sleep Tight, USA Today bestseller (2003)
Play Dead, USA Today bestseller (2004)
Before I Wake (2005)
Pale Immortal (2006)
Garden of Darkness, RITA finalist (2007)
Once Upon a Crime anthology, Santa’s Little Helper (2009)
The Lineup, Poems on Crime, Home (2010)
Discount Noir anthology, Crack House (2010)
Deadly Treats Halloween anthology, editor and contributor, The Replacement (September 2011)
Once Upon a Crime anthology, Red Cadillac (April 2012)
Woman in a Black Veil (July 2012)
Dark: Volume 1 (short stories, July 2012)
Dark: Volume 2 (short stories, July 2012)
Black Tupelo (short-story collection July 2012)
Girls from the North Country (short story, August 2012)
Made of Stars (short story, August 2012)
Stars (short story collection, August 2012)
Zero Plus Seven (anthology, 2013)
Stay Dead (April 2014)

Writing as THERESA WEIR
The Forever Man (1988)
Amazon Lily, RITA finalist, Best New Adventure Writer award, Romantic Times (1988)
Loving Jenny (1989)
Pictures of Emily (1990)
Iguana Bay (1990)
Forever (1991)
Last Summer (1992)
One Fine Day (1994)
Long Night Moon, Reviewer’s Choice Award, Romantic Times (1995)
American Dreamer (1997)
Some Kind of Magic (1998)
Cool Shade RITA winner, romantic suspense (1998)
Bad Karma, Daphne du Maurier award, paranormal (1999)
Max Under the Stars, short story (2010)
The Orchard, a memoir (September 2011)
The Man Who Left , a memoir and New York Times bestseller (April 2012)
The Girl with the Cat Tattoo (June 2012)
Made of Stars (August 2012)
Come As You Are (October 2013)
The Geek with the Cat Tattoo (December 2013)

Reviews

[Saly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Loving Jenny, it was really short and sweet.
Lucas Tate is a really good guy, loves and takes care of his grandmother, is an over-worked veterinarian and doesn't want to leave his small-town, the reason he is not married.

He runs into Jenny May, one of the people he thinks his grandmother has taken in and kisses her. He soon finds out that she is not a user, instead she seems wounded and fragile.

Jenny never had emotional security growing up and joined a relief organization when she was buried alive for three days in an earth-quake. She is still recovering and grappling with nightmares and Lucas scares her.

The romance was actually sweet, there is some heavy duty making out but not the full deal. Honestly, I found these two very cute. I wish it was longer.

[Linda (NOT RECEIVING NOTIFICATIONS) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anyone who is familiar with Theresa Weir's romances knows she writes about fractured characters. As far as I know LOVING JENNY was her second book and one of four Silhouette's that she wrote early in her career.

Jenny May has a secret. Something she doesn't want to share so she takes up on an offer made by a kind elderly lady she met on a recent trip. She is going to move temporarily to Iowa and take it easy. The problem that arises is the grandmother doesn't tell her grandson, Lucas Tate. Luke is a veterinarian. When he meets Jenny the first time he thinks she is taking advantage of his grandmother and gives her a little he** hoping she will leave.

Luke's grandmother has a special place in his heart. She took him in at the age of ten and gave him the guidance he needed. If not for her, he knew he would have never succeeded in becoming the adult he was now.

The remaining tale is a bittersweet journey that teaches the hero and heroine about communicating, forgiveness and letting go of the past. Written in 1989 the material, for the most part, is not dated. The story is actually pretty good for such a short romance. If you enjoy Ms. Weir's style of writing look for AMAZON LILY, COOL SHADE, or FOREVER and its sequel ONE FINE DAY: all great contemporary romances.

[Lyuda · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful story from one of my favorite authors. It is not as dark and angsty as her other ones I read even though it has a heroine who is struggling to overcome almost death experience of being buried alive in the earthquake. Jenny, the heroine, wanted to put this experience behind and took an offer from an acutance to move to the acutance’s Iowa house for a summer. There she met a local veterinarian, Luke, the acutance’s grandson. I really liked the main characters interactions, the quirky and unique secondary characters of this small Iowa town.

[Maqluba · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quiet lovely romance between a traumatized heroine and a guarded hero. Although I wish it were a little longer I really enjoyed that fact that is was a quick read because you need these every once in a while.

[Robert Koterbay · Rating 5 out of 5]

back to love

I was very disappointed with reading Pale Immortal. All the stories I have read from Anne Frasier seemed to have characters who had so many humanistic qualities. This seemed to be missing in Pale Immortal. I was saddened.
Then came Loving Jenny. This story was so well developed that I felt I was back fifty eight years ago. Her name wasn’t Jenny but the development of a love story was in my heart and now in my reading.
Robert Koterbay

[Dianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

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Damocles

Damocles
by S. G. Redling
Edition: Paperback
Price: $8.97


1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A Book You Will Re-Read, March 20, 2013

This review is from: Damocles (Paperback)
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?)
One novel I had read a long time ago "Contact" by Carl Sagan set the standard for me for books from this genre. Of course in that book as well as many others that have followed almost always have us Earthlings making contact on our own planet. This is the first time I have come across a book in which the Earthlings make the first contact and the planet they land on has not ever space traveled.

This was a wonderful novel that kept me engrossed the entire way and in fact, I wish it were an even longer book so I could see what happens to everyone. The characters are complex and the author takes pains in proving that though the Dideotans are similar to us, yet in their own subtle ways they are vastly different. We get a good description of the natives but it still boggled my mind, so I never really had a clear picture of them. I did get a feeling that they were more like us than I thought but even though they had a lot of technology, they were still a few rungs below us on the physical evolutionary ladder. It is not until the last couple of chapters that I did have my suspicions confirmed.

The book did get a bit bogged down in the complexity of what these two `sides' had to do just to start to communicate and the lack of communication did get a little frustrating for the reader. However, if the author had simplified it in any way I think that the purity of the story would have been compromised and it would not have been such a thought provoking novel.

I think if you give this book a chance, it will grab you and not let you go until the very last page.



Loving Jenny

Loving Jenny



4.5 out of 5 stars - Re-Print, March 20, 2013

This review is from: Loving Jenny (Kindle Edition)
I knew something was off when I was reading this novel. I mean Lucas, our hero had at one time had a draft number and his best friend was affected by the Vietnam war. That would mean our hero and heroine would have had to be in their 60's now at least! And although I would love a sexy story about someone older, I don't think this would have been the best of ideas! LOL! So I finally looked it up and found that this book was first produced in the late 80's, which makes so much more sense.

Other than that little problem, this was a wonderfully sweet, semi-sexy and deep novel for this genre.

Jenny May has been working with a rescue mission to help those that have been affected by tragedy. On this last mission to an earthquake ravaged town, she has been horribly affected both physically and mentally - she had been trapped for three days underground when an aftershock damaged the building she was in when she was trying to rescue someone who was trapped but still alive.

She is now staying on a quiet farmer hoping to heal. While there she meets the towns Veterinarian who eventually realizes that there is something deeply wrong with Jenny. But that's ok, he has a lot of practice healing those who cannot speak for themselves. What he didn't figure on was falling in love with this broken creature.

Ms Weir has a way with words and it shows in this short novel of about 200 pages. The characters are complex, the story is sweet but not overly so, and while the story may be a tad predictable (it is after all a romance and that means it will fit a certain prescribed outline and a familiar pattern)it is not boring. The author has kept this fresh by offering a few twists and turns and personality quirks as well as added some good doses of mild humor.

[Roub · Rating 3 out of 5]

i rather liked it though it was slow, and they shared a more or less platonic kind of love. jenny needed therapy badly as she had been disturbed seriously. she was like a frail little waif and i got really no clue what attracted lucas to her. but it was really sweet how he grew to care for her and was der for her when she had no one else.

[Michelle [Helen Geek]]

Free today 03/20/2012 on Amazon

[Dee · Rating 4 out of 5]

Two-haiku review:

She comes to farmhouse
To try to heal from trauma
Falls for sexy vet

Engrossing romance
A little too easy end
But satisfying

[Kbee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Was OK! Story was good but could of been more. Caracters were to vague. Not enough background or depht in them.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this romance novel on Kindle.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Gayle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy read, good story. Light reading