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Honky-Tonk Cinderella: How to Marry a Monarch
Honky-Tonk Cinderella by Karen Templeton released on Nov 23, 2001 is available now for purchase.
256 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published December 1, 2001
About the author
Karen Templeton
210 books36 followersAs the mother of five sons, now grown, Karen loves to write about real people dealing with the drama (and humor) of everyday life. Over the past fifteen years, Karen has written nearly 50 books for Harlequin/Silhouette and Red Dress Ink, and three of her Special Edition titles (A Mother's Wish (2009) Welcome Home, Cowboy (2011) and A Gift for All Seasons (2013) have won the RITA award, the romance industry's top prize for published authors. In addition, her November 2014 title, Santa's Playbook, earned the Romantic Times Gold Seal of Excellence, out of the hundreds of releases reviewed by the magazine for that month.
She is very active on Facebook, as both Karen Templeton and her full name, Karen Templeton Berger, running giveaway contests whenever she has a new release... or just feels like it. Or you can reach her via her website at www.karentempleton.com, which contains recent news as well as excerpts from both current and backlist titles.
She is very active on Facebook, as both Karen Templeton and her full name, Karen Templeton Berger, running giveaway contests whenever she has a new release... or just feels like it. Or you can reach her via her website at www.karentempleton.com, which contains recent news as well as excerpts from both current and backlist titles.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
June 17, 2023
* DNF’d this book after reading the first 71 pages *
I bailed on this book because I was bored with it and I couldn’t get interested in it. I wanted to like this book. I wanted to care about what was going on with the characters so I could connect with them and understand how they’re feeling and what they were thinking but I just couldn’t.
I bailed on this book because I was bored with it and I couldn’t get interested in it. I wanted to like this book. I wanted to care about what was going on with the characters so I could connect with them and understand how they’re feeling and what they were thinking but I just couldn’t.
May 31, 2010
I felt like I was coming in on the second or third book of a trioloy. Missing part of a story, so I did not finish. FYI I give a book three chapters to 'get me', this one didn't. But I did enjoy another story by the same author.
June 16, 2023
I wanted to give this SEVEN stars, when I started out. I've been reading 'Love, Inspired' books from the Harlequin publishers for a year and a half, and they're literally ROTTING MY BRAIN out of my head. Those women barely have a ninth-grade vocabulary, I swear it. So coming across this, and reading REAL wordcrafting, metaphors, similies, descriptions, and word imagery? I about cried tears of joy.
Templeton can WRITE. And what a relief it was to read this.
Having said... the story is the problem, here.
Before we get to that, though, a funny aside. I picked this up about eight months ago at a library book sale, and I don't know why. As I said, I've been reading 'Love, Inspired' books - collecting them, actually. I have FOUR video store racks in the basement of them, waiting to be tackled (read: I have DOOMED myself). I was buying LI books... so picking this up was odd and didn't fit in any way.
Then I started reading it... found out it was a sequel. Found out the first one was about a princess incognito in Michigan. Hey, wait. I've READ THAT BOOK!!! Since there's not a review, it had to be from 2010 or earlier, though (I review everything). Turns out, I bought the first book years ago on a weird whim, too. WHO KNEW?!?!?!
Anyhow. In this book, Alek is a prince who jetsets out of boredom, likes women, fast cars, and people who don't fawn over him. So he does the car races across the states that are smaller and garner less attention. That's when he ends up in Nowhere, Texas in a bar drinking with a good ol' boy named Jeff who's got it bad for one of the waitresses, but blusters that 'she's like a sister' because she has absolutely no interest in his redneck butt.
Louanne had it rough. A violent daddy who finally left just in time for mama to get cancer. She put herself thru school, paid for mama's medical bills, and is living in a trailer on someone else's land, stashing every penny to put herself thru college. She loves classical music, has read every book she can get her hands on, is intelligent and speaks French fluently... she's not like the other girls, and nothin' like the boozed-up loser guys in her town.
So when Alek and Louanne meet, sparks fly. They have an affair, the protection the use fails, and then she's pregnant and he's long gone - no name, no number. So Jeff gallantly steps in to get the girl he's always wanted.
Fast forward to the beginning of the book. Louanne is widowed - Jeff died in a car race in which Alek is also injured. Her 10-year old son is sullen and grieving, she's 7/8 months pregnant and an emotional wreck because she never loved Jeff as she wished she could've...
... and Alek shows up. Jeff told him the 10yo is his. He wants 1) to see Louanne again, because he's never dropped his torch for her, and 2) to meet his son/heir. Also he has a letter that Jeff wrote him saying that he was gonna kill himself via racecar, and to 'take care of his family' for him.
Where it gets hinky is that somehow 10yo Chase 'senses' that his dad Jeff killed himself on purpose. Which is a mindgame a kid just can't handle. Additionally, people are 'sensing' things about each other all the way thru the book - things that they couldn't possibly know. It bothered me. It actually ruined the whole story for me, this 'subconscious knowledge' everyone has.
It makes no sense that - at the beginning of the book - Chase never had any interest in horses in the visits Louanne took him on to ranches... but the moment he steps foot in Carpathia, he's ALL ABOUT horses. ?!?!?
I'm not saying a THING about the writing - Templeton nailed it. It's impeccably written, as far as word-crafting goes. I loved it. I just didn't enjoy the story as much as I wanted to. But honestly, the very concept of a Honky-Tonk Texas waitress who's trailer trash ending up married to a Eastern European prince? Not an easy sell, from the onset.
PS: 'A Wrinkle in Time' is one of the worst children's books, ever.
Templeton can WRITE. And what a relief it was to read this.
Having said... the story is the problem, here.
Before we get to that, though, a funny aside. I picked this up about eight months ago at a library book sale, and I don't know why. As I said, I've been reading 'Love, Inspired' books - collecting them, actually. I have FOUR video store racks in the basement of them, waiting to be tackled (read: I have DOOMED myself). I was buying LI books... so picking this up was odd and didn't fit in any way.
Then I started reading it... found out it was a sequel. Found out the first one was about a princess incognito in Michigan. Hey, wait. I've READ THAT BOOK!!! Since there's not a review, it had to be from 2010 or earlier, though (I review everything). Turns out, I bought the first book years ago on a weird whim, too. WHO KNEW?!?!?!
Anyhow. In this book, Alek is a prince who jetsets out of boredom, likes women, fast cars, and people who don't fawn over him. So he does the car races across the states that are smaller and garner less attention. That's when he ends up in Nowhere, Texas in a bar drinking with a good ol' boy named Jeff who's got it bad for one of the waitresses, but blusters that 'she's like a sister' because she has absolutely no interest in his redneck butt.
Louanne had it rough. A violent daddy who finally left just in time for mama to get cancer. She put herself thru school, paid for mama's medical bills, and is living in a trailer on someone else's land, stashing every penny to put herself thru college. She loves classical music, has read every book she can get her hands on, is intelligent and speaks French fluently... she's not like the other girls, and nothin' like the boozed-up loser guys in her town.
So when Alek and Louanne meet, sparks fly. They have an affair, the protection the use fails, and then she's pregnant and he's long gone - no name, no number. So Jeff gallantly steps in to get the girl he's always wanted.
Fast forward to the beginning of the book. Louanne is widowed - Jeff died in a car race in which Alek is also injured. Her 10-year old son is sullen and grieving, she's 7/8 months pregnant and an emotional wreck because she never loved Jeff as she wished she could've...
... and Alek shows up. Jeff told him the 10yo is his. He wants 1) to see Louanne again, because he's never dropped his torch for her, and 2) to meet his son/heir. Also he has a letter that Jeff wrote him saying that he was gonna kill himself via racecar, and to 'take care of his family' for him.
Where it gets hinky is that somehow 10yo Chase 'senses' that his dad Jeff killed himself on purpose. Which is a mindgame a kid just can't handle. Additionally, people are 'sensing' things about each other all the way thru the book - things that they couldn't possibly know. It bothered me. It actually ruined the whole story for me, this 'subconscious knowledge' everyone has.
It makes no sense that - at the beginning of the book - Chase never had any interest in horses in the visits Louanne took him on to ranches... but the moment he steps foot in Carpathia, he's ALL ABOUT horses. ?!?!?
I'm not saying a THING about the writing - Templeton nailed it. It's impeccably written, as far as word-crafting goes. I loved it. I just didn't enjoy the story as much as I wanted to. But honestly, the very concept of a Honky-Tonk Texas waitress who's trailer trash ending up married to a Eastern European prince? Not an easy sell, from the onset.
PS: 'A Wrinkle in Time' is one of the worst children's books, ever.
February 2, 2024
she was honky tonk and she was cinderella
took me awhile to read just bc it got a little boring tbh but i plowed through.
took me awhile to read just bc it got a little boring tbh but i plowed through.
May 23, 2012
This was my first read by this author and I will be looking for more of her books in the future. Although it dragged a little in the middle, it started out as a great story. I had an eye opening experience in her reference to the story in the Bible about the prodigal son (page 120) that being a Christian all my life, had heard several times. And an incredible surprise, that shocked me into tears.
November 2, 2011
Hero and heroine had a one-night fling years ago, heroine married another man when she turned up pregnant. Now he’s dead and getting his revenge beyond the grave, she’s pregnant again, and the father of her son is the prince of a small kingdom, and determined to have his son. Lots of complications, they fall in love and live happily ever after.
November 12, 2024
This isn't the first time I've read this and it won't be the last...
Who doesn't love a romance with a few twists of confusion and sorrow? Of old flames who become a flash fire, and little boys who discover life can be full of treasured surprises.
And isn't there a hidden princess in many of us who simply wish for a prince of a man worth loving?
Who doesn't love a romance with a few twists of confusion and sorrow? Of old flames who become a flash fire, and little boys who discover life can be full of treasured surprises.
And isn't there a hidden princess in many of us who simply wish for a prince of a man worth loving?
January 25, 2014
typical harlequin romance,'
April 17, 2014
The first of the 'Marry a Monarch' books, Plain Jane Princess was MUCH better. Mrs. Templeton should have stopped after it rather than write this one. Blah.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews