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In a Fairy Tale World... #1
Their Little Cowgirl
Dearest Godmother,
You said all I must do to regain my youth is play matchmaker for twenty-one couples. Well, it's harder than you made it sound! Luckily, I've only got six more to go.
Take my latest attempt: ex-ugly-duckling Jackie Hammond and sexy rancher Steven Rollins. There's sizzle between these two strangers — even I can see it — but Jackie just found out that Steven's one-year-old cutie is biologically hers. (How? You'd have to ask the fertility clinic.) I can't blame her for wanting two weeks with a child she has to give up, but how can I make Jackie see that she should fight for the little girl — and the one man who makes her feel beautiful?
Merry.
You said all I must do to regain my youth is play matchmaker for twenty-one couples. Well, it's harder than you made it sound! Luckily, I've only got six more to go.
Take my latest attempt: ex-ugly-duckling Jackie Hammond and sexy rancher Steven Rollins. There's sizzle between these two strangers — even I can see it — but Jackie just found out that Steven's one-year-old cutie is biologically hers. (How? You'd have to ask the fertility clinic.) I can't blame her for wanting two weeks with a child she has to give up, but how can I make Jackie see that she should fight for the little girl — and the one man who makes her feel beautiful?
Merry.
- GenresFantasy
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 2004
About the author
Myrna Mackenzie
246 books23 followersA former teacher, Myrna Mackenzie has always been a daydreamer and began putting those daydreams to use when she sold her first book in 1993.
Her work has won the Holt Medallion for outstanding fiction and the Booksellers Best Award, she's been nominated for the Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Awards 4 times and been a finalist in the Orange Rose, the Reader's Choice and WisRWA's Write Touch. Sold worldwide, her books have been translated into many languages.
Her success has, of course, been largely due to many faithful readers. So, to all of you out there who have bought books, written letters and e-mails and continued to share in the stories she loves to write, thank you, and may you have much happiness and joy in reading and in life!
Her work has won the Holt Medallion for outstanding fiction and the Booksellers Best Award, she's been nominated for the Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice Awards 4 times and been a finalist in the Orange Rose, the Reader's Choice and WisRWA's Write Touch. Sold worldwide, her books have been translated into many languages.
Her success has, of course, been largely due to many faithful readers. So, to all of you out there who have bought books, written letters and e-mails and continued to share in the stories she loves to write, thank you, and may you have much happiness and joy in reading and in life!
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
June 9, 2016
"No, I think a fairy tale ends up with a lot of kissing and with a man and woman heading off to spend the day together. Much more practical, and very much what I'd like to do with you."
This is Book 1 in Harlequin's "In a Fairy Tale World..." series which reimagines classic fairy tales. This one is a retelling of The Ugly Duckling.
It's a good thing I don't judge a book by its cover, because anyone would take a look at this half-naked baby wearing cowboy boots sitting in the middle of a pastel explosion and decide to pass on this. People also doubt Harlequin and that is a mistake. Sure, some Harlequins are terrible, but some are great and I feel like I would have missed out on a lot of great stories had I decided that Harlequins were beneath me.
The book opens with a short version of The Ugly Duckling, just to get everyone in the mindset. Then the real story starts.
BASIC STORYLINE
The basis of this whole series is that an entitled princess was rude to her father and her betrothed and so was cursed by her fairy godmother to teach her a lesson. She was, at age 23, turned into a 'crone.' Appearing old and withered, Merry has seven years to get 21 couples met, in love, and married. She has five more couples to go, but as she's 29, the clock is ticking down to the deadline of her 30th birthday. She runs a resort in Florida and usually tries to matchmake between her guests. I thought the couples were predestined to fall in love... as is the m.o. of romance novels... but instead Merry just picks people willy-nilly to fall in love based on if she thinks she can 'get' them to fall in love and marry.
Okay, our protagonists.
HEROINE
Jacqueline Hammond is 'the ugly duckling,' a second daughter. Her father blames her for his wife leaving him and ignores her in favor of her prettier, older half-sister Parris. Jackie and Parris don't get on so well. Jackie is described as 'plain' and 'average,' but of course she is thin and has huge, expressive eyes. Jackie and Parris have been put in charge of one of her father's smaller businesses, and auction house. He's expecting them to fail.
Jackie is very selfless and giving. She donated eggs to her cousin and her cousin is raising her biological kid, who doesn't know that Jackie is her bio-mom. She has to watch this kid grow up from afar, knowing its hers but never being able to be close to it. Jackie also is accommodating and people-pleasing, nervous and anxious about doing and saying the right thing.
Her only relationship was with a man who left her when he met her prettier sister, so she's sworn off men for life.
HERO
Steven Rollins is a rancher whose wife died in childbirth. But Michelle's child wasn't conceived naturally, the egg was donated, and in a hospital mixup the donated egg was Jackie's - even though she only intended her harvested eggs to go to her cousin.
Steven Rollins shows up unexpectedly at Jackie's workplace to tell her that his one-year-old daughter is biologically hers, and armed with paperwork that will end Jackie's rights to ever see/touch/visit or claim the child. He tries to intimidate Jackie into signing this.
For once in her life, Jackie does not act accommodating and meekly roll over to please someone else. She sees and understands Steven's terror at the possibility of losing his little girl and has no intentions of taking her away from him, but before she signs the papers she demands two weeks access to the child. And to get that access she moves into Steven's ranch.
...
THE GOOD:
- EMOTIONALLY STRONG. I really felt for all the characters involved. It's heartwrenching that Jackie is spending her first and last two weeks ever with her daughter that she just found out about. Is bonding with the baby really a good idea when she's never going to be able to see her again? Or should she get the most out of these two weeks as she can? Every time she holds this little baby and plays with her my heart was breaking.
Also, Jackie is so vulnerable it just tears you up. She's naturally a people-pleaser and naturally a submissive person (not in a BDSM way, this book isn't BDSM) and so Steven's strong, forceful personality perfectly gels with hers in a very combustible way.
Steven is also bringing all the feelings because even though he's terrified of Jackie (she could bring legal action against him to take his daughter away from him aka demand joint custody or whatever he's imagining in his nightmare scenarios) and she's his biggest fear, he's also very attracted to her and her soft, vulnerable personality really turns him on. Under other circumstances he would be courting her but as it stands she's strictly off-limits. His absolute overriding love for his daughter is front and center here and really shines through.
- SEXUAL TENSION. There's really three (3) parts to making the physical part of a romance novel work. 1.) You have to build up sexual tension. This is something Mackenzie excels at. Jackie and Steven are both attracted to each other, but each is determined not to give in. Added to that is their absolutely perfect-fit personalities: he's dominating (not in an alpha asshole way) and forceful (again, not in this way romance heroes are today like "On your knees, bitch" but just naturally a commanding and forceful person) and she's naturally submissive, eager to please, and vulnerable, heightening both his protective instincts and his desire to fuck her brains out.
Mackenzie is good at describing all this in a way that is nice, not skeevy or 'dirty' (this isn't erotica) but nevertheless had my heart pounding in my chest every time things happened. It's skill how subtly Mackenzie weaves this together, not blunt and crude the way more erotic books are (not bashing erotica, y'all know I love (good) erotica, but just saying it's not exactly subtle). It's like when you meet someone you KNOW you would have amazing sex with but you can't ever be with them for some reason (they are your boss, they are married, etc. etc.) and the sexual tension is off the charts but completely unable to be fulfilled.
Jackie barely managed to nod.
"You can say that, but I don't think you really can," he told her, and he raised one hand and slid it beneath her hair, behind her neck.
Mmmmm! It's like every time he gives in to his need to touch her and he steps real close to her and puts his hands on her like she's his, she naturally just lets her eyes flutter closed and leans into it and starts melting, and it's SO tense because the two of them are a perfect fit. Not only are they both attracted to each other, like each other, and respect each other - but their innate personalities and sexual natures mesh in such a way that they both know (and the reader knows) that they would set a bed on fire. And that makes it so much more difficult. It would be one thing if she fought his touches. If she jerked when he touched her or backed away or acted scared or uncomfortable. He would back off immediately and this wouldn't work - she would be scared and angry, he would be frustrated and feel like a shitheel - but instead when he acts sexually forward with her she gets turned on and relaxes, basically giving him free rein to do whatever he wants with her and granting him access to her body, which not only increases his need to take her to bed because she's submitting to him but also puts him in the position of being the stronger one who has to get control and stop this if he wants to stay honorable, which appeals to his 'macho' sense of self.
"Babies are so much more than genetic material."
"Oh, but that genetic material can be very important," he said, his voice dipping deeper, his thumb beginning a slow caress up and down the sensitive inch of her neck.
Jackie swallowed hard. "I... I... maybe."
"You want me to stop touching you?"
She closed her eyes. "Yes. No. I don't know."
LOL The sexual tension is off the charts, for sure.
2.) The second thing you need for the physical romance to work in a romance novel is good, described kissing, and that is a fail here. Even though the characters DO kiss a few times in this novel, it's very undescribed. It's like, "They kissed." I mean, COME ON. What was she feeling and what was he doing and where were her hands and where were his hands? What was happening with their mouths, lips, tongues, etc.? I WANT DETAILS. But no. Utter fail.
3.) Sex. And the characters in this book never have sex. I repeat, there is NO SEX in this book. This is going to be a dealbreaker for a lot of readers and I can't say I blame them. I was dying to know how it would be in bed between Steven and Jackie. But the book ends with them
- THE BABY. I think this is one of the rare times a baby/child actually improved a romance rather than being an annoying cutesy accessory. And this isn't because of anything the baby did or didn't do (Mackenzie blessedly kept the cutesy factor to a minimum) but it had everything to do with the intense feelings both protagonists had wrapped up in the little human and the importance they were placing on her and what she meant in both of their lives.
THE BAD:
- He calls her 'good girl' at one point, which leads me to believe he needs his throat ripped out. She's not a fucking dog, hombre.
- He looked down at her and saw that he had broken her, at last, now that he didn't want to. Ugh. Please never talk about 'breaking' a woman, ever. It's highly disgusting.
- Other women (under the age of 60) are one-dimensional schemers looking to bag the hero and will resort to the most petty shit to try and get his attention and/or a date.
- What in the hell had he been thinking kissing Jackie? And why couldn't he get that picture of her, wearing that pale blue thing with her hair all soft and tousled, out of his mind?
"Because you haven't had a woman in weeks," he reminded himself. If he were smart, he would just drive over to Miranda's tonight and take care of his problem.
Sigh. This book, like so many romance books, acts as if men can't go three days without having sex. Listen... I know this may be a huge shock to you, but men are not fucking-machines. Men routinely go weeks, months, even YEARS without sex. And when they do, there's this thing called MASTURBATION that was invented to help human beings deal with sexual feelings when there was no other willing humans around. Look it up! Stop trying to convince me that men's balls are going to explode if they don't put their dick in some vagina every three days if not more often. It's just ridiculous. RIDICULOUS. There's no reason for every romance hero to be a player-player. NO REASON FOR IT. Luckily some authors like Alexa Riley seem to have caught on to this. I reward romance authors who realize men are not ticking sperm bombs with my money. :)
- I was pissed when he left her in that truck for three hours while he was chasing a bull all over creation. Fucking rude. She just smiles and goes with it, but I would have his head on a platter for that one. I mean, he sincerely apologizes, but that shit doesn't fly with me. There's times I wish Jackie wasn't so submissive because this man needs to be taken to task on some issues.
Tl;dr - Surprisingly heart-wrenching and with high sexual tension. Sad that the kissing and sex is nonexistent. I'm definitely continuing with the series. DO NOT READ if kissing and sex are important to you, and on the other hand it might not be chaste enough to satisfy Christian readers. So... it's really in a weird middle ground here and I can't in good conscience recommend it to anyone. Read at your own risk.
This is Book 1 in Harlequin's "In a Fairy Tale World..." series which reimagines classic fairy tales. This one is a retelling of The Ugly Duckling.
It's a good thing I don't judge a book by its cover, because anyone would take a look at this half-naked baby wearing cowboy boots sitting in the middle of a pastel explosion and decide to pass on this. People also doubt Harlequin and that is a mistake. Sure, some Harlequins are terrible, but some are great and I feel like I would have missed out on a lot of great stories had I decided that Harlequins were beneath me.
The book opens with a short version of The Ugly Duckling, just to get everyone in the mindset. Then the real story starts.
BASIC STORYLINE
The basis of this whole series is that an entitled princess was rude to her father and her betrothed and so was cursed by her fairy godmother to teach her a lesson. She was, at age 23, turned into a 'crone.' Appearing old and withered, Merry has seven years to get 21 couples met, in love, and married. She has five more couples to go, but as she's 29, the clock is ticking down to the deadline of her 30th birthday. She runs a resort in Florida and usually tries to matchmake between her guests. I thought the couples were predestined to fall in love... as is the m.o. of romance novels... but instead Merry just picks people willy-nilly to fall in love based on if she thinks she can 'get' them to fall in love and marry.
Okay, our protagonists.
HEROINE
Jacqueline Hammond is 'the ugly duckling,' a second daughter. Her father blames her for his wife leaving him and ignores her in favor of her prettier, older half-sister Parris. Jackie and Parris don't get on so well. Jackie is described as 'plain' and 'average,' but of course she is thin and has huge, expressive eyes. Jackie and Parris have been put in charge of one of her father's smaller businesses, and auction house. He's expecting them to fail.
Jackie is very selfless and giving. She donated eggs to her cousin and her cousin is raising her biological kid, who doesn't know that Jackie is her bio-mom. She has to watch this kid grow up from afar, knowing its hers but never being able to be close to it. Jackie also is accommodating and people-pleasing, nervous and anxious about doing and saying the right thing.
Her only relationship was with a man who left her when he met her prettier sister, so she's sworn off men for life.
HERO
Steven Rollins is a rancher whose wife died in childbirth. But Michelle's child wasn't conceived naturally, the egg was donated, and in a hospital mixup the donated egg was Jackie's - even though she only intended her harvested eggs to go to her cousin.
Steven Rollins shows up unexpectedly at Jackie's workplace to tell her that his one-year-old daughter is biologically hers, and armed with paperwork that will end Jackie's rights to ever see/touch/visit or claim the child. He tries to intimidate Jackie into signing this.
For once in her life, Jackie does not act accommodating and meekly roll over to please someone else. She sees and understands Steven's terror at the possibility of losing his little girl and has no intentions of taking her away from him, but before she signs the papers she demands two weeks access to the child. And to get that access she moves into Steven's ranch.
...
THE GOOD:
- EMOTIONALLY STRONG. I really felt for all the characters involved. It's heartwrenching that Jackie is spending her first and last two weeks ever with her daughter that she just found out about. Is bonding with the baby really a good idea when she's never going to be able to see her again? Or should she get the most out of these two weeks as she can? Every time she holds this little baby and plays with her my heart was breaking.
Also, Jackie is so vulnerable it just tears you up. She's naturally a people-pleaser and naturally a submissive person (not in a BDSM way, this book isn't BDSM) and so Steven's strong, forceful personality perfectly gels with hers in a very combustible way.
Steven is also bringing all the feelings because even though he's terrified of Jackie (she could bring legal action against him to take his daughter away from him aka demand joint custody or whatever he's imagining in his nightmare scenarios) and she's his biggest fear, he's also very attracted to her and her soft, vulnerable personality really turns him on. Under other circumstances he would be courting her but as it stands she's strictly off-limits. His absolute overriding love for his daughter is front and center here and really shines through.
- SEXUAL TENSION. There's really three (3) parts to making the physical part of a romance novel work. 1.) You have to build up sexual tension. This is something Mackenzie excels at. Jackie and Steven are both attracted to each other, but each is determined not to give in. Added to that is their absolutely perfect-fit personalities: he's dominating (not in an alpha asshole way) and forceful (again, not in this way romance heroes are today like "On your knees, bitch" but just naturally a commanding and forceful person) and she's naturally submissive, eager to please, and vulnerable, heightening both his protective instincts and his desire to fuck her brains out.
Mackenzie is good at describing all this in a way that is nice, not skeevy or 'dirty' (this isn't erotica) but nevertheless had my heart pounding in my chest every time things happened. It's skill how subtly Mackenzie weaves this together, not blunt and crude the way more erotic books are (not bashing erotica, y'all know I love (good) erotica, but just saying it's not exactly subtle). It's like when you meet someone you KNOW you would have amazing sex with but you can't ever be with them for some reason (they are your boss, they are married, etc. etc.) and the sexual tension is off the charts but completely unable to be fulfilled.
Jackie barely managed to nod.
"You can say that, but I don't think you really can," he told her, and he raised one hand and slid it beneath her hair, behind her neck.
Mmmmm! It's like every time he gives in to his need to touch her and he steps real close to her and puts his hands on her like she's his, she naturally just lets her eyes flutter closed and leans into it and starts melting, and it's SO tense because the two of them are a perfect fit. Not only are they both attracted to each other, like each other, and respect each other - but their innate personalities and sexual natures mesh in such a way that they both know (and the reader knows) that they would set a bed on fire. And that makes it so much more difficult. It would be one thing if she fought his touches. If she jerked when he touched her or backed away or acted scared or uncomfortable. He would back off immediately and this wouldn't work - she would be scared and angry, he would be frustrated and feel like a shitheel - but instead when he acts sexually forward with her she gets turned on and relaxes, basically giving him free rein to do whatever he wants with her and granting him access to her body, which not only increases his need to take her to bed because she's submitting to him but also puts him in the position of being the stronger one who has to get control and stop this if he wants to stay honorable, which appeals to his 'macho' sense of self.
"Babies are so much more than genetic material."
"Oh, but that genetic material can be very important," he said, his voice dipping deeper, his thumb beginning a slow caress up and down the sensitive inch of her neck.
Jackie swallowed hard. "I... I... maybe."
"You want me to stop touching you?"
She closed her eyes. "Yes. No. I don't know."
LOL The sexual tension is off the charts, for sure.
2.) The second thing you need for the physical romance to work in a romance novel is good, described kissing, and that is a fail here. Even though the characters DO kiss a few times in this novel, it's very undescribed. It's like, "They kissed." I mean, COME ON. What was she feeling and what was he doing and where were her hands and where were his hands? What was happening with their mouths, lips, tongues, etc.? I WANT DETAILS. But no. Utter fail.
3.) Sex. And the characters in this book never have sex. I repeat, there is NO SEX in this book. This is going to be a dealbreaker for a lot of readers and I can't say I blame them. I was dying to know how it would be in bed between Steven and Jackie. But the book ends with them
- THE BABY. I think this is one of the rare times a baby/child actually improved a romance rather than being an annoying cutesy accessory. And this isn't because of anything the baby did or didn't do (Mackenzie blessedly kept the cutesy factor to a minimum) but it had everything to do with the intense feelings both protagonists had wrapped up in the little human and the importance they were placing on her and what she meant in both of their lives.
THE BAD:
- He calls her 'good girl' at one point, which leads me to believe he needs his throat ripped out. She's not a fucking dog, hombre.
- He looked down at her and saw that he had broken her, at last, now that he didn't want to. Ugh. Please never talk about 'breaking' a woman, ever. It's highly disgusting.
- Other women (under the age of 60) are one-dimensional schemers looking to bag the hero and will resort to the most petty shit to try and get his attention and/or a date.
- What in the hell had he been thinking kissing Jackie? And why couldn't he get that picture of her, wearing that pale blue thing with her hair all soft and tousled, out of his mind?
"Because you haven't had a woman in weeks," he reminded himself. If he were smart, he would just drive over to Miranda's tonight and take care of his problem.
Sigh. This book, like so many romance books, acts as if men can't go three days without having sex. Listen... I know this may be a huge shock to you, but men are not fucking-machines. Men routinely go weeks, months, even YEARS without sex. And when they do, there's this thing called MASTURBATION that was invented to help human beings deal with sexual feelings when there was no other willing humans around. Look it up! Stop trying to convince me that men's balls are going to explode if they don't put their dick in some vagina every three days if not more often. It's just ridiculous. RIDICULOUS. There's no reason for every romance hero to be a player-player. NO REASON FOR IT. Luckily some authors like Alexa Riley seem to have caught on to this. I reward romance authors who realize men are not ticking sperm bombs with my money. :)
- I was pissed when he left her in that truck for three hours while he was chasing a bull all over creation. Fucking rude. She just smiles and goes with it, but I would have his head on a platter for that one. I mean, he sincerely apologizes, but that shit doesn't fly with me. There's times I wish Jackie wasn't so submissive because this man needs to be taken to task on some issues.
Tl;dr - Surprisingly heart-wrenching and with high sexual tension. Sad that the kissing and sex is nonexistent. I'm definitely continuing with the series. DO NOT READ if kissing and sex are important to you, and on the other hand it might not be chaste enough to satisfy Christian readers. So... it's really in a weird middle ground here and I can't in good conscience recommend it to anyone. Read at your own risk.
January 1, 2009
good story. made me cry for a number of reasons. I think I've read other books by her, so I think I'll find more.
June 29, 2012
awesome......i want the rest of them
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews