Pamela Morsi
Historical Romance
Published in 2009 (originally 1991)
H/h - Reed Tyler/Hattie Colfax
Setting: Early 20th century.
Read in August, 2017
My rating:
[spoiler alert]
I
have waited to pick up another Pamela Morsi book for at least 4 yrs.
There is a reason behind it but I am not here to discuss that. Recently I
decided I need to give her older romance a try once again. Last week I
finished “Sealed with a Kiss”, which didn’t really live up to my
expectations. But I had already bought a few books by her so I picked up
Courting Miss Hattie instead. The blurb intrigued me, so did
the ratings. And I have to say that it was better than I thought it would be. I’m
also quite fond of older woman-younger man theme, so that was a boon in
this story. Surprised me really, because I didn’t know it prior to
starting the book.
Courting Miss Hattie is set at the
turn of the century. Hattie Colfax was but a child when her father
passed away leaving her with her frail, difficult-to-be-with mother. But
that didn’t mean Hattie didn’t love them both. Being an only child, she
took care of her until she also passed on. After that, Hattie has been
pretty much alone, taking care of their farmland all by herself. But she
also had a helper. Reed Tyler came to them when he was but barely a
boy, recruited by her father. 5 yrs younger than Hattie, Reed took to
the training soon. While Hattie only had 2 other members in her family,
Reed’s family was very big with 8/9 brothers and sisters. He was
somewhere in the middle so the training at an early age did him good.
Every bit of financial contribution mattered. Besides Reed’s father
liked Hattie’s and was happy to have him work for the old Mr. Colfax.
Now
a grown man of 24, Reed is every bit as hardworking and one of the best
farmers around. Since she started taking care of the farm, Hattie had
leased out her land to other farmers but no one stuck around for long.
Not because it wasn’t a good land—people wanted it as we find out soon
enough— but because Reed took over as soon as he was of an age and was
able to farm on his own. He had a dream and Colfax farm was a big part
of it. Reed wanted to own it someday when Hattie won’t be able to take
care of it anymore. After working here for so long, Colfax farm felt
like his place so Reed treated it as such. He has recently gotten
engaged to the prettiest girl in town, so he had other things to think
of as well.
But above all, Reed was quite fond of Hattie. Miss
Hattie was someone he looked up to and cared for. They worked together
every day since their childhood. In all, they have been a part of
each-other since Reed was 12 and Hattie 17. Now you ask, why weren’t
they engaged instead? That’d surely solve any problem they may have
regarding Hattie’s farm! Why isn’t Hattie married yet for that matter?
Unfortunately
for Hattie, she wasn’t attractive enough to ‘catch a man’. But to me,
after reading everything, it felt more like the result of small-town
gossip of equally shallow-minded people than anything else. Hattie had a
longer face and a mouth full of white, bright teeth that were a tad
bigger than usual. She had a bright, big smile I’m sure. However, that
has gotten her various nasty nicknames since her childhood. Being a
lonely child, Hattie was rather introvert and the school bullies didn’t
take kindly to that. She was abused and taunted for her ‘face’ and
became ‘Horseface Hattie’ to everyone. I mean everyone in the town. To
this day, till now, they call her Horseface Hattie behind her back. At
times not even that! Can you even imagine????! I was agape reading how
horrible people were, dragging on something like that for years after
years, so much so that Hattie doesn’t even mind anymore. It has become a
part of her life, as much as loneliness and spinsterhood had. She had
wanted her own family but she knew from a young age that she never will
because no man will ever ask her. No one did so far...until recently.
So
it was, one of the town widower and father of 7, Ancil Drayton had
shown a marked interest in Hattie. Drayton was not ‘dream guy’ material
by any stretch of the word. In fact, IMO any girl with a bit of
self-respect would never give him a chance. His callousness had probably
seen his wife to an early grave. 7 children in about 10yrs or so… Good
God! :| But when Hattie heard of it, she was rather...intrigued. I tried
to understand it from her perspective here, and couldn’t blame her even
if Ancil had all the charm of a slimy worm. She was genuinely pleased
that a man suddenly took notice of her. But what she didn’t know that
Ancil had no great attraction towards her. All he wanted was the land
she could offer, which was way better than his own (another thing almost
barren by his callous treatment). I wish Hattie figured it out sooner
rather than later but everything was happening so soon, and she really
liked Ancil’s children so she seriously begins considering his offer. At
least, she won’t be lonely anymore. Hattie was super hard-working and
as neat and clean as they came; exact opposite of Ancil and his brood.
But Hattie didn’t mind. She would help them with everything when they
married. Hell, she was good in everybody when there was none of that.
-_-
But no one knew, like even Hattie ever refused to consider,
was her intense attraction to Reed now that he’s grown to be a tall and
handsome, strapping young man. She knew there was no chance of them
being together but it was one of those intense longing you have for a
person you know you can never have. Hattie couldn’t help it and tried
her best to stamp it down; to be practical. Reed had always treated her
like an elder sister. At least, he’d never shown any other type of
interest. Besides he’s engaged now so all Hattie can do is to grab hold
of the opportunity she’d been given and try to be as happy as possible
for her.
When we get to know more of Reed’s courtship of
Bitchy…ahemm, Bessie Jane, we learned that Reed wasn’t in love with her.
Lust, yes cause she was young and very beautiful. Besides they’ve had
sex once, and seeing tears in Bessie Jane’s eyes he’d promptly offered
for her. With her father’s blessings, Reed has been courting her for a
few months now. Though Bessie Jane is very eager to marry, Reed can’t
until he’s got his business straighten out to his liking. In this case,
buying Colfax farm.
On the get go, I didn’t like Bitchy Jane.
I’ll explain why I call her that. She was a spoiled whiny girl who liked
to manipulate people to get to do her bidding. Some would say she was
young, nothing more than a teenager but everything she did to demean
Hattie was horrible. There was no excuse for her behavior. She called
her all kinds of names in Reed’s presence, knowing his utmost respect
and affection for Hattie. When he talked of Hattie and Colfax farm, Reed
could forget everyone else. And Bessie Jane hated it. I also absolutely
hated the fact that Reed never really strictly warned the girl until he
himself began to view Hattie as the woman she was. I wish he’d slap
Bitchy Jane’s face off. I wanted to for sure! The better person here was
Hattie, who was ever forgiving but never a doormat! She was smart and
simply tried her best to not dwell on those things. ‘If life gives you
lemons, make lemonade’—was her philosophy.
Reed heard of Hattie
and Ancil’s story from Bitchy Jane’s usual nasty gossip and titter about
Hattie’s ‘unfortunate’ face and her old and lonely existence that was
such a joke for this girl. I mean seriously Reed, wtf did you see in
this girl? Tell me please! A nasty person becomes even nastier in my
eyes with such behavior, doesn’t matter how goodlooking they are on the
outside. It’s just one of those things and I would simply SMH at Reed,
thinking how could he tolerate that girl who was SO MEAN to Hattie for
the better part of the book! The author tried to make her nice by
showing some changes later, but she was forever marked as a bitch in my
eyes so I simply wanted her gone.
Then we get a backstory of
Bessie Jane’s ‘real’ love, a junkyard boy that her father refused to let
her see. Harmon Leege is 20, tall and goodlooking, who had a knack for
machineries and fixing anything like that. He works hard to improve his
life and the unfortunate circumstances that ruined all his chances, no
thanks to his own father’s drunkenness and his mother’s elopement with
another man. No one ever thought Harmon would ever amount to anything;
that he’ll someday go down the same drain his father has. But these were
the same people that taunted Hattie all her life so I couldn’t expect
anything better from them.
So Harmon was the one Bessie Jane was
enamored of but she wasn’t brave enough to weather the wrath of her
father. She had lost her virginity to Harmon, something Reed failed to
notice for his own lack of experience with virgins. Snaring Reed was
something very much pre-planned so she could ‘move on’, not because she
cared for him. Not that I really cherished reading all that crap between
them but I know that the author has a tendency of wasting pages on
characters who didn’t deserve any attention to begin with, and the
hero’s OWs or other sexual escapades that I’d rather not hear of. So I
had to simply skim through to get to the pages where Hattie and Reed
were. Anyway, since her father has decreed Harmon unacceptable on all
accounts, Bessie Jane had manipulated Reed into having sex, and then
gotten a proposal out of him. She’s been forcing Reed to hurry the
wedding date for a while now. I, at first, though she was pregnant or
something. She was definitely the type who would’ve passed on the baby
as Reed’s if that was the case. But all she wanted was to marry Reed to
keep Harmon at bay, who, in his blind devotion to that dumb bitch, won’t
let her be. He’d sneak at the back of her house and try to tempt her
into running away with him. She even deeply hurt Harmon more than once
so he stops chasing her. *headache alert!* However tempted she was,
Bessie Jane was never going to run away with the likes of Harmon Leege.
Nope.
This far, I was bored and, frankly, irritated at the
characters, except for Hattie cause I LOVED her. But things started to
rush when Ancil and Hattie sped up their courtship. Hattie had never
kissed anyone, so she was worried that her fiancé won’t be happy with
her, uh, performance. Who had she but Reed to confide to? It didn’t even
feel abnormal cause Reed was the closest thing to a friend, if not a
brother, she’d ever had. Reed had already started looking at Hattie as a
woman for the first time in his life, noting the ample curves under her
shapeless dress. All he saw was a woman he could desire. There was
nothing wrong with her, and for the first time in his life, Reed
wondered why had he never considered Hattie as the perfect helpmeet,
which she was in every day possible by the standard of a hardworking
farmer. She could make him the best wife possible whereas Bessie Jane
wasn’t suited for farm life at all. She had made it clear time after
time that she didn’t want anything to with farming!
So when
Hattie asked him shyly for a short training in kissing, Reed had the
hard-on of his life. I mean seriously! He was feeling it, like having
that chance to taste the most forbidden of fruits. :P It could’ve
escalated to something else, had Reed not stopped it in time. But by
that time he’d decided he wanted Hattie more than anyone else. But how
could he offer for her, when he’d already entangled himself with Bessie
Jane and Hattie is seeing Ancil? On the other hand, Hattie was
head-over-heels for this strapping and sexy Reed. ;) She’d admired him
physically for a while; the kisses only left her insatiable. Ancil’s
kisses were just...uh, better not discuss those at all. But Hattie
thought about the security a man can offer her and a lifetime with those
children and decides to make things official with Ancil.
At that
point, things turned in a way that it begin to look positive for Hattie
and Reed when she hears of Ancil’s boasting of grabbing her farm. The
bearer of that bit of gossip was none other than the town’s best gossip
Bessie Jane, who wasn’t simply doing a neighborly charity. Bessie Jane,
one, wanted to push Reed to marry her and without Colfax farm, he won’t
be able to. Two, she couldn’t help poking Hattie about her
‘unattractiveness’ on her face. That girl was just.........ugh! End
result, Hattie was hurt cause she thought Ancil was genuine in his
regard. :( Reed wasn’t happy about any of it himself. He was mad at
Ancil, and irritated at Bessie Jane. When he thought of it with a clear
head, he knew he must marry Hattie. Only he didn’t know how he can go
about it and break his engagement with Bessie Jane off. Fortunately,
Harmon Leege took the matter in hand. Bessie Jane, for the first time in
her life, gathers the courage to elope with him (good riddance!),
leaving Reed free to consider the possibilities.
After a
disastrous courtship where Reed couldn’t begin to understand how to
court someone like Hattie, things take a rather lovely turn. He was good
with women; only Hattie wasn’t just another woman in his life. She
mattered. It was also because both felt awkward due to their previous
history where they could never determine what they meant to each-other.
Hattie kinda knew for a while, but to Reed it was simply too new and
awesome. He wanted to marry Hattie not just because of the land, which
is of course was a part of the bargain, but because he wanted her madly.
Now that his brain has turned, he couldn’t think of marrying anyone
else. I was so happy cause this made Hattie extremely happy. :D
The ending was rather lovely too which is why I gave Courting Miss Hattie
a 4 star. I loved how Hattie and Reed’s relationship turned to
something more fulfilling than they could’ve ever imagined. I only wish
Reed saw it much earlier and saved Hattie from all that humiliation and
heartaches.
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