Customer Reviews

Courting Miss Hattie

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Miss Hattie Colfax and Mr. Reed Tyler are a wonderful match. Their friendship which blossoms into love is enjoyable from beginning to end. Their story is filled with passion, laughter and love. Every time I read it (and I've read it MANY times), I find myself caught in their story again, sharing their tears of pain and happiness.

If you prefer romance novels whose main characters are realistic and captivating, you need look no further than "Courting Miss Hattie." I have read most of Ms. Morsi's work and although I have enjoyed the rest, this one by far is my favorite. Believe me, you won't be disappointed.

Yay for Pamela Morsi! Once again, we have a sweet romance with realistic characters, funny dialogue, and a couple of sensual scenes that nearly set the pages on fire.
Hattie Colfax is a twenty-nine-year-old spinster who manages her Arkansas farm with a lot of work, plenty of good humor, and help from her neighbor and friend Reed Tyler. Reed is five years younger than she, and has known her all his life. He believes himself in love with his fiancee Bessie Jane, but Hattie is his best friend.

Out of the blue, Hattie finds herself being courted by the widower Ancil Drayton. While she can accept that he wants her for her land and as a mother to his children, she finds his physical advances confusing. She rebuffs him when he tries to kiss her, and he calls her 'Horseface Hattie'. Reed finds her crying in the barn, and decides to give her kissing lessons to help the courtship along. One 'peach' (sweet and juicy kiss) later, the whole situation has changed.
Reed is now very attracted to Hattie, and Hattie knows that she'd rather kiss Reed than Ancil Drayton. Confuzzlement occurs, Bessie Jane becomes distant to Reed and breaks their engagement, Hattie tells Drayton to back off, and poor nervous Reed officially comes a-courting Miss Hattie. The memorable one-night courtship is almost ruined by Reed's lack of romantic notions, but finishes with a scene that will give you a host of new ideas regarding your porch and porch swing.
Of course, it's never _too_ easy. Reed has to let go of Bessie Jane, and acknowledge his love for Hattie, and Hattie has to be convinced that Reed didn't just marry her for her farm. But this is a Pamela Morsi novel, so you can be sure it'll turn out fine. If you can find it, get it, and enjoy!

Courting Miss Hattie has all the main ingredients I look for in a book. You have believability in the characters, laughter, heartache, tears, and the coming togather of two diverse characters.

Morsi captures your heart and imagination
from the first chapter. She gives us a heroine that is ordinary and proves how extrodinary she really is and a man that grows into his manhood and love for Miss Hattie as the book progresses.

I fell in love with her creations and hated turning the final page. I hope she publishes more books along this style.

This is Pamela Morsi's best book! I just finished reading it again for the 10th time. The heroine is human and I can empathize with her. She provides us with a satisfying conclusion so we can go away happy!

A tale with an uncommon heroine and a typical hero. No raving beauty with a horde of suitors, just a plain, down-to-earth woman who has to make ends meet and a young man who realizes that it's time for some of her hopes and dreams to come true. Poignant and realistic, one of Pamela Morsi's best

Very cute. The main characters are childhood friends. The hero is a couple years younger than the heroine so they never thought about marriage to each, other but you can see that they truly love one another and would do anything for the other. I love how they come to slowly realize that they have always loved each other.

This is my 1st book by Ms. Morsi, and beleive you me, it wont be the last.
This is the story of Hattie Colfax and Reed Tyler. They are both real good friends despite that Hattie is older than Reed for 5 years. She's by NO means your typical beauty or pretty at all, but she has a golden heart and an independence enviable by any women in her time. She owns a farm and Reed works the farm until he gathers enough money to buy it for himself and his fiancee.
Hattie is now 29 and an "old spinster" until Ancil Drayton's wife dies leaving him with 7 children and a farm to tend. So he decides to court Hattie in order to gain a wife, a mother for his children and maybe a little something extra (hey I cannot give the whole story away).
Tyler learns this and is appaled by Hattie going out with old Drayton. He doesnt know what to do now and his feelings as confusing as they could have gotten. And to makes matters worse he teaches Hattie how to do somethign called "peach" which, needless to say, they both like more than they should have!
With some great secondary characters spicing up this terrific novel, the Hattie and Reed's story is fantastic and a treat to read.
They must overcome the obstacles that come their way, but most of all, they must overcome their own ideas of what they want for the rest of their lives and see if what they feel for each other is love or they simply care a little too much for each other.
The story has nothing that is unrealistic. The events that occur throughout the book were things that could have happened back in their day, but I think that only enriches the book. The villans are not that bad and i think one could relate to any of the characters one way or the other.
In short I loved this book till the very end of it and my only complain was that it ended to soon!
I loved the relationship Reed and Hattie have and how, eventually they realize their true feelings and how their past actions had always been affected by those feelings that were hidden but always there!
Highly reccomend!!!!!!!!!

I read alot of romantic fiction and this has to be one of my all time favorite books ever. The characters are so real, so richly written, its hard to believe they do not exist, except in the gifted mind of Pamela Morsi. This book touched my heart so profoundly, that I find myself re-reading it over and over. The heroine is no beauty, except on the inside, she doesn't have much experience with men, and has few expectations. Her best friend, the handsome Reed Tyler, her neighbor, the younger man who is engaged, loves her like a sister. That is, until, another man comes a courting Miss Hattie. It is then that Reed is forced to confront his real feelings for her. The love scenes are funny, sensual and tender. I wept with joy. A real keeper, a jewel, a gem of a book. One of the best romantic books ever. Simply put, it is a classic that must be read by anyone who enjoys this genre.

I have no words.

Perfection.

Expanded thoughts: Although I would normally be troubled by a hero who is already engaged, it worked in this book, and the bratty betrothed actually has more layers than initially portrayed. Miss Hattie is a wonderful character who reminds me a bit of Maggie Osborne's Jenny Jones in her self-sufficiency and lack of pretension. Reed is hotttness personified - honest, hard-working, and playful with a hint of wickedness. I love how the author reveals his feelings for Hattie...even without Reed's being able to put a name to such just yet. The moment when Hattie realizes Reed intends his visit to be courting is priceless. I was deeply invested in their HEA from the start. Reed and his peaches...*shivers* delicious! Theirs is a sweet and passionate story with a slow burn that feels so damn good when it catches fire.

I loved this book. Seriously loved it.

Before I start I just want to put a spoiler warning b/c some of the basic plot info is alluded to like a secret in the provided synopsis so I don't want to give anything away.

Hattie has been living on her own on her family farm after her parent's death and now with no family she turns to Reed, the plowboy her father brought to help around the place when he was just 8 years old. Reed loves the land he's worked since he was a child and Hattie has promised to sell it to him as soon as he has saved enough money to buy it. Reed is engaged to Bessie Jane, a very young, very pretty, very spoiled and sometimes cruel girl whom he feels more loyalty than love, but won't marry until he finally owns land for himself. Hattie and Reed plod along as best friends, almost like family until one day Ancil Drayton decides to court Miss Hattie. Suddenly Reed isn't seeing Hattie as his five years older best friend but is seeing her as a woman.

I really cared for this book but it is a little spotty. I was a huge fan of Reed and Harmon, the secondary male lead, but I didn't quite know what to think about Hattie and Bessie Jane. I found it really hard to swallow that Hattie was so desperate to marry that she was willing to put up with some of Ancil's antics. When he tells her, "Kissing that toothy mouth of yours wouldn't be no favor. Hell, I'd rather kiss a mule!" I was just flabbergasted by the cruelty and absolutely SHOCKED that Hattie, this strong, smart, independent woman is going to put up with that just to get herself a man. If a man is going to treat you like that while trying to impress you what is he going to be like in 5 or 10 years? I lost a lot of respect for her that she didn't give him the old heave ho right then and there.

I didn't like and didn't understand Bessie Jane. She has been in love with Harmon since forever but she just tossed him over because her father didn't like him. That I can believe, but I got tired of scene after scene (it felt like about 5) where it's just Harmon and her there, talking about how he wants her, how they both love each other but she is too much of a snob to be with him because he's poor. There was no emotional build in this story line, from beginning to end it was just a long flat line, that makes Bessie look very unsympathetic. When she finally did decided what she really wanted I was like what? Nothing has changed, Harmon hasn't said anything different but suddenly you're listening? I think the author wants her to be someone you are a little ambivalent about, being the first thing she says in the book (the set up for her character) is Bessie referring to Hattie as Horseface Hattie. My heart did break for Bessie when she sat there and watched her love for Harmon slipping away but in the end she was the one who tossed it away and even though she was so young and dependent on doing as her father said, it was hard for me to like her, even if I could empathize with her. In the end she claims to really like and respect Hattie so I have no idea why she was so down right cruel and snobby about the idea of Hattie having a beau to begin with.

I loved the sweet country charm and innocence of this book. The way the farming was handle was wonderful, be it Hattie raising her prized Hampshire pigs or Reed's dream of one day growing rice in cotton country. It was all so realistically described and Hattie and Reed's simple goals on their farm seemed to become very important. This part of the story was perfectly handled and would much rather have had more time on the farm than to hear anything else about Bessie and Harmon sneaking around together.

At it's heart this is a wonderful book, but to my mind the side romances of Hattie with Ancil and Harmon with Bessie just took away from the rest of this book which I really loved. It was slow moving, but not boring, based in western culture, religion and morals but never preachy and had a hero who was always honest and kind. I wish I could just edit out those few scenes, but I suppose the book wouldn't be what it is without them, but with them I can't give this 5 stars, so I have to say:

4 stars.