Customer Reviews

Fancy Pants

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

In 1889 following the death of her father, Lady Sydney Hathwell, escorted by her Aunt Serena leaves England to join her American fiancé Rexall Hume in New York. However, he agrees to her insistence of an acceptable period of mourning before they marry. One year and one day later, Rexall demands they wed, but Sydney knows they do not suit.

Sydney receives a telegram from her Uncle Fuller, who was unaware he had living relatives until he got her note. He invites his nephew to live on his Forsaken Ranch in Gooding, Texas where he explained no human females reside. With Hume's unknowing help disguised as a boy she goes to the ranch. Her uncle is away and the ranch foreman widower "Big Tim" Creighton thinks his boss will be disappointed with his foppish nephew. He decides to change this "FANCY PANTS" into a real man though he also hopes to drive his lordship back across the content and ocean. Instead Lord Sydney begins to fall in love as she sees the vulnerable caring side of Big Tim, but fears once Uncle Fuller learns he has a niece he will kick her out, leaving her vulnerable to Rexall.

This is a terrific amusing inspirational historical romance. Sydney is a fabulous nephew as the ranch hands led by Big Tim struggle to toughen up the girly boy going so far as to take her to a brothel. Big Tim in many ways is the more interesting protagonist as he began to fall in love with her when she was an English sissy. The story line is intelligent and fun to read because Hume is not a nasty villain as he persists in marrying Sydney although she rejects them as unsuited (could his story be next?). Cathy Marie Hake has written a droll late nineteenth century tale that sub-genre readers will cherish.

Harriet Klausner

*Some Spoilers*
I really wanted to like Fancy Pants as I think that the premise has the promise of a great read. However I was terribly disappointed.
Lady Sydney is an unaffecting and unsympathetic character whose ruse is carried out farther then necessary or probable for a woman of her time. She is waiting to reach her "age of majority" yet I was surprised to find that she is 17 waiting for 18 not 20 waiting for 21 as it most defiantly would have been for that time period. Through the beginning of the book I found her to be ridiculously naïve for her supposed advanced education, making foolish assumptions and basing her impulsive decisions on them. By the end of the book I didn't find that she had improved or grown in many ways at all even though she wrestles with being a sinner and the idea of forgiveness and ultimately accepts salvation.
Big Tim really confuses me. We see ghosts of his background that we are supposed to connect to but are never fully developed; they could be powerful touchstones to explain who he is but fall flat. Tim's attitudes and actions are puzzling; he dislikes Sydney instantly and sets about to pound her into manhood, next we find him in a fury upon discovery of Sydney's true identity, suddenly he is leading her to Christ then before we know it he is thoroughly and possessively in love with her and on the way to the alter. For a man who is a respected Christian member of the community- loved by all- he comes off to me as angry, obstinate and undesirable marriage material.
The conclusion of the story and developing romance is positively rushed; the much anticipated arrival of Sydney's uncle is conspicuously lacking and the triumph over lurking evil simplistic, insufficient and anticlimactic.
Throughout Fancy Pants I was thrown out of the story by the plentiful anachronisms, words, phrases, facts and ideas that are out of place for their time. Most would say that it is a little thing and can be ignored but for me it was jarring as was the text arrangement and lack of page breaks. Overall I believe Fancy Pants could have been better written and plotted with warmer characters and believable events.

Sydney chooses to go a different path than society would deem proper. She heads to her uncle's farm and from the moment she reaches it, she has to prove to the rest of the cowboys she's man enough for the job. She meets Tim who runs the farm in her uncle's absence. He's prepared to make a man out of her and the fun begins! When Sydney's secret is revealed, it's an adventure to find out who's more stubborn Tim or Sydney.

Cathy has done it again. As you read this story you will find yourself laughing out loud. She seems to have an amazing grasp on the male mind and uses Sydney to reveal that to us. Women should be such good studies of how men think. Cathy also has done a lot of research into what life was like back in the Wild West and it shows through in her writing.

This is a book that was hard to put down and was able to be read in a couple days!!

It's not a bad story by any means, but I agree with the review left by Fisher. Sydney is well beyond the age given her in the book, and the reasoning for her ruse is a little weak. I did like her character, even though there were many eye-rolling situations created in the story around her. Big Tim bothered me a great deal. He is supposed to be a Christian, but he is very gruff and not at all Christ-like in his treatment of Sydney, especially after her ruse is revealed. I especially disliked how one second, he's all angry with Sydney and the next second later, he's suddenly in love with her. There was no build up at all, no reason for Tim to suddenly be in love with Lady Sydney. Unfortunately, this seems to be a problem in this series, as I felt the same frustrations with the sudden romance in the book previous to this novel.

The story is entertaining and has it's humorous moments, but it does have glaring inconsistencies that are jarring at best. Thus I give it 3 stars out of 5. It's not a total waste of time to read, and is a nice book; just don't go into it with high expectations.

This was such an fun book. I was amused the entire way through. A quick read, I was finished in less than a day.

Sydney is so very endearing. You really want her to succeed. It is easy to put yourself in her shoes and feel the book from her perspective.

And Tim. He was the perfect hero for the book. A big strong, gruff man... with a tender side.

The only disappointment with this story is that it ending seems very abrubt. Like all of the sudden she realized she had to make a deadline and tied all the loose ends together hastily. I felt a little short changed at the end. Here I invested all of this energy into this story and it's over in a flash. Like when the waiter takes your plate away before you take that perfect bite you were saving for last(I know I'm not the only one who does that...am I?). The dinner was good. Really good. If only you got to take that last perfect bite you had moved over to the edge to save and savor later on. Bummer.

Overall, Hake has written a delightful story. She turns the reader into the fly on the wall... you feel like you are among the characters, sharing in their trials.

I thought this book was not as good as others I have read by Cathy Marie Hake, and found it disappointing. The story line was so perdictable, no surprises. It really started off slowly and a little far fetch in believability in the story line.

Cathy Marie Hake has done it again. I have read several of her books and not once was I disappointed. She had me laughing out loud at points all through this book. She inserts little tid bits of history throughout, too, that are quite fascinating. That in addition to the normal history part of a book such as this. I wish I could give it more than 5 stars. It was spiritual and funny at the same time. After all, the Bible tells us in Psalms, "A merry heart doeth good like a medicine."
Buy this book!

This book starts really well and even lives up to that promise for about 75% of the way through. At that point however, the author apparently found God and begins to preach. It's as though someone else took over writing the book - night and day. The strong heroine is suddenly Miss Wimp, and everyone runs around singin' hallelujah. I had really looked forward to reading the rest of this book, but I only made it to 87% before I just gave up in disgust.

It has been my practice in the past to only write reviews when I had something nice to say. For this one, I feel like the author really let me down, and I'm making an exception. The first part of the book is a 5; the last quarter is so bad, it doesn't even deserve 1 star. And I might mention that the formatting was all over the map - what a mess!

I picked up this book and finished it in one day. It was the first book I've read from this author.

I think the premise of the story was unbelievable and obviously couldn't happen in real life, but I read christian romances to escape and be entertained and that's exactly what this book did.

I found Syd's antics in this story to be funny. Picturing her in her fancy pants get up, along with several of the situations she found herself in, made me laugh out loud.

I enjoyed all the supporting characters in this novel as well. I found the Richardson sisters particularly funny.

There were some great scenes written that showed how Syd and Tim's romance was blossoming (the porch swing was cute).

Overall, this book was well done and will make me seek out more stories from this author.

I was really, really looking forward to reading this novel. While I won't go so far as to say that Hake disappointed me, I just wasn't left satisfied at the end of the novel. I liked all of the characters and the premise, it's just that it seemed to move at a very slow pace. Later, however, the book fairly speeds through the budding romance between the two lead characters. They spend a great portion of the novel fighting or misunderstanding one another and all of a sudden they want to get married. Too quick. It just seemed slightly too unbelievable to me, otherwise, the book was well written and interesting.