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Tales from Marrying Stone #2
Simple Jess
The last thing widow Althea Winsloe wanted to do was remarry. Unfortunately, her meddlesome mountain neighbors had other plans. So, one autumn night they banded together and gave Althea a shocking ultimatum: She was to find herself a husband by Christmas...or the town would do it for her!
Althea knew she had her choice of any single man in Marrying Stone, Arkansas. Yet the only one she felt truly comfortable with was Simple Jess.
Sweet and gentle, Jess wasn't as smart as your average man. But his tender manner stirred Althea's heart in ways she had never dreamed possible.
It would take a miracle to find a husband in Marrying Stone. But sometimes miracles are right under your nose.
Althea knew she had her choice of any single man in Marrying Stone, Arkansas. Yet the only one she felt truly comfortable with was Simple Jess.
Sweet and gentle, Jess wasn't as smart as your average man. But his tender manner stirred Althea's heart in ways she had never dreamed possible.
It would take a miracle to find a husband in Marrying Stone. But sometimes miracles are right under your nose.
325 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 1996
About the author
Pamela Morsi
42 books432 followersPamela Morsi is a USA Today, Waldenbooks, and Barnes & Noble bestselling author of romance. She broke into publishing in 1991 with Heaven Sent and has been gracing readers with at least a book a year ever since. Two of her novels, Courting Miss Hattie (1992) and Something Shady (1996), won the Romance Writers of America's RITA Award, the highest honor in romance publishing, and others have been RITA finalists.
Ms. Morsi pens heartwarming stories set in Small Town, USA. Her books are famous for their wit, humor, memorable characters, and down-home charm.
Ms. Morsi pens heartwarming stories set in Small Town, USA. Her books are famous for their wit, humor, memorable characters, and down-home charm.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 387 reviews
November 13, 2010
Widow Althea Winsloe just wants to be left alone to raise her young son as she sees fit. Unfortunately for her, the men and women of her tight-knit village in the Ozarks are determined to see her remarried, and soon. Determined to remain in control, she plans to sell her husband's well-respected pack of hunting hounds. No one's going to just marry her and take what's hers, she's saving everything on the farm for her son to inherit one day.
In the general store when Miss Althea discloses her plan to sell her hounds, Jesse Best chases after her to try to buy a dog from her. Nearly strangled by his umbilical cord when he was born, he's known as "Simple Jess" to the townfolk. An honest man and hard worker, he's nonetheless often taken advantage of for his lack of wit or logic. He's a simple man, and he wants three things in life - a dog, a gun and a woman.
Seeing an opportunity, Althea makes a bargain with Jess. He can earn all the dogs by working on her farm to get her set for the coming winter. Wanting to earn a living like a man, and excited to own his own hunting dogs, Jess eagerly accepts.
This is the one book I've read that's truly captured the truth of disability. Jess was a fabulous character in that he was nothing special. He was only intractably different in other people's minds. He wasn't an inspiration to others, he was just a man whose brain didn't work quite right, but went about his life doing things his own way.
When the story is told from his perspective, there's no angst or drama from him on his otherness. He regrets that other people treat him bad or take advantage of him, and wishes that he could keep up with other people's thinking, but he doesn't see that as making him less than anyone else. He just works hard to do right the things he can do. When we read the story from his perspective, it's colored with a sense of wonder and confusion. The prose changes a bit to reflect his simpler thinking but without bogging the narrative down in awkward sentence construction or excess dialect. You see less rumination on other people's motives and more of him repeating things to himself so he won't forget.
I loved Althea as well. She's a strong woman determined to spare her son the drama she went through when her widower father remarried. She's reluctant to marry again and have her new husband slight the son that isn't his own blood. The more she works with Jess, the more she begins to appreciate a man who works hard but isn't afraid to defer to someone else's judgement when he should.
Thankfully, the book avoids a common pitfall of books dealing with disability and there's not so much as a hint of charity in Althea's relationship with Jess. Loving him doesn't make her a better person, it makes her a happy person. She genuinely values what he can contribute and is happy to compensate for his weaknesses. Bit by bit throughout the novel we see the many things she has a newfound appreciation for once she sees him as a man.
And thank goodness, because pity sex is just pathetic. When these two finally get together it's anything but charitable. Their first kiss is equal parts sweet, passionate and awkward. Jess's inexperience is tempered by his blunt honesty, and having a man plainly say how much a woman drives him mad is hot, hot.
As strong as the main couple is, and as much as I love the treatment of disability, I think the secondary characters might make the novel. The town of Marrying Stone is populated with a wide variety of characters and none of them are cardboard placeholders. Even antagonists Eben Baxley and Oather Phillips have rich backgrounds and nuanced personalities, giving the marrying plot more depth and drama. Althea and Jesse are made even more vivid by the rich characters that surround them and the colorful conversations they have with them.
Simple Jess was a pleasure to read and I'd recommend it unreservedly to anyone who loves an emotional, character-focused read.
In the general store when Miss Althea discloses her plan to sell her hounds, Jesse Best chases after her to try to buy a dog from her. Nearly strangled by his umbilical cord when he was born, he's known as "Simple Jess" to the townfolk. An honest man and hard worker, he's nonetheless often taken advantage of for his lack of wit or logic. He's a simple man, and he wants three things in life - a dog, a gun and a woman.
Seeing an opportunity, Althea makes a bargain with Jess. He can earn all the dogs by working on her farm to get her set for the coming winter. Wanting to earn a living like a man, and excited to own his own hunting dogs, Jess eagerly accepts.
This is the one book I've read that's truly captured the truth of disability. Jess was a fabulous character in that he was nothing special. He was only intractably different in other people's minds. He wasn't an inspiration to others, he was just a man whose brain didn't work quite right, but went about his life doing things his own way.
When the story is told from his perspective, there's no angst or drama from him on his otherness. He regrets that other people treat him bad or take advantage of him, and wishes that he could keep up with other people's thinking, but he doesn't see that as making him less than anyone else. He just works hard to do right the things he can do. When we read the story from his perspective, it's colored with a sense of wonder and confusion. The prose changes a bit to reflect his simpler thinking but without bogging the narrative down in awkward sentence construction or excess dialect. You see less rumination on other people's motives and more of him repeating things to himself so he won't forget.
I loved Althea as well. She's a strong woman determined to spare her son the drama she went through when her widower father remarried. She's reluctant to marry again and have her new husband slight the son that isn't his own blood. The more she works with Jess, the more she begins to appreciate a man who works hard but isn't afraid to defer to someone else's judgement when he should.
Thankfully, the book avoids a common pitfall of books dealing with disability and there's not so much as a hint of charity in Althea's relationship with Jess. Loving him doesn't make her a better person, it makes her a happy person. She genuinely values what he can contribute and is happy to compensate for his weaknesses. Bit by bit throughout the novel we see the many things she has a newfound appreciation for once she sees him as a man.
And thank goodness, because pity sex is just pathetic. When these two finally get together it's anything but charitable. Their first kiss is equal parts sweet, passionate and awkward. Jess's inexperience is tempered by his blunt honesty, and having a man plainly say how much a woman drives him mad is hot, hot.
As strong as the main couple is, and as much as I love the treatment of disability, I think the secondary characters might make the novel. The town of Marrying Stone is populated with a wide variety of characters and none of them are cardboard placeholders. Even antagonists Eben Baxley and Oather Phillips have rich backgrounds and nuanced personalities, giving the marrying plot more depth and drama. Althea and Jesse are made even more vivid by the rich characters that surround them and the colorful conversations they have with them.
Simple Jess was a pleasure to read and I'd recommend it unreservedly to anyone who loves an emotional, character-focused read.
February 18, 2017
A fancy sash buckle with a rose-colored finish caught Jesse's eye. "What kind of animal is this?" he asked the drummer.
"It's a dragon."
Jesse's brow furrowed. "We don't have any 'round here like this one," he said.
"It's a mythical beast," the drummer explained with a little chuckle.
Jesse nodded solemnly. "Don't know the place. And I don't expect Miss Althea's ever been to Mythica either."
I would have given this book a lower rating, but I don't think a great character such as Jesse deserved anything lower. I really adored Jesse in the previous book, and this one only furthered my liking for him. Not only is Jesse great when it comes to people, finding the good in nearly everyone, but he's also respectful of animals and gets along with them well.
Also, was it just me or is Jesse different from how he was in the previous book? He seems a lot quieter in this book than he was in the previous one. Other than his sister getting married and Jesse having a niece, nothing changes between the ending of the last book and the beginning of this. There's no indication as to what may have caused the change in Jesse. I think it was just a lot more noticeable to me because I read these two back-to-back and the quietness of Jesse versus the previous book really stood out. I liked the charm he brought to each scene in the previous book and, although this Jesse isn't offensive or awful or anything, I found myself missing Book #1 Jesse.
Jesse is a hunter (so if dead animals bother you, I'd avoid this book), but he does so for food not for sport. In a part of the book, Baby-Paisley is hitting a deer with a stick. Jesse stops him immediately, telling him he must "respect the meat" and that "the kill isn't for killing. It's for food." It may not be a super big deal, but I liked that it was in there because it's helps to carve out his personality and who Jesse is as a person. I also liked how the author had Jesse proving to Althea that he's a lot more capable than she thinks he is.
I found Jesse's side of the romance to be very sweet, but maybe that's just because his entire characterization can be described that way. Jesse's been told by his father that, due to his "simple-mindedness," he can't ever do anything with women because no daughter's father will want him as a son-in-law. And because Jesse's never been with a woman (he's a virgin, Althea being his first everything), he contents himself by being in their presence whenever he can. Jesse makes it obvious that he sets Althea apart from other women, but he doesn't really realize that he does so or the why behind it. Even in the first book, it's apparent that Althea was going to be his heroine. In this book, the author shows us in the simplest manner that Jesse, even though he doesn't realize it, differentiates Althea from any other woman.
Jesse loved the smell of women. Old women, young women, women who'd spent the morning laboring over a tub of laundry, or women who were dressed up for Sunday with dabs of rose water behind their ears, Jesse relished the sweet redolence of them. And Althea Winsloe had an aroma that Jesse much admired. It was a mixture, of course. Not that he couldn't sort them out perfectly. And he didn't consciously even try. But he did take another deep breath, merely to enjoy it. There was the clean fragrance of yellow soap, the smooth sweetness of fresh-churned butter, wood-smoke and sage, yarrow and hobblebush. All smells that were very familiar to him. And there was something more, some underlying scent that was almost beyond his detection. He couldn't describe it as sweet or spicy. It wasn't balmy or savorous, perfumy or yarbish. But it was there. It was always there. And no other woman on the mountain smelled that way.
Maybe I'd have found the fact that he smells women to be creepy if he had been someone else, but there's such a guilelessness and innocence to Jesse that I just found it to be sweet. And I loved that, even though he loves the smell of women, he sets Althea apart from everyone else.
Althea's side of the romance, however, I wasn't a big fan of. Three-fourths of the novel is spent on her being courted by two other men. Because it's a romance novel, I knew who she was going to end up with. However, Althea doesn't make that decision clear until of the novel is over and done with. The rest of the time, Althea just keeps mentioning how simple Jesse is. This was similar to the first book in how Roe kept reiterating how the Ozark people were "primitive" and "backwoods" well into the novel. This book, however, bothered me more because she doesn't even see Jesse in a romantic way until very late into the book.
At one point, My problem with this was that, while it was awful that she said this about him, it was worse to me that she never apologizes. Through the book, she never once apologizes for calling him this. And that really bothered me.
And while Baby-Paisley, who's three years old, realizes how great Jesse is, Althea takes much longer. Even at over two-thirds Althea is thinking:
He probably could be a husband, she thought. Some not very bright girl would surely be lucky to find such as him.
And I really didn't like that. While I can certainly understand that it's difficult to overcome a lifetime's worth of prejudice and assumption (especially in a time with no internet), I'm sad that the author spent so much of the novel concentrating on the before and not so much on the after ().
The only part of the romance from her side that I liked was that there's a clear distinction made between what she felt for and had with her husband, Paisley, in comparison how it is with Jesse.
And, maybe I missed it, but...did Althea ever tell Jesse that she loved him? I know Jesse told her (and she immediately tried to change the subject...), but does she tell him? DOES she even love him? She has a fondness for him, but I'm not sure if it was ever love.
(And, on a side note, Baby-Paisley does not sound like a three-and-a-half year old. He was cute so it didn't bother me for the most part, but it still stuck out.)
The other part of the novel that I enjoyed were some of the side-characters. Granny Piggott makes more of an appearance in this book than she did in the last. She was one of my favourite characters because of how unfiltered and hilarious she was. (Talking about getting big while pregnant:)
"The worst thing that will happen," Granny postulated, "is that you'll get so big you won't be able to get out of bed. And, mark my words, once you're in that bed, that man'll be in there with you."
Meggie blushed brightly as the women around her giggled at the naughty insinuation.
"Course," Granny continued, "nothing worse can come of it. He done got a babe in yer belly, the fiddler is paid up for a spell, so this lollyin' is plum free."
I also quite like Oather, who's a gay man. I liked that the author included an LGBT character (and even kind of gave him an HEA with Pastor Jay's monologue at the end). What I didn't like, however, was Oather's subplot with his father. Buell, Oather's father, is a man who's shown to be verbally abusive time and again, and it's just all forgiven in the end? It totally wasn't working for me.
The other subplot/secondary romance was the Mavis/Eben romance. Honestly, I had to drop an entire star simply for the resolution to the Mavis/Eben subplot. Sorry, but a man like this deserves no HEA ever:
He turned to her. Grabbing her arm he pulled her to him roughly.
"Are you ready to be my whore?" he asked. "Are you going to do what I tell you, when I tell you? Are you willing to heed whatever I say?"
"Yes."
He reached over and pulled at the pins in her hair, deliberately jerking at them.
"Your hair should be loose and wild," he said. "A whore ought to look like one. That's what I've always thought."
(And that's only me including the part of the scene that's not graphic...)
This entire scene read like rape to me. We don't get Mavis's POV for it, but she was subjugating herself to Eben in order to help her brother. She even closes her eyes as he's humiliating her. And even as he realizes he's hurting her (both physically and emotionally), he continues to do so and doesn't stop. Afterwards, she even says that she did it for her brother, not herself. That means she didn't want it the first time around and it was rape.
The book could've been a four to five star read for me if there weren't so many pages allocated to Eben's subplot. I didn't mind Oather. I liked that the author included an LGBT character. I didn't give a fuck about Eben or his ~tortured soul~ bullshit. He was horrible and hateful and treated Mavis like shit. And Mavis just dropped at his feet even though he took every chance to humiliate her.
After the rape scene, I wanted her to never love him again, for that to be her breaking point when it came to him. Except that it wasn't. Instead, we get him having an HEA and ending up with the woman he "loves" and mistreated (and that's putting it lightly), including on the very night he took her virginity. Oh, you know...when he left her "half-naked and crying in the woods" over a misunderstanding.
"Eben, wait, let's talk about this, let me explain."
She was on her knees, wide-eyed with fear and disbelief. Eben's temper was hot and his heart was cold.
"There ain't much left to explain is there? If your belly swells up with a baby, you have my permission to call the boy Eben. But his last name won't never be Baxley. Nobody, you hear this, woman, nobody makes me do nothing I don't want."
He'd left her then. He'd turned from her and strode away as far and as fast as he could. He'd left her there, half-naked in the woods, crying and calling after him.
And what was this misunderstanding? That instead of being the seducer in this scene, as he'd thought he'd been, he'd been the seduced by Mavis instead.
I was hoping that, with all that Oather was doing for Mavis, with how hard he was working to defend her honour, she wouldn't fall back in with Eben. Oather, who's gay, was even willing to marry a woman simply to keep Eben away. He was willing to do all this for his sister because this man had mistreated her. And Mavis drops to Eben's feet right after he rapes her. Throughout the book, I was hoping they wouldn't end up together because Eben didn't deserve to be rewarded for his BS. And just because he cries and apologizes, all is forgiven?? That doesn't make up for all that he did to her (then and now), nor does it make up for the four years he wasted in between. And who knows what (and who) he was doing in that time. He's a playboy, so no way was he celibate and waiting around for her, especially because he was angry and hateful towards her. It pissed me off so much that he was not only forgiven, but that it happened right after he rapes her.
Eben,
May 2, 2012
Simple Jess is a simple love story. People tend to think of simple things as unworthy. Not the case at all. In a world where everything is complicated, murky, and it's hard to tell what is real and what isn't, the simple gets taken for granted. Kind of like Jesse Best.
Merriam-Webster lists these definitions of Simple, which I will hide in a spoiler if you don't care to read them...
I am a person who puts a lot of importance in education and in using your brain. I can blame that in part on my upbringing, but not completely. I have internalized that message way too much. I think that this book was therapeutic for me. In the rat race of life, I often forget to value what there is in my life that is free from elaboration, unconditional, without guile, fundamental. I put too much importance in achieving, only to feel bereft when those things fail to deliver. At the end of the day, I can still be loved, even if I am not the MVP at my job, don’t have millions of dollars in the bank, listed as a MENSA member, or on Maxim's Hot 100 or People's most beautiful list.
Jesse is the reminder of the steadfast things in life. The pure items of worth and beauty that seem diminished when we look in the horizon and see the greener grass that doesn’t belong to us. His heart is full of love. He’s a man who can be trusted to do what he promises. His ability to forgive is not based on his lack of intelligence but in the strength of his loving heart. When Althea needed help he gave it to her, asking for very little in return. And Althea saw that what Jesse lacked was much less than what he possessed.
Althea thought being alone and independent was better than relying on anyone else. She’d always felt like the unwanted addition since her father left her and went off to remarry another woman. She was the spare relative that had to prove she was worthy of being around. She didn’t want that feeling for her son, and she jealously guarded him, afraid to allow anyone else to influence him. But Jesse showed her that it was okay to trust in someone else, with her son and with everything that was truly of value. It took the kind words of Granny Piggott to get her to see that we need people, even those people who are the hardest to deal with.
I thought about the strange magic that is love. Our tendency to believe that our soulmate will come in a certain package or a specific way. That is if we even believe that love is possible for us. But God has other plans for us. I feel that in this story he was telling me that he gives beauty for ashes. Even though Jess was born diminished, and many folks took every opportunity to remind him of that, he had been given much in return for what he lacked. And that was more than enough to see him safe, loved, and content, and a blessing to others in his life. Another reminder to me that being content is the goal. Appreciating what seems merely adequate, when beneath or through a different set of glasses is pure riches.
I appreciate the simple beauty of this story. In the simplicity, I found true richness of storytelling and a resonance on an emotional level that makes me smile as I type the final words of this review.
Merriam-Webster lists these definitions of Simple, which I will hide in a spoiler if you don't care to read them...
I am a person who puts a lot of importance in education and in using your brain. I can blame that in part on my upbringing, but not completely. I have internalized that message way too much. I think that this book was therapeutic for me. In the rat race of life, I often forget to value what there is in my life that is free from elaboration, unconditional, without guile, fundamental. I put too much importance in achieving, only to feel bereft when those things fail to deliver. At the end of the day, I can still be loved, even if I am not the MVP at my job, don’t have millions of dollars in the bank, listed as a MENSA member, or on Maxim's Hot 100 or People's most beautiful list.
Jesse is the reminder of the steadfast things in life. The pure items of worth and beauty that seem diminished when we look in the horizon and see the greener grass that doesn’t belong to us. His heart is full of love. He’s a man who can be trusted to do what he promises. His ability to forgive is not based on his lack of intelligence but in the strength of his loving heart. When Althea needed help he gave it to her, asking for very little in return. And Althea saw that what Jesse lacked was much less than what he possessed.
Althea thought being alone and independent was better than relying on anyone else. She’d always felt like the unwanted addition since her father left her and went off to remarry another woman. She was the spare relative that had to prove she was worthy of being around. She didn’t want that feeling for her son, and she jealously guarded him, afraid to allow anyone else to influence him. But Jesse showed her that it was okay to trust in someone else, with her son and with everything that was truly of value. It took the kind words of Granny Piggott to get her to see that we need people, even those people who are the hardest to deal with.
I thought about the strange magic that is love. Our tendency to believe that our soulmate will come in a certain package or a specific way. That is if we even believe that love is possible for us. But God has other plans for us. I feel that in this story he was telling me that he gives beauty for ashes. Even though Jess was born diminished, and many folks took every opportunity to remind him of that, he had been given much in return for what he lacked. And that was more than enough to see him safe, loved, and content, and a blessing to others in his life. Another reminder to me that being content is the goal. Appreciating what seems merely adequate, when beneath or through a different set of glasses is pure riches.
I appreciate the simple beauty of this story. In the simplicity, I found true richness of storytelling and a resonance on an emotional level that makes me smile as I type the final words of this review.
January 2, 2013
(Jan) I have mixed feelings about this book. Part of me absolutely loved it - loved Jesse (and his family), liked Althea, loved Oather. If the story had been about these people this would have been close to a 5* read for me. Jess might have been "simple" in his mind, in his thought process, but he was not stupid, nor was he a saint - he was a strong man who wanted a dog, a gun and a woman. He was truly a delight. However, I can't recall the last time when I hated so many characters in a book. I hated, hated, hated, Althea's mother in law, disliked most of the town people, didn't like Mavis, could not stand Eben - and Baby Paisley got on my nerves (his name to me was nails on a chalk board - he's 3.5 years old, acts a bit older, and while hey, I get it - my mom still asks me "how's the baby?" even though she is almost 15 years old, it's another thing entirely to continually call this child Baby - and total side note - am I the only one who noticed that whenever he wet the bed, Althea didn't wash the sheets - she just kept hanging them out to dry?!). I hated how the town called Jesse "Simple Jesse" - why not just call him stupid Jesse or dumb-ass Jesse? Small town mentality has never appealed to me, and never less so than in this book. The idea that this entire town thought they could tell a grown woman that she HAD to get married - and she allowed the "court" opinion to guide her irked me beyond words (well, not really - I apparently have lots of words to express my feelings!). I hated Eben - were we supposed to feel for him because he cries at the end? I'd rather him have remained a villian and not gotten the girl. The way he treated her (and she was all of 16 when the transgression happened) - and then her immediate forgiveness of his behavior - if only that entire part had been left out of the book I'd have liked it so much better - he did not deserve to be happy after one tiny cry. And poor Oather - really, the entire family is so accepting of his sort-of-discussed-but-not-really difference? I found that extremely hard to believe.
So, bottom line - Jesse + Althea = awesome. Rest of Marrying Stone folk = blech!
So, bottom line - Jesse + Althea = awesome. Rest of Marrying Stone folk = blech!
June 29, 2019
4 stars
I love Pamela Morsi's small town setting books. The characters, the story - her writing is awesome. This one had some heavy themes - but I always end up smiling, sighing, and happy at the end.
I love Pamela Morsi's small town setting books. The characters, the story - her writing is awesome. This one had some heavy themes - but I always end up smiling, sighing, and happy at the end.
April 27, 2013
Question: If a heroine was raised in the Ozarks by her kin, in a teeny tiny town perched on the side of a mountain, where no one came in from away, and no one left, folks jumped over a rock to celebrate a weddin', they say words like "caint" and are so intermarried they caint right remember what clan they started out from, and the clans decide that the widder Althea caint rightly keep her hunting dogs and her farm to herself so they hold a kangaroo court to decide who she should marry, if you are raised like that, in a time like that, in a community like that, would it even occur to you to say "I won't do it?"
That was my problem with this book. I kept asking myself that question. And the answer, I kept thinking, was "NOPE".
That was my problem with this book. I kept asking myself that question. And the answer, I kept thinking, was "NOPE".
March 27, 2012
4 ½ stars. I didn’t want to stop reading. I loved the way it made me feel at the end.
STORY BRIEF:
Takes place in a rural mountain community in Arkansas in 1906. Althea’s husband died two years ago. She has a three-year-old boy. Her husband had the richest farm land in the area. Althea does not want to marry again. She wants to save the land for her son when he grows up. There are two family clans in the area, the Piggets and the McNees. Both sides want their eligible bachelor to marry Althea to get the land. The town is pressuring Althea.
Althea has food put away from a garden, but she needs firewood and game/meat before winter comes. Jesse hears that she plans to sell her group of hunting dogs. He has always wanted a dog. He offers her his coins to buy one of the dogs. Instead she offers to give him all the dogs if he will do some work for her to earn them. Jesse is excited and says yes. He comes to her farm every day to work.
The townsfolk call him Simple Jess because his brain is not right. His instincts are great, he has a great work ethic, he knows and works well with animals, he’s good at hunting. But he is not good with words. He can’t explain things well. He is slow to learn new things, but once he learns something his memory of it is fine.
REVIEWER’S OPINION:
My gosh, I didn’t want to stop reading. I was so eager to see the relationship between Althea and Jesse happen and grow. At the end of the book I felt uplifted, loved, and fulfilled. That’s the reason I read romance. I want those feelings.
I loved the sex scene between Althea and Jesse. He was consuming her based on instinct and desire, not experience. I loved the way he desired her. It was darling. (Can I say “darling” about a sex scene?) It was a wonderful love scene.
I liked the variety of characters. I liked seeing what happened with the two main eligible bachelors, Eben and Oather. Eben was a despicable jerk. I enjoyed the surprise of what happened with him. Other characters were unlikeable, but that creates the story.
DATA:
Story length: 325 pages. Swearing language: mild. Sexual language: none to mild. Number of sex scenes: 3. Total number of sex scene pages: 11. Setting: 1906 Marrying Stone, Arkansas. Copyright: 1996. Genre: rural american historical romance.
STORY BRIEF:
Takes place in a rural mountain community in Arkansas in 1906. Althea’s husband died two years ago. She has a three-year-old boy. Her husband had the richest farm land in the area. Althea does not want to marry again. She wants to save the land for her son when he grows up. There are two family clans in the area, the Piggets and the McNees. Both sides want their eligible bachelor to marry Althea to get the land. The town is pressuring Althea.
Althea has food put away from a garden, but she needs firewood and game/meat before winter comes. Jesse hears that she plans to sell her group of hunting dogs. He has always wanted a dog. He offers her his coins to buy one of the dogs. Instead she offers to give him all the dogs if he will do some work for her to earn them. Jesse is excited and says yes. He comes to her farm every day to work.
The townsfolk call him Simple Jess because his brain is not right. His instincts are great, he has a great work ethic, he knows and works well with animals, he’s good at hunting. But he is not good with words. He can’t explain things well. He is slow to learn new things, but once he learns something his memory of it is fine.
REVIEWER’S OPINION:
My gosh, I didn’t want to stop reading. I was so eager to see the relationship between Althea and Jesse happen and grow. At the end of the book I felt uplifted, loved, and fulfilled. That’s the reason I read romance. I want those feelings.
I loved the sex scene between Althea and Jesse. He was consuming her based on instinct and desire, not experience. I loved the way he desired her. It was darling. (Can I say “darling” about a sex scene?) It was a wonderful love scene.
I liked the variety of characters. I liked seeing what happened with the two main eligible bachelors, Eben and Oather. Eben was a despicable jerk. I enjoyed the surprise of what happened with him. Other characters were unlikeable, but that creates the story.
DATA:
Story length: 325 pages. Swearing language: mild. Sexual language: none to mild. Number of sex scenes: 3. Total number of sex scene pages: 11. Setting: 1906 Marrying Stone, Arkansas. Copyright: 1996. Genre: rural american historical romance.
August 17, 2012
Loved the book and Jess!The heroine was a widow with an interfering mother in law and a son and a neglected farm. Jess has always wanted three things, dogs, a gun and a woman so when he hears the heroine is selling her dogs, he wants them and they start the an arrangement, he would work for her to earn them. I loved Jess, when he was born the cord wrapped around him causing some damage but Jess was just so amazing and I loved reading the way his mind operated. The heroine just wanted to live a life with her son but the town people would not have that. Loved the book.
August 27, 2018
TOO MUCH SIDE-PLOT, NOT ENOUGH JESSE.
I was kind of torn over how to rate this book, because honestly, I wanted to give 1 star to the shitty Eben/Mavis side-plot and 4 stars to the main Jesse/Althea story. So let the rage-fest begin.
Garbage Eben/Mavis side-plot which ruined the book for me- 1 star
Meet Eben. He intends to marry for money and plans to cheat on his bride even before she says yes. He bullies just about every character he's been on one page with. He has no problem manipulating, lying and pressuring people to get what he wants. He's lazy, rises at noon (in a place where everyone rises at dawn), doesn't work, has a drinking problem.
Meet Mavis. She has no personality and we hardly get to know anything about her besides hair-color and a tendency to be a doormat.
So. Eben took Mavis' virginity and left her. She begged him to stay, he didn't. Years later he came back, started calling her a whore and trying to make her cry. Mavis? Battles her love for him. Agrees to be 'his whore', begs him. Eben? Rapes her. Mavis? Tells him it's okay, initiates sex with him RIGHT AFTER he stopped raping her and tells him about love. And then he tells her that SHE used HIM for sex.
WTF is this people. Not only that, these two supposedly get a 'happily ever after' and marry. Gosh, I do not envy Mavis. What kind of a marriage can it possibly be? And can we stop with the bullshit trope of "girl quietly takes all the physical and verbal abuse and that makes the guy fall in love with her" please? And all this bullshit about how the guy is actually secretly in love with her while treating her like dirt? And the bullshit about mind-blowing sex with someone one despises. Stop painting being a doormat as a valid strategy for building romantic relationships and gaining true love. It doesn't work like that.
I just can't stand this shit. Worst of all, it didn't even need to be in the book. This is not the main storyline. It definitely didn't need to take up SO MUCH SPACE. To be fair, any amount of space for this shit would be too much space for me.
Also, they supposedly leisurely fucked outside, on the ground in December. What happened to the weather? Where did the snow suddenly go and how did the "tall grass" spontaneously spring up?
Main story - 4 stars
WHAT I LIKED
1) The book is set in 1906 on a mountain in Arkansas. It's about as un-progressive and less-than-civilized as you can get. I felt like the author did a fair job of making the story and characters true to the time and setting, even when it's hard to digest for a modern reader. This includes:
- the weird way characters talked
- the fact that families on that mountain were very inter-married, so basically most couples were actually distantly related
- infancy death-rate, attitude toward gay people and people with neuro/mental illnesses was not sugar-coated
- to survive people there depend on hunting and butchering domestic animals (which is graphically described several times)
- the fact that a single person, man or woman, can't survive by themselves, so they have to marry. Even a married couple can't survive without the occasional help of the community. So one person cannot really go against their family or the society
These details were nearly unpalatable to me, but they really made sense for that era and setting, so good job author.
2) Jesse. I just loved him completely. Could anyone help it?
3) The book was entertaining. I had no trouble getting through it quickly, I was interested in the story and invested in the events. Even though I didn't particularly like Althea, I really felt for her in that court scene and wanted to punch everyone (except Jesse) in the face.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE
1) I felt like Althea was a bit self-absorbed/immature at times. She wants to against the community, live her life her own way and asks her in-laws to butt out, yet she can't fend for herself and has absolutely no plans on how to achieve that. She just stubbornly refuses, not investing any time or thought into getting a semblance of independence. You can't really be all bitchy to the people on whom your livelihood depends. Luckily for her, she finds Jesse. But what if she didn't?
2) Not enough Jesse appreciation. Althea mentioned this once, but she's guilty of taking Jesse for granted too. I wish she would have shown more care and gratitude toward him instead if just thinking about it once.
Althea tries to boss everyone around, but everyone just pretty much tells her to fuck off. Except for Jesse. He feels privileged just to be able to work for her and be near her. So when he says:
Miss Althea, if you'll marry up with me, I promise to listen to you in the things I don't know about. Work for you 'til my back is broke and my fingers is down to the bone. And love and care for you until the day I die."
She thinks "Awesome!", she doesn't think "We'll make decisions together. I love you. Please don't work too hard and hurt yourself. Thank you, thank you, thank you". It just felt like she was happy to have plenty of free labor and a person who will take being bossed around with zero complaints. Also, she never really apologized to him for being a massive bitch to him that time. Her side of the romance was just... not enough for me.
3) Not enough screen-time for the main love story. I think there was so much wasted potential here. I would have loooooved to read about their relationship evolving, their marriage, the way they would work through the challenges. Instead, the relationship is sort of in the background, slowly cooking, until the couple gets together and it's finished. The most interesting stuff was left after "The End".
4) What kind of affliction did Jesse actually have? Of course, we hear in 1906-speak that he's "simple-minded". But did the author have an actual condition in mind? He seems to have trouble focusing sometimes, retrieving things from memory, following a group conversation, building a chain of logical reasoning. But Jesse seems to be able to overcome these challenges if he "tries very hard" and doesn't seem to fail. Is this a romanticised description, or did Jesse and his family really learn to manage the limitations so well? Is it even possible?
He's capable of fully fending for himself and providing for others, handle dangerous situations, we never see or even hear mentioned when his affliction caused any harm to him or others, when his decision-making or reasoning was flawed and it had consequences, he's never volatile or aggressive, never argues, he easily picks up on people's emotions, is totally in control of his own, has some brilliant ideas (like the corn & cow one). So what makes him "simple-minded" exactly? How does it manifest?
Every time Jesse's opinions seem weird to others, it later becomes apparent that he was actually right, and everyone else was a prejudiced, discriminating asshole who mistrusted Jesse for no reason. But no one can be right all the time. And if we are to believe that Jesse's cognitive/reasoning abilities are impaired, he must be wrong more often then others (otherwise it's not impaired). But we never see that in the book. So we sort of never get the feel of the challenges he or people close to him might experience. It would have been interesting to explore. Especially in a romantic relationship. How does one navigate the intricate balance between valuing your partner's opinion and limiting potential damage caused by their illness? How does one separate the illness from the partner and maintain respect and partnership, while having to take the reigns some of the time? All of these questions and even the possibility of such situations are completely ignored.
There's also emphasis on Jesse's condition not being hereditary. But how did 1906 mountain people know that? Who diagnosed it and found the cause? Was this even something people would have thought about at the time, at that level of knowledge about brain damage?
5) Too much bowing down to Baby-Paisley. Every adult in the book has to dance around this (slightly) spoiled 4-year old brat and constantly say what a "great child" he is. He's an average child. My guess is that Althea just can't get over him and everyone else humors her.
CONCLUSION
It was an okay read. Pleasant even. Though it had the unrealized potential of being mind-blowinly good. I reaaaaaally wanted more Jesse in the story.
I was kind of torn over how to rate this book, because honestly, I wanted to give 1 star to the shitty Eben/Mavis side-plot and 4 stars to the main Jesse/Althea story. So let the rage-fest begin.
Garbage Eben/Mavis side-plot which ruined the book for me- 1 star
Meet Eben. He intends to marry for money and plans to cheat on his bride even before she says yes. He bullies just about every character he's been on one page with. He has no problem manipulating, lying and pressuring people to get what he wants. He's lazy, rises at noon (in a place where everyone rises at dawn), doesn't work, has a drinking problem.
Meet Mavis. She has no personality and we hardly get to know anything about her besides hair-color and a tendency to be a doormat.
So. Eben took Mavis' virginity and left her. She begged him to stay, he didn't. Years later he came back, started calling her a whore and trying to make her cry. Mavis? Battles her love for him. Agrees to be 'his whore', begs him. Eben? Rapes her. Mavis? Tells him it's okay, initiates sex with him RIGHT AFTER he stopped raping her and tells him about love. And then he tells her that SHE used HIM for sex.
WTF is this people. Not only that, these two supposedly get a 'happily ever after' and marry. Gosh, I do not envy Mavis. What kind of a marriage can it possibly be? And can we stop with the bullshit trope of "girl quietly takes all the physical and verbal abuse and that makes the guy fall in love with her" please? And all this bullshit about how the guy is actually secretly in love with her while treating her like dirt? And the bullshit about mind-blowing sex with someone one despises. Stop painting being a doormat as a valid strategy for building romantic relationships and gaining true love. It doesn't work like that.
I just can't stand this shit. Worst of all, it didn't even need to be in the book. This is not the main storyline. It definitely didn't need to take up SO MUCH SPACE. To be fair, any amount of space for this shit would be too much space for me.
Also, they supposedly leisurely fucked outside, on the ground in December. What happened to the weather? Where did the snow suddenly go and how did the "tall grass" spontaneously spring up?
Main story - 4 stars
WHAT I LIKED
1) The book is set in 1906 on a mountain in Arkansas. It's about as un-progressive and less-than-civilized as you can get. I felt like the author did a fair job of making the story and characters true to the time and setting, even when it's hard to digest for a modern reader. This includes:
- the weird way characters talked
- the fact that families on that mountain were very inter-married, so basically most couples were actually distantly related
- infancy death-rate, attitude toward gay people and people with neuro/mental illnesses was not sugar-coated
- to survive people there depend on hunting and butchering domestic animals (which is graphically described several times)
- the fact that a single person, man or woman, can't survive by themselves, so they have to marry. Even a married couple can't survive without the occasional help of the community. So one person cannot really go against their family or the society
These details were nearly unpalatable to me, but they really made sense for that era and setting, so good job author.
2) Jesse. I just loved him completely. Could anyone help it?
3) The book was entertaining. I had no trouble getting through it quickly, I was interested in the story and invested in the events. Even though I didn't particularly like Althea, I really felt for her in that court scene and wanted to punch everyone (except Jesse) in the face.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE
1) I felt like Althea was a bit self-absorbed/immature at times. She wants to against the community, live her life her own way and asks her in-laws to butt out, yet she can't fend for herself and has absolutely no plans on how to achieve that. She just stubbornly refuses, not investing any time or thought into getting a semblance of independence. You can't really be all bitchy to the people on whom your livelihood depends. Luckily for her, she finds Jesse. But what if she didn't?
2) Not enough Jesse appreciation. Althea mentioned this once, but she's guilty of taking Jesse for granted too. I wish she would have shown more care and gratitude toward him instead if just thinking about it once.
Althea tries to boss everyone around, but everyone just pretty much tells her to fuck off. Except for Jesse. He feels privileged just to be able to work for her and be near her. So when he says:
Miss Althea, if you'll marry up with me, I promise to listen to you in the things I don't know about. Work for you 'til my back is broke and my fingers is down to the bone. And love and care for you until the day I die."
She thinks "Awesome!", she doesn't think "We'll make decisions together. I love you. Please don't work too hard and hurt yourself. Thank you, thank you, thank you". It just felt like she was happy to have plenty of free labor and a person who will take being bossed around with zero complaints. Also, she never really apologized to him for being a massive bitch to him that time. Her side of the romance was just... not enough for me.
3) Not enough screen-time for the main love story. I think there was so much wasted potential here. I would have loooooved to read about their relationship evolving, their marriage, the way they would work through the challenges. Instead, the relationship is sort of in the background, slowly cooking, until the couple gets together and it's finished. The most interesting stuff was left after "The End".
4) What kind of affliction did Jesse actually have? Of course, we hear in 1906-speak that he's "simple-minded". But did the author have an actual condition in mind? He seems to have trouble focusing sometimes, retrieving things from memory, following a group conversation, building a chain of logical reasoning. But Jesse seems to be able to overcome these challenges if he "tries very hard" and doesn't seem to fail. Is this a romanticised description, or did Jesse and his family really learn to manage the limitations so well? Is it even possible?
He's capable of fully fending for himself and providing for others, handle dangerous situations, we never see or even hear mentioned when his affliction caused any harm to him or others, when his decision-making or reasoning was flawed and it had consequences, he's never volatile or aggressive, never argues, he easily picks up on people's emotions, is totally in control of his own, has some brilliant ideas (like the corn & cow one). So what makes him "simple-minded" exactly? How does it manifest?
Every time Jesse's opinions seem weird to others, it later becomes apparent that he was actually right, and everyone else was a prejudiced, discriminating asshole who mistrusted Jesse for no reason. But no one can be right all the time. And if we are to believe that Jesse's cognitive/reasoning abilities are impaired, he must be wrong more often then others (otherwise it's not impaired). But we never see that in the book. So we sort of never get the feel of the challenges he or people close to him might experience. It would have been interesting to explore. Especially in a romantic relationship. How does one navigate the intricate balance between valuing your partner's opinion and limiting potential damage caused by their illness? How does one separate the illness from the partner and maintain respect and partnership, while having to take the reigns some of the time? All of these questions and even the possibility of such situations are completely ignored.
There's also emphasis on Jesse's condition not being hereditary. But how did 1906 mountain people know that? Who diagnosed it and found the cause? Was this even something people would have thought about at the time, at that level of knowledge about brain damage?
5) Too much bowing down to Baby-Paisley. Every adult in the book has to dance around this (slightly) spoiled 4-year old brat and constantly say what a "great child" he is. He's an average child. My guess is that Althea just can't get over him and everyone else humors her.
CONCLUSION
It was an okay read. Pleasant even. Though it had the unrealized potential of being mind-blowinly good. I reaaaaaally wanted more Jesse in the story.
January 18, 2015
My rating: 4 stars!
Triggers:
Cheating:
Love triangle:
Sex with om/ow:
HEA:
My review:
This is such a cute and sweet romance! There is really very little drama and it's extremely low angst.
The blurb does not really explain the book properly, IMO. I expected to have a book about Althea marrying a man named Simple Jesse because she is forced to re-marry. What I got was the development of a beautiful friendship between Althea and Simple Jess and also Baby-Paisley. This friendship did eventually develop into more for Althea and almost immediately turned into more for Simple Jesse. I really adored him and his character. Althea drove me a little crazy at times though. And just to be clear, there is a wedding but it's not in the beginning like I was originally led to believe. If this story would have ben given a nice epilogue, I would have probably rated it higher :)
Triggers:
Cheating:
Love triangle:
Sex with om/ow:
HEA:
My review:
This is such a cute and sweet romance! There is really very little drama and it's extremely low angst.
The blurb does not really explain the book properly, IMO. I expected to have a book about Althea marrying a man named Simple Jesse because she is forced to re-marry. What I got was the development of a beautiful friendship between Althea and Simple Jess and also Baby-Paisley. This friendship did eventually develop into more for Althea and almost immediately turned into more for Simple Jesse. I really adored him and his character. Althea drove me a little crazy at times though. And just to be clear, there is a wedding but it's not in the beginning like I was originally led to believe. If this story would have ben given a nice epilogue, I would have probably rated it higher :)
September 11, 2017
The plot of this novel gave me vibes of Colleen McCullough's Tim, which also has the same love story between a young man with mental disability and an older woman who falls for him whilst he performs manual labour for her. But unlike the Australian's book, I wasn't drawn in by these characters in the least.
Jess was hard to warm up to despite the author's too obvious attempts at making him sympathetic and lovable, because the characterisation falls within the cliché view that developmentally-challenged adults are just like children in a oversized body, which for me with my experience with people with these health conditions is particularly annoying to read. That was poorly done, and it doesn't help that Morsi perhaps unintentionally infantilises Jess more than once with stuff like the candy and the emphasis on the childishness of some of his traits. And as for Althea, the heroine, she is better written, but not much in her stands out as compelling.
Jess was hard to warm up to despite the author's too obvious attempts at making him sympathetic and lovable, because the characterisation falls within the cliché view that developmentally-challenged adults are just like children in a oversized body, which for me with my experience with people with these health conditions is particularly annoying to read. That was poorly done, and it doesn't help that Morsi perhaps unintentionally infantilises Jess more than once with stuff like the candy and the emphasis on the childishness of some of his traits. And as for Althea, the heroine, she is better written, but not much in her stands out as compelling.
July 23, 2022
3.5☆☆☆
It was a good book, I enjoyed it quite a lot.
I liked how the relationship between Jess and Althea progressed but I needed more. More of their life together, of them as a couple. We only had them as one in the last 30 pages, and, for a 300 and something book it's really lacking.
I consider Eben to be abhorrent and beyond redemption for what he did. It was anticlimactic to see his happy ending.
I wish that instead of his horror "love story " we had more of Jess. But... it is what it is.
Only because we had such a pure soul as Jess I was able to love this book. ❤
It was a good book, I enjoyed it quite a lot.
I liked how the relationship between Jess and Althea progressed but I needed more. More of their life together, of them as a couple. We only had them as one in the last 30 pages, and, for a 300 and something book it's really lacking.
I consider Eben to be abhorrent and beyond redemption for what he did. It was anticlimactic to see his happy ending.
I wish that instead of his horror "love story " we had more of Jess. But... it is what it is.
Only because we had such a pure soul as Jess I was able to love this book. ❤
May 1, 2020
Simple Jess was not a good read and it wasn't a romance. There was one intimate scene at the very end and then boom married story over. The entire story is wasted on busy body neighbors, a disgusting male who didn't deserve a HEA and a man that is coming to terms with his sexuality. The H of the story was portrayed to much like a child at times that I felt uncomfortable. Then there is the 3 1/2 year old son of the widow who honestly is written terribly. It's almost like this author has never been around a child.
November 19, 2016
A very well written historical, but I could have done without all the gruesome details of gutting and skinning deer and the slaughtering of hogs. Definitely not recommended for vegetarians.
As a romance, I was touched by the purity of their love but, felt uneasy with the inequality of the relationship.
As a romance, I was touched by the purity of their love but, felt uneasy with the inequality of the relationship.
July 19, 2017
Beautiful story. I wish the love scene would have been longer/more descriptive, but Jesse was just the sweetest, kindest, most loyal man a girl could ever ask for, so he made up for the lack of heat. 5 stars.
August 20, 2024
WARNING: This review contains spoilers!
My first book by Pamela Morsi and it was quite a mixed bag! There are quite a few things I loved about it, and some I really hated.
The plot is relatively simple:
The last thing widow Althea Winsloe wanted to do was remarry. Unfortunately, her meddlesome mountain neighbors had other plans. So, one autumn night they banded together and gave Althea a shocking ultimatum: She was to find herself a husband by Christmas...or the town would do it for her!
And here was my first problem with this book. Because, as an independent strong-headed woman I kept wanting to tell all those meddlesome well-wishing neighbors:
But then the author gave us Jess! I haven't read the first book of this series and this was my first meeting with Jess. And boy, did he leave an impression.
I LOVED JESS!!
Simple slow witted Jess was a delight to read! His innocent understanding of the world and human nature, as well as his wonderful heart were extraordinary!
The story told from his perspective was simple, charming, uplifting and above all else, it felt real! Jess as a character felt real. His frustration at himself was heartbreaking!
"Stupid mind, he thought to himself. Stupid Jesse's mind doesn't work right. Doesn't think right. He clenched his teeth and tightened his fists in frustration. Stupid, stupid mind."
His emotions, thoughts, insecurity and at times childish ways... From speech to way of thinking, from curiosity to confusion and doubt... KUDOS to the author for getting them head on! And I am talking from real-life experience here, since my own son is just like Jess.
Jesse's tale made me both cry as well as laugh out loud at times.
I wanted to trash the so-called nice folk who called him "feebleminded, simple, slow-witted and unsound" straight to his face with complete and utter disregard of any feelings he might have. And I wanted to rant at the entire community for the way they behaved with him at times. His gentle innocence brought a smile to my lips more than once. And the way everybody seemed to use him at times and take him for granted made all my hackles rise!
Sweet and gentle Jess starts working for Althea to earn the pack of hunting dogs that had belonged to her late husband. Because Jess had always dreamed of having his own dogs. And because Jess liked Miz Althea.
And here is the second problem I had with this book: widow Althea Winsloe!
She was a bit too proud and self-centered and all-knowing for my taste. And I could have gotten past all that, because she also had a past and quite a few reasons for her aloofness; except that she was one among the many who mistreated Jess. She also took him for granted, just as the others did, and despite everything the young man did for her, at over two thirds of the story, she still considered that:
He probably could be a husband, she thought. Some not very bright girl would surely be lucky to find such as him.
Prejudice and assumption make a very strong point in this story and they are both a bit difficult to read at times. I'll take them any day when they are followed by repentance and at least a little "heartfelt sorry". But both Althea and the Marrying Stone people fall short on this account. There is acceptance here and even understanding, but no regrets whatsoever and just to say it straight... that sucks!
The other major problem I had was with the side characters and particularly Eben Baxley.
I loved the fact that the author managed to add a gay character into a rigid community that doesn't take well to change. But Oather Phillips himself fell short in the end and turned out to be a little coward who'd rather leave than own it. Despite what his sister did for him and how low she sunk to help him out, he chose to turn his back on her and leave it all behind.
And as Eben Baxley goes,
I hated and cannot condone the rape scene! And NO! Crying about it afterwards and telling "I'm so sorry!" doesn't do squat when in the end the SOB insists the woman had actually had her way! There is no punishment to treating a woman like a whore, no reaction to debasing her that way! I really could have done with at least a few broken teeth and a solid kick in the balls!
In the end, it was 5 heartfelt stars for Jess and just one little star for the rest.
Check out this review and more over at The Magic Book Corner
My first book by Pamela Morsi and it was quite a mixed bag! There are quite a few things I loved about it, and some I really hated.
The plot is relatively simple:
The last thing widow Althea Winsloe wanted to do was remarry. Unfortunately, her meddlesome mountain neighbors had other plans. So, one autumn night they banded together and gave Althea a shocking ultimatum: She was to find herself a husband by Christmas...or the town would do it for her!
And here was my first problem with this book. Because, as an independent strong-headed woman I kept wanting to tell all those meddlesome well-wishing neighbors:
But then the author gave us Jess! I haven't read the first book of this series and this was my first meeting with Jess. And boy, did he leave an impression.
I LOVED JESS!!
Simple slow witted Jess was a delight to read! His innocent understanding of the world and human nature, as well as his wonderful heart were extraordinary!
The story told from his perspective was simple, charming, uplifting and above all else, it felt real! Jess as a character felt real. His frustration at himself was heartbreaking!
"Stupid mind, he thought to himself. Stupid Jesse's mind doesn't work right. Doesn't think right. He clenched his teeth and tightened his fists in frustration. Stupid, stupid mind."
His emotions, thoughts, insecurity and at times childish ways... From speech to way of thinking, from curiosity to confusion and doubt... KUDOS to the author for getting them head on! And I am talking from real-life experience here, since my own son is just like Jess.
Jesse's tale made me both cry as well as laugh out loud at times.
I wanted to trash the so-called nice folk who called him "feebleminded, simple, slow-witted and unsound" straight to his face with complete and utter disregard of any feelings he might have. And I wanted to rant at the entire community for the way they behaved with him at times. His gentle innocence brought a smile to my lips more than once. And the way everybody seemed to use him at times and take him for granted made all my hackles rise!
Sweet and gentle Jess starts working for Althea to earn the pack of hunting dogs that had belonged to her late husband. Because Jess had always dreamed of having his own dogs. And because Jess liked Miz Althea.
And here is the second problem I had with this book: widow Althea Winsloe!
She was a bit too proud and self-centered and all-knowing for my taste. And I could have gotten past all that, because she also had a past and quite a few reasons for her aloofness; except that she was one among the many who mistreated Jess. She also took him for granted, just as the others did, and despite everything the young man did for her, at over two thirds of the story, she still considered that:
He probably could be a husband, she thought. Some not very bright girl would surely be lucky to find such as him.
Prejudice and assumption make a very strong point in this story and they are both a bit difficult to read at times. I'll take them any day when they are followed by repentance and at least a little "heartfelt sorry". But both Althea and the Marrying Stone people fall short on this account. There is acceptance here and even understanding, but no regrets whatsoever and just to say it straight... that sucks!
The other major problem I had was with the side characters and particularly Eben Baxley.
I loved the fact that the author managed to add a gay character into a rigid community that doesn't take well to change. But Oather Phillips himself fell short in the end and turned out to be a little coward who'd rather leave than own it. Despite what his sister did for him and how low she sunk to help him out, he chose to turn his back on her and leave it all behind.
And as Eben Baxley goes,
I hated and cannot condone the rape scene! And NO! Crying about it afterwards and telling "I'm so sorry!" doesn't do squat when in the end the SOB insists the woman had actually had her way! There is no punishment to treating a woman like a whore, no reaction to debasing her that way! I really could have done with at least a few broken teeth and a solid kick in the balls!
In the end, it was 5 heartfelt stars for Jess and just one little star for the rest.
Check out this review and more over at The Magic Book Corner
February 20, 2019
Rated 4.5 - SIMPLE JESS by Pamela Morsi is a great example of an unusual historical romance with characters who steal your heart. I’ve been anxious to read Jesse Best’s happy-ever-after since meeting him in MARRYING STONE. A challenging read, this book delves into disability in a way I’ve never experienced before in romance. Recommended Read!
See the review in full color and follow the discussion at TheZestQuest.com .
Why was this book in Dorine’s TBR? I was recommended Pamela Morsi’s books in 2013 when I read a review of THE LOVESICK CURE (Book 3) at Goodreads. After much discussion with several readers here, I bought three books in this series without ever reading anything by Morsi.
After reviewing MARRYING STONE in 2017 for this same challenge, I couldn’t get Simple Jess off my mind. How would Morsi develop a simple man into a convincing romance hero? I already loved Jesse as a person, but how would she convince me that a woman could respect him for who he is and not try to change him or make him “better” somehow?
I also didn’t want to see Jesse matched up with a special needs gal. That would be too easy and predictable. I wanted to discover the hidden gem inside Jesse, and this is exactly what Morsi does. Althea’s awakening toward Jesse is believable and sweet. Amazing!
That doesn’t mean SIMPLE JESS is an easy journey. Far from it. It’s often quite awful and hard to endure. I even wanted to smack Althea a time or two for her attitude toward Jesse.
SIMPLE JESS is hard to read because of how Jesse Best is treated for his inability to think as quickly or clearly as other men. Damaged during his birth, Jesse has lived with his disability in a loving home. But being a good son isn’t enough, now that he’s a man. He doesn’t hold grudges or place blame, but the negative nickname of “Simple” attached to him by everyone is unthinkable. It was common historically, but that doesn’t make it any easier to read, knowing that it’s highly likely that special needs adults are still treated in a similar manner.
What bothered me most was that Jesse was told to ignore his feelings for women, not really preparing him for those emotions when he falls in love. When Jesse realizes he’s in love, he doesn’t think he’s worthy. His community is shocked because they think Jesse will always be Simple Jess, still a young boy in a man’s body. Should they be afraid, or is he the same good person he’s always been?
On the other hand, widow Althea Winsloe’s situation as a single mother is equally disturbing. Surrounded by family as owner of the best piece of farmland in the area, they expect her to marry no matter how she feels about the prospects. It seems inevitable that Jesse and Althea will find one another, but will Althea get over her own insecurities about Jesse’s inadequacies?
What is done to Althea next is horrible. She is disrespected in public and forced into an unbelievable decision. There is a creepy candidate for her future husband who may be a trigger for women with an abusive past. This book covers several taboo subjects ironed out by people who were not very accepting of anyone different from themselves. If you have craved different in your romance reading, this book was probably once a very brave ambition for any author.
There’s nothing simple about SIMPLE JESS as a person or as a story. The journey is complicated, laugh-out-loud funny, sad, sensual, and full of love. If you’re looking for amazing characters in a remote area of the Ozarks, with all their faults and goodness combined, begin with MARRYING STONE , but be sure to have SIMPLE JESS at hand to read next. You won’t regret it. The only reason this book didn’t get a 5 rating is because there were enough typos to pull me out of the story.
Q: Now I desperately need Oather’s story. Does anyone know if it exists? THE LOVESICK CURE is the third book and I have that, but it takes place years later – I wasn’t sure if that would answer my questions. I still need to purchase MR. RIGHT GOES WRONG – do you have suggestions of books by Morsi? Loving her style, especially the Ozarks setting.
Reviewed by Dorine, courtesy of TheZestQuest.com . Digital copy purchased.
See the review in full color and follow the discussion at TheZestQuest.com .
Why was this book in Dorine’s TBR? I was recommended Pamela Morsi’s books in 2013 when I read a review of THE LOVESICK CURE (Book 3) at Goodreads. After much discussion with several readers here, I bought three books in this series without ever reading anything by Morsi.
After reviewing MARRYING STONE in 2017 for this same challenge, I couldn’t get Simple Jess off my mind. How would Morsi develop a simple man into a convincing romance hero? I already loved Jesse as a person, but how would she convince me that a woman could respect him for who he is and not try to change him or make him “better” somehow?
I also didn’t want to see Jesse matched up with a special needs gal. That would be too easy and predictable. I wanted to discover the hidden gem inside Jesse, and this is exactly what Morsi does. Althea’s awakening toward Jesse is believable and sweet. Amazing!
That doesn’t mean SIMPLE JESS is an easy journey. Far from it. It’s often quite awful and hard to endure. I even wanted to smack Althea a time or two for her attitude toward Jesse.
SIMPLE JESS is hard to read because of how Jesse Best is treated for his inability to think as quickly or clearly as other men. Damaged during his birth, Jesse has lived with his disability in a loving home. But being a good son isn’t enough, now that he’s a man. He doesn’t hold grudges or place blame, but the negative nickname of “Simple” attached to him by everyone is unthinkable. It was common historically, but that doesn’t make it any easier to read, knowing that it’s highly likely that special needs adults are still treated in a similar manner.
What bothered me most was that Jesse was told to ignore his feelings for women, not really preparing him for those emotions when he falls in love. When Jesse realizes he’s in love, he doesn’t think he’s worthy. His community is shocked because they think Jesse will always be Simple Jess, still a young boy in a man’s body. Should they be afraid, or is he the same good person he’s always been?
On the other hand, widow Althea Winsloe’s situation as a single mother is equally disturbing. Surrounded by family as owner of the best piece of farmland in the area, they expect her to marry no matter how she feels about the prospects. It seems inevitable that Jesse and Althea will find one another, but will Althea get over her own insecurities about Jesse’s inadequacies?
What is done to Althea next is horrible. She is disrespected in public and forced into an unbelievable decision. There is a creepy candidate for her future husband who may be a trigger for women with an abusive past. This book covers several taboo subjects ironed out by people who were not very accepting of anyone different from themselves. If you have craved different in your romance reading, this book was probably once a very brave ambition for any author.
There’s nothing simple about SIMPLE JESS as a person or as a story. The journey is complicated, laugh-out-loud funny, sad, sensual, and full of love. If you’re looking for amazing characters in a remote area of the Ozarks, with all their faults and goodness combined, begin with MARRYING STONE , but be sure to have SIMPLE JESS at hand to read next. You won’t regret it. The only reason this book didn’t get a 5 rating is because there were enough typos to pull me out of the story.
Q: Now I desperately need Oather’s story. Does anyone know if it exists? THE LOVESICK CURE is the third book and I have that, but it takes place years later – I wasn’t sure if that would answer my questions. I still need to purchase MR. RIGHT GOES WRONG – do you have suggestions of books by Morsi? Loving her style, especially the Ozarks setting.
Reviewed by Dorine, courtesy of TheZestQuest.com . Digital copy purchased.
April 2, 2023
Re-read 2023: rating, 2.5 stars rounded to 3
(First read in 2015; original rating, 5 stars)
I suspect that when I first read this I was so blinded by my utter delight in Jesse's character that I ignored all the other flaws. And sadly, there are a lot of them.
This time around, I still loved Jesse. In fact, I probably loved him even more on this reread as the wisdom I've accrued in the last 8 (wow) years of my life has highlighted how rare that purity of spirit can be.
Jesse is an absolutely fantastic character. Althea is... not. Unfortunately she's more of a C- character especially because there are glimmers of what she could be but the author never really quite delivers on her potential. There was such great opportunity here for an older, non-virginal woman who understands her self-worth to see and appreciate this gift of a man from her more mature vantage point. And yet somehow we just don't ever quite get that from her. In fact, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth after that wretched moment where she And while she does admit that she jumped to conclusions, she doesn't ever wholeheartedly and sincerely apologize for that horrific behavior.
Review not complete: I'll likely come back and add to this but here are my thoughts as of now
(First read in 2015; original rating, 5 stars)
I suspect that when I first read this I was so blinded by my utter delight in Jesse's character that I ignored all the other flaws. And sadly, there are a lot of them.
This time around, I still loved Jesse. In fact, I probably loved him even more on this reread as the wisdom I've accrued in the last 8 (wow) years of my life has highlighted how rare that purity of spirit can be.
Jesse is an absolutely fantastic character. Althea is... not. Unfortunately she's more of a C- character especially because there are glimmers of what she could be but the author never really quite delivers on her potential. There was such great opportunity here for an older, non-virginal woman who understands her self-worth to see and appreciate this gift of a man from her more mature vantage point. And yet somehow we just don't ever quite get that from her. In fact, I was left with a bad taste in my mouth after that wretched moment where she And while she does admit that she jumped to conclusions, she doesn't ever wholeheartedly and sincerely apologize for that horrific behavior.
Review not complete: I'll likely come back and add to this but here are my thoughts as of now
Shelved as 'dnf'
December 15, 2018This book would have been awesome if it didn’t have large focus on the second MCs.
Eben was a piece of shit sewage slurper wanting to marry heroine and keep Althea “the love of his life” as his whore because god knows why and may be committing to your love somehow is letting love control you. And of course a real man like Eben can’t be controlled.
He treats Althea like his whore until the second last page of the book (I cheated as I have thrown up a lot by a certain point!) So I had to put it safely on DNF pile before I was hospitalised with dehydration!
The virgin hero just couldn’t save the book!
I think Pamela Morsi is just not for me!
Eben was a piece of shit sewage slurper wanting to marry heroine and keep Althea “the love of his life” as his whore because god knows why and may be committing to your love somehow is letting love control you. And of course a real man like Eben can’t be controlled.
He treats Althea like his whore until the second last page of the book (I cheated as I have thrown up a lot by a certain point!) So I had to put it safely on DNF pile before I was hospitalised with dehydration!
The virgin hero just couldn’t save the book!
I think Pamela Morsi is just not for me!
January 13, 2018
Widow Althea Winsloe has vowed that she will not marry again. She has devoted her life to her young son, Baby-Paisley, and wants to ensure that he will inherit his late father's farm. But Althea knows she can't survive the winter on her own. When Jesse Best hears that she is willing to sell her husband's hunting dogs, he makes an offer for a dog. Althea offers him the whole pack if Simple Jess will do some work around the farm. Jess is a big strong man who suffered some brain damage when he was born. He is slow to learn but eventually accomplishes what he wants to do.
When the families on the mountain insist that Althea marry and give her son a father, they put forth two suitors and tell her she has to marry one of them by Christmas. Will she pick Eben Baxley or Oather Phillips? Or will she pick the man she has come to rely on?
If you're looking for a unique story with a historical setting, this is a good one. Althea is a strong heroine who will do anything to make sure her son will inherit the farm. But the story is all about Simple Jess. He knows he is different but doesn't let his disability stop him. He has dreams. He wants to someday marry and have children.
The setting of this story is wonderful. The characters are fantastic, including Althea's two suitors. At first I hated Eben Baxley, but he did redeem himself a bit toward the end of the book. Oather was another wonderful character with a lot of family problems. I wish Pamela Morsi would write two more books featuring these characters. My rating: 4.5 Stars.
When the families on the mountain insist that Althea marry and give her son a father, they put forth two suitors and tell her she has to marry one of them by Christmas. Will she pick Eben Baxley or Oather Phillips? Or will she pick the man she has come to rely on?
If you're looking for a unique story with a historical setting, this is a good one. Althea is a strong heroine who will do anything to make sure her son will inherit the farm. But the story is all about Simple Jess. He knows he is different but doesn't let his disability stop him. He has dreams. He wants to someday marry and have children.
The setting of this story is wonderful. The characters are fantastic, including Althea's two suitors. At first I hated Eben Baxley, but he did redeem himself a bit toward the end of the book. Oather was another wonderful character with a lot of family problems. I wish Pamela Morsi would write two more books featuring these characters. My rating: 4.5 Stars.
April 13, 2016
Beautifully written heart wrenching story!! Complex, believable and lovable chatacers. Interesting unique plot, with no lulls (I read this in one day non-stop).
This is a sweet romance that takes place in the early 1900 in the mountains in Arkansas (?) The story centers around Althea a widow who is pressured and inevitably forced to remarry. The plot sounds hokey when summarized but it is anything but. Without retelling the story I found that what I really liked is the powerful underlying messages about accepting those who are different, and about being who you are.
I must say that I absolutely loved Jesse, and there were so many times my heart was truly breaking for him.
I don't have much else to say except I loved it.. However, being nit-picky I did find a small issue with Baby-Paisley who is supposed to be 3. Now maybe children back then had to grow up faster, or matured faster or maybe I just forgot how 3 years old behave and speak, but it seemed to me that the child was portrayed a little older in his actions and dialogue, like about 4 or 5, I could be wrong.
There are also some inconsistancies.. or continuity errors as a better way of putting it. I was however not terribly bothered by it.....(see spoiler-fyi- you would have to have read the book to understand)
++Spoiler+++
Althea slaps Jesse when he returns with Baby-Paisley from deer hunting NOT when he kisses her (or was it her who kissed him..this detail changes as well) yet Jesse states at the kangaroo court that Althea slapped him after the kiss. Maybe I missed something?
Although this is not a clean romance there is only 1 love making scene between Jesse & Althea and it's at the very end. There is another between secondary characters Edan & Mavisat about 70%. Both are written well but not are not blazing. Appropriate is the best way to describe it.
I definatelly would recommend this one and plan to read more of this authors works.
This is a sweet romance that takes place in the early 1900 in the mountains in Arkansas (?) The story centers around Althea a widow who is pressured and inevitably forced to remarry. The plot sounds hokey when summarized but it is anything but. Without retelling the story I found that what I really liked is the powerful underlying messages about accepting those who are different, and about being who you are.
I must say that I absolutely loved Jesse, and there were so many times my heart was truly breaking for him.
I don't have much else to say except I loved it.. However, being nit-picky I did find a small issue with Baby-Paisley who is supposed to be 3. Now maybe children back then had to grow up faster, or matured faster or maybe I just forgot how 3 years old behave and speak, but it seemed to me that the child was portrayed a little older in his actions and dialogue, like about 4 or 5, I could be wrong.
There are also some inconsistancies.. or continuity errors as a better way of putting it. I was however not terribly bothered by it.....(see spoiler-fyi- you would have to have read the book to understand)
++Spoiler+++
Althea slaps Jesse when he returns with Baby-Paisley from deer hunting NOT when he kisses her (or was it her who kissed him..this detail changes as well) yet Jesse states at the kangaroo court that Althea slapped him after the kiss. Maybe I missed something?
Although this is not a clean romance there is only 1 love making scene between Jesse & Althea and it's at the very end. There is another between secondary characters Edan & Mavisat about 70%. Both are written well but not are not blazing. Appropriate is the best way to describe it.
I definatelly would recommend this one and plan to read more of this authors works.
March 12, 2018
*Sighs* Fuckery upon fuckery. The women are just here as props for male growth. I'm tired of this narrative, women taking on the burden, women forgiving, and people normalising emotional abuse. It's just depressing. The fact that the author is female made me really uncomfortable.
It's a historical romance but that is not the problem here. I enjoy historical romances, the ones that are more historical fiction than romance as well as those that are all guilty pleasure. I don't typically over anaylse, sometimes they're a little problematic but I don't typically tend to mind. This isnt that. This is simply fuckery upon fuckery.
(It's also timing, if I'd read this a few years ago I would've simply said I hated the chararcters. Today though...)
I'm going to bullet point this bullshit bc who has the time:
-The men are the centered here, and I don't mean the female characteres center men in their life. I mean the author centers the men. Their point of view is the given the most page space, their story is really THE story and the women are just there.
Bullet points aren't working for me, here the main bit that fucked me off:
One of the main female characters was hounded and emotionally abused by a male character bc she had made the mistake of sleeping with him and he perceived that as her trying to trap and control him. He did not marry her, but what he does do is try to shame her and emotionally abuse her at every opportunity. Then later blackmailing her into having sex with him, essentially raping her, and then MID rape having a crisis of conscience, crying and asking for forgiveness.
And you know what happens, can you guess...? Because not only does she forgive him, her motherfucking rapist, seconds SECONDS after. (Is it even after? I don't know). She wipes away his tears and then proceeds to give him a handjob.
Throw the whole book away. BURN IT!! IT DESERVES TO BE BUNRED.
She doesn't stop there. She strips and they proceed to make passionate explicit love. This bitch (I'm referring to the author) really tried to sell us rape to love making!
There is alot of weird shit in books, especially romances, but what freaks me out is that a female author thought this was romantic. Where exactly was the romance for the woman here? Was it being in love with someone, having sex with said person and then being rebuffed after?
Having to keep it all a secret from her parents and village or risk shaming her family? The isolation?
The verbal abuse? The emotional abuse? Being blackmailed into sleeping with that person again when they spend their leisure time shaming you for your past naiveté? Like bishhh where is the love.
Except it's not about her, it's about him and his journey and she's just there to be abused and that is some scary shit.
It's a historical romance but that is not the problem here. I enjoy historical romances, the ones that are more historical fiction than romance as well as those that are all guilty pleasure. I don't typically over anaylse, sometimes they're a little problematic but I don't typically tend to mind. This isnt that. This is simply fuckery upon fuckery.
(It's also timing, if I'd read this a few years ago I would've simply said I hated the chararcters. Today though...)
I'm going to bullet point this bullshit bc who has the time:
-The men are the centered here, and I don't mean the female characteres center men in their life. I mean the author centers the men. Their point of view is the given the most page space, their story is really THE story and the women are just there.
Bullet points aren't working for me, here the main bit that fucked me off:
One of the main female characters was hounded and emotionally abused by a male character bc she had made the mistake of sleeping with him and he perceived that as her trying to trap and control him. He did not marry her, but what he does do is try to shame her and emotionally abuse her at every opportunity. Then later blackmailing her into having sex with him, essentially raping her, and then MID rape having a crisis of conscience, crying and asking for forgiveness.
And you know what happens, can you guess...? Because not only does she forgive him, her motherfucking rapist, seconds SECONDS after. (Is it even after? I don't know). She wipes away his tears and then proceeds to give him a handjob.
Throw the whole book away. BURN IT!! IT DESERVES TO BE BUNRED.
She doesn't stop there. She strips and they proceed to make passionate explicit love. This bitch (I'm referring to the author) really tried to sell us rape to love making!
There is alot of weird shit in books, especially romances, but what freaks me out is that a female author thought this was romantic. Where exactly was the romance for the woman here? Was it being in love with someone, having sex with said person and then being rebuffed after?
Having to keep it all a secret from her parents and village or risk shaming her family? The isolation?
The verbal abuse? The emotional abuse? Being blackmailed into sleeping with that person again when they spend their leisure time shaming you for your past naiveté? Like bishhh where is the love.
Except it's not about her, it's about him and his journey and she's just there to be abused and that is some scary shit.
March 16, 2015
I can see why this book earned five stars. Well, not really, but I can see why parts of the book resonated so much that it earned five stars. Lacking in historical wallpaper, the town, the people, the dialogue, and the situations all felt genuine (though I could’ve used fewer details about how to kill and dress animals). Jesse is a wonderful hero and it was nice to see Althea’s change toward him and appreciation for who he was grow. I didn’t like that she never stood up for him when even her three-year-old did.
Althea drove me nuts when she actually had to take time to consider her choice between Oather and Eben. Oather showed up early to help her work on the farm and was respectful and polite. Eben showed up at noon and demanded breakfast. He was consistently rude when he wasn’t sexually harassing her and Mavis. But Althea was charmed because he gave her son a present. Yeah, that doesn’t excuse the rest of him. I really wanted to see him get a “come to Jesus” moment. Instead, Eben got a lame secondary HEA. Mavis should’ve kneed him in the nuts. He was despicable toward her and then during a blackmail sexual encounter her magic hoo-ha made him see the error of his ways and he started being a nicer guy. I didn’t buy it and Mavis deserved better though she didn’t seem to care and had no personality or characteristic that wasn’t related to her attachment to a man.
When the story focused on Jesse and Althea interacting I was happy, but there were too many scenes dealing with the townsfolk, and especially Eben, that pulled me out of my groove.
Althea drove me nuts when she actually had to take time to consider her choice between Oather and Eben. Oather showed up early to help her work on the farm and was respectful and polite. Eben showed up at noon and demanded breakfast. He was consistently rude when he wasn’t sexually harassing her and Mavis. But Althea was charmed because he gave her son a present. Yeah, that doesn’t excuse the rest of him. I really wanted to see him get a “come to Jesus” moment. Instead, Eben got a lame secondary HEA. Mavis should’ve kneed him in the nuts. He was despicable toward her and then during a blackmail sexual encounter her magic hoo-ha made him see the error of his ways and he started being a nicer guy. I didn’t buy it and Mavis deserved better though she didn’t seem to care and had no personality or characteristic that wasn’t related to her attachment to a man.
When the story focused on Jesse and Althea interacting I was happy, but there were too many scenes dealing with the townsfolk, and especially Eben, that pulled me out of my groove.
August 6, 2013
Well, this was certainly an original romance plot. When I read about the hero’s mental limitations, I had real doubts about how the author was going to pull it off, but it turned out not only believable, but the few scenes were emotional and their love story very sweet.
SCENES/CONTENT: few/mild
GENRE/TONE: historical/drama
LENGTH: 276 pages
SCENES/CONTENT: few/mild
GENRE/TONE: historical/drama
LENGTH: 276 pages
November 19, 2022
3.5 rounded up. Writing took some getting used to. All these hillbillies… I thought the townspeople were the simple ones for trying to make Althea marry, not Jess. He’s just special. Love him.
Heart hurt when she slapped him and bloodied his lip. Love him.
Heart hurt when she slapped him and bloodied his lip. Love him.
August 26, 2018
*Actual rating 2,5 stars*
There must be something wrong with me, since this book has a collection of five-star reviews on
Goodreads and I felt conflicted between giving it two or three stars since the beginning.
Honestly, there are so many wrong things in this story, so many little disappointments that could've been done differently, making it -for me- a much rewarding experience.
I'll start with the biggest disappointment: Althea and 99% of the people of Marrying Stone's behavior toward Jesse. Look, I get it: Jesse is different from them, and if having a disability today is hard, we can imagine how harder it must've been at the beginning of the twentieth century.
Still, I thought that everyone in this book not only acted in a way that could be defined as offensive today, but also mocked, made fun of and belittled him, more than "necessary".
By that I mean that they not only remarked from time to time how slow and unmanly Jesse was (when in actuality, he was basically described as being like a Greek god), but often called him names right in front of him and ignored his opinions only because of his peculiar condition. And if it's true that I expected it from those who didn't know him well, I couldn't understand why his love interest, Althea, would sometimes be like that with him, too.
Not only that, but in one particularly sad and shocking part of the book, she slapped him in the face, hurting his lip, without even listening to his explanation.
That was more painful than all the other people's humiliation because it gave me the impression that she somehow felt justified in being physically abusive toward him by the fact that he was a "feebleminded idiot".
The whole scene played like a terrible betrayal from the woman he already loved, because all he ever did for her was respecting and adoring both her and her child. It actually made me tear up a little.
Add to that the fact that she called him "Simple Jess" way more than simply by his name.
It was irritating, to say the least.
The second disappointment was the attention the book paid to a couple of secondary characters: Eben and Mavis. I'll only say that they reconciled after he attempted to "rage-fuck" (but I'd simply call it rape) her in order to teach her a lesson. Lesson she clearly didn't learn, because not only she forgave him, but also proceeded to have actual sex with him, right afterward.
I'll just say it: I couldn't care less if they ended up together, Eben was petty, resentful and narrow-minded and I wished he died, rather than having his happily ever after.
He got not only that, instead, but also a sex scene that was in fact longer and way more graphic than necessary compared to that of the actual protagonists!
What was the saving grace then? Jesse. Jesse. Jesse. What a wonderful character he was! I loved him, loved every kind gesture and word he had for everyone, the fierce love and protection he showed to and for his family. I loved him when he didn't know how to defend himself or Althea, but tried nonetheless. He was perfect to me. The kind of man I'd have fought for. He didn't get that, but rather someone who saw how sweet and attractive he was, and that left a bad taste in my mouth.
Buddy Read with the awesome Anna!
November 28, 2016
[3.5 stars]
Jesse Best is one of the most honnest, loyal, hard-working and endearing characters I've ever had the pleasure to read about. He reminded me of other iconic mentally-challenged characters such as Sean Penn's Sam in I am Sam and Tom Hanks' legendary Forrest Gump.
This touching story told in multiple POVs definitely struck a cord with me, I flew through it and could not put it down. As you can tell, my favorite person to read from was Jesse, his views of everything happening around him, of his relationship with other people, and of his own affliction are simply fascinating and sometimes bordering on the heartbreaking.
"He was holding a gun. Guns were very dangerous and a man had to be very careful. Jesse was a man, he reminded himself. He could remember to be careful."
Some of the stuff I didn't like were the lengthy descriptions of some really inconsequential things that could have been described in one paragraph but instead just went on and on and on, things like the hunt, the pig butchering, the whole Eben Baxley arc (God that guy is an insufferable douchebag)...Now that I look back, whenever Jess was not present I simply glossed over the pages.
All in all, it was a very quick and enjoyable read, and actually quite different from your usual cliché romance novel.
Jesse Best is one of the most honnest, loyal, hard-working and endearing characters I've ever had the pleasure to read about. He reminded me of other iconic mentally-challenged characters such as Sean Penn's Sam in I am Sam and Tom Hanks' legendary Forrest Gump.
This touching story told in multiple POVs definitely struck a cord with me, I flew through it and could not put it down. As you can tell, my favorite person to read from was Jesse, his views of everything happening around him, of his relationship with other people, and of his own affliction are simply fascinating and sometimes bordering on the heartbreaking.
"He was holding a gun. Guns were very dangerous and a man had to be very careful. Jesse was a man, he reminded himself. He could remember to be careful."
Some of the stuff I didn't like were the lengthy descriptions of some really inconsequential things that could have been described in one paragraph but instead just went on and on and on, things like the hunt, the pig butchering, the whole Eben Baxley arc (God that guy is an insufferable douchebag)...Now that I look back, whenever Jess was not present I simply glossed over the pages.
All in all, it was a very quick and enjoyable read, and actually quite different from your usual cliché romance novel.
December 6, 2013
This is such a sweet story. I had my reservations, thinking certain aspects might get kind of creepy, but Jesse's "simplicity" is really not as big a deal as certain people make it out to be. He's just a little slower than most due to mild brain damage. He knows right from wrong, he clearly has his own thoughts and feelings, he's able to love and protect others. In many ways that become glaringly evident throughout the book, he's smarter than most everyone else around him. Including Althea. Indeed, Althea was the character that made me lament this book a bit. Her character could have been so much better had she just shown some backbone when it really mattered. She was perfectly willing to get into screaming matches with others regarding anything pertaining to her, but when Eben got out of hand and downright cruel with Jesse, she just sat there ho-humming about it. It made me want to slap her. Thankfully she came to her senses. But if she'd been a better character, this might have gotten five stars out of me. However, there's also the issue of a lot of conflict. Between nearly everyone. The aggression and mistrust is nearly palpable and can be a bit daunting to read.
Still, it's a sweet love story with a good message, and I enjoyed it.
Still, it's a sweet love story with a good message, and I enjoyed it.
March 3, 2015
This was a sweet book with a Hero that has NO experience whatsoever.
Jesse is "simple" having been born with a cord around his neck. He is a big man, a sweet man, a hardworking man...a man that find joy in the little things.
Things like the SMELL of women. He likes to stand next to them at church or the once a month Literary Meetings. Women just smell so darn good.
Althea is a widow with a young boy and the best corn bottom land around. The village decides she HAS to get married, or they will choose a husband for her themselves. There is much maneuvering for position by her in-laws, who want to keep the property in their own hands.
Word of warning:
Besides that, it is a lovely read. I came to like Jesse and Althea very much. Now I want more of these virgin heroes!
Edited to add: I just re-read this one. I love Jesse. He was worth reading a second time!
Jesse is "simple" having been born with a cord around his neck. He is a big man, a sweet man, a hardworking man...a man that find joy in the little things.
Things like the SMELL of women. He likes to stand next to them at church or the once a month Literary Meetings. Women just smell so darn good.
Althea is a widow with a young boy and the best corn bottom land around. The village decides she HAS to get married, or they will choose a husband for her themselves. There is much maneuvering for position by her in-laws, who want to keep the property in their own hands.
Word of warning:
Besides that, it is a lovely read. I came to like Jesse and Althea very much. Now I want more of these virgin heroes!
Edited to add: I just re-read this one. I love Jesse. He was worth reading a second time!
June 26, 2018
80% of the book was about everyone else and 20% about Jesse and Althea...that is major problem in a romance novel.
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