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Small Town Swains #3

No Ordinary Princess

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Spirited heiress Princess "Cessy" Calhoun falls head over heels in love with a sophisticated gentleman named Gerald, not realizing that her beloved is actually the ambitious Tom Walker, who plans to woo Cessy to pursue his dreams of finding oil

384 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1997

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About the author

Pamela Morsi

44books443followers
Pamela Morsi was an American writer. She was the author of 29 romance novels, beginning in 1991.

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5 stars
261 (42%)
4 stars
184 (29%)
3 stars
121 (19%)
2 stars
39 (6%)
1 star
15 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
Profile Image for Celestine.
952 reviews123 followers
November 17, 2016
Great setting, so-so characters

As always, Pamela Morsi portrays slice-of-life Americana to perfection. This time the setting is the boom-or-bust oil fields of Oklahoma at the turn of the 20th century. Morsi infuses the time with charm and excitement, and wonderfully captures the entrepreneurial spirit of those early oil magnates. Unfortunately, Princess Calhoun and Tom Walker were far from my favorite characters. Even Morsi's usually terrific secondary characters felt a little flat. In my humble opinion, this author cannot write a bad book, but this one just wasn't my favorite.
Profile Image for Beverly McCall.
Author2 books27 followers
March 4, 2020
In No Ordinary Princess by Pamela Morse is a delightful western romance tale set in the early 1900s in the American west. I must say the title intrigued me as I made predictions of this story. Normally, the word princess denotes faraway lands with knights and royalty. This story takes place in the American west and the princess is a young woman, a daughter of an oil baron, who is named Princess. Destiny brings this princess together with Tom Walker, a decent guy who because of the circumstances of his birth, has seen a difficult life. Dreaming of bettering his life, Tom dreams of marrying a rich woman and sets his hat on Miss Princess. Hence the plot line follows these two main characters. Will Princess find true love? Will Tom's dream come true?

I love the way Ms. Morsi developed her characters, both main characters, but her secondary characters were equally crafted. The entire cast of characters were not only multi-layered; they were well rounded as well. They contributed to moving this character-driven plot line. I enjoyed the way Ms. Morsi used the literary devices of descriptive language and dialog in this tale to draw the reader into her plot. The descriptions of the oil drilling made the reader feel as though they were right along side the oil workers. Ms. Morsi did a great job and I highly recommend this book.
Profile Image for Tanya.
558 reviews9 followers
June 22, 2014
A re-read I picked up at the UBS for a buck several months back. Not one of my favorite Morsis, but good. I truly miss this turn of the century brand of historical. This one was more hero-centric than heroine, and I kind of appreciated it.
Profile Image for Lizzy.
418 reviews15 followers
May 22, 2020
4.5/ Estrelas! Sim, o enredo é um tanto surreal, mas é muito bem contado e a escrita da autora é primorosa! Um história de amor super lindinha, que começa em meio a um emaranhado de mentiras, porém se equilibra ao final com grandes aprendizados.
12 reviews
February 4, 2020
Truly enjoyable

The story line was different from historical romances I have read. Keeps the reader engaged and and wanting more. Perfect ending.
85 reviews1 follower
April 4, 2020
My review

My surprise was my own fault because I just started reading chapter 1 before I read what the book was about. I liked the cover and had been impressed by all the other Pamela Morsi books I've read. This Princess was not royalty though her dad was King Calhoun. In Texas, drilling for oil in the early 20th century, King thought he had found a good source of crude oil, but needed a refinery nearby to make money on the deal. Tom Walker, raised in a nearby orphanage, had fought with Teddy Roosevelt as a famous Rough Rider in Cuba. Now he meets Princess at a Fourth of July party and wants to impress her, so he pretends to be Gerald, a rich man from back east. However, he finds work on the oil rig and is known as Tom among those people. The characters were strong, deeply developed, flawed and realistic. I enjoyed the story as well as the social awareness of the people in different stations during that time. It rang true to the stories from my grandparents and brings more understanding between generations when you get immersed in a well developed story from over a century ago.
Profile Image for Lori Morris.
109 reviews1 follower
February 3, 2020
Lovely

I absolutely loved this story! The kind that you find yourself smiling as you read. The characters are warm and well rounded. I especially loved Cedarleg and Ma Pease. Comical too! But my favorite is that the heroine Miss Princess Calhoun was not a beauty. My favorite kind of book! I always enjoy a Pamela Morsi. I hope you do as well. Enjoy! 😸
Profile Image for Diana Anderson.
196 reviews4 followers
February 9, 2020
Loved the characters

I am from Oklahoma and it was fascinating reading about the beginnings of the oil business . Since my husband and children are Choctaw, I was also interested in the Indian aspect, too. Add in that it was a good book, and you have the perfect book for me. You will love the book even if you aren't from Oklahoma.
159 reviews1 follower
November 28, 2017
Loved it

This was a great story. I have it a four star due to the epilogue and ending. After such a wonderful love story with trials and tribulations the end was lousy.
Can't explain it, I just didn't like it.
92 reviews
February 4, 2020
A life of deceit meets a maid who can stand up to it -- Oh, there is that little thing called love. It was an interesting read just to see how they would work thru that Much longer read than needed, but I sure didn't want to lay the book down. I'm glad love can win.
741 reviews3 followers
February 19, 2020
Early Oklahoma, before statehood and oil is all over. Rich are getting richer and riggers getting money but when wells dry up no $$$$$. Her father is an oil baron and named his only daughter Princess. Several men are interested in her daddy's money.
235 reviews1 follower
July 26, 2022
This one, admittedly, is not my favourite Morsi, maybe because I get frustrated when one character deceives the other for an extended amount of time, but Tom is a closet sweetheart n Cessy is better than all of us. So I enjoyed it, but not as much as the others.
552 reviews5 followers
March 3, 2023
Impressive!

What a sweet love story about a woman who lived before her time but married a man who was as progressive as she was. Although their lives together start out in quicksand, they find a solid foundation to build on.
159 reviews1 follower
April 6, 2020
Princess of Oil

Growing up in the oil fields with an oil Baron for a father and being naturally bossy made finding a man of her own difficult.
14 reviews1 follower
May 8, 2020
A very enjoy book!,

It was a very readable book, I enjoyed reading it, I also like happy endings! Good character development with a good ending.
5,312 reviews67 followers
May 11, 2021
No Ordinary Princess (Small Town Swains Book 3)

This is the third book in this series about family and friends and forgiveness and trust and marriage and happiness
256 reviews1 follower
August 11, 2021
I loved Tom Walker. The characters were lovable. I love historical romances. You'll love this one if you love them.
26 reviews1 follower
January 4, 2022
Not an ordinary book

I particularly like Pamela Morsi books. This one seems totally different from the others I've read. It's different but good. I hope everyone enjoys it.
52 reviews
January 16, 2022
I loved it

The story is great. It proves that you should always be your self. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
Profile Image for Paulette.
570 reviews11 followers
Read
December 16, 2022
This is a dnf. I was looking for a light fluffy read. Unfortunately, I disliked the characters, the way they treated each other, the story. So I bailed.
Profile Image for Bea Tea.
1,036 reviews
May 6, 2023
Most of the fun came from watching fuck-up no-good con-man Tom keeping his story together. I just wish there had been some satisfactory grovel, the h lets him off so easily.
Profile Image for Natalie.
498 reviews17 followers
Read
January 1, 2025
I don’t think this author is for me.
Profile Image for T Rojo.
731 reviews18 followers
June 4, 2025
Ugh I couldnt deal with lying sack of shit Tom and poor Princess was so goddamn dumb.
Honestly I was more interested in King and Queenie.
715 reviews
February 6, 2020
What's in a name?

This was a very interesting story. I enjoyed the clever wit , the mysticism and the banter between the two main characters. The length of the story was enough for the plot to really develop.
Profile Image for Nina Yaleb.
37 reviews
March 11, 2022
I was really hooked for the first half eagerly anticipating the BIG REVEAL and wondering how the author was going to create a HEA for this couple given the H’s deception. I was expecting a big grovel and a period of earning back trust by the H. I kept looking down at my Kindle page and when it got to about 70% of the way and the H hadn’t been found out yet I knew I was headed for disappointment. And I was! No big grovel! Just one big fight and then all was resolved very neatly.

I really wish we had more of the Syrian couple’s love story!! That was the h’s best friend’s arranged marriage. The author teased us with that wooing but we never got their HEA. If any book ever needed a secondary romance it was this one! The author had the right idea including not one but two secondary romances! The other one with the h’s father and a brothel madam was OK but the Syrian couple was much more endearing! That could’ve been a book on its own. So yeah I was disappointed by the way the author resolved the conflict between the MCs. But I still liked the writing and the secondary romance. This is a good author so she still gets 3 stars.
Profile Image for Koki.
653 reviews27 followers
March 6, 2017
Príbeh mal svoje čaro aj keď mi dlho nešlo do hlavy, ako je možné, že to Tomovi všetko prechádza tak hladko? A vôbec, ako môže byť hlavný hrdina taký naivný, že sám seba presvedčí o tom, že vytvorením novej identity (Geralda Cranea) sa zabudne na jeho druhú osobnosť (Toma Walkera)? Aby som to uviedla na pravú mieru - Tom Walker túži po peniazoch a jediný spôsob akým ich vie získať je oženiť sa s Princess, dcérou Kinga Calhouna, majiteľa naftovej rafinérie Royal Oil. Láka ho však naftárčina a kým po večeroch chodí dvoriť Cessy (a tvári sa ako aristokrat Gerald), cez deň pracuje ako zoraďovač Tom na naftových poliach. Pri práci sa spoznáva s mnohými ľuďmi, ktorých pozná samotný King a jeho dcéra. Preto sa pýtam, ako mohol byť Tom taký naivný, keď si myslel, že akonáhle dostane Cessy "do chomúta" zmizne Tom Walker zo sveta a všetci naňho razom zabudnú? Zvyšok recenzie si môžete prečítať tu:
8 reviews
February 3, 2016
I read it again after two years and I find that I like it more now than I did the first time around. Not my favorite work of the author still good enough to be picked up and read once again.

None of the main characters are especially likable but they are good together.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews

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