Simple Jess

By: Pamela Morsi

Narrated by: Kevin Clay

Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins

Publisher's summary

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, 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.

Proclaimed "a refreshing new voice in romance" by Jude Deveraux, award-winning author Pamela Morsi has charmed millions with her touching stories of simple pleasures and heartfelt romances. Her novels, including Garters, Wild Oats, and Something Shady, have won her rave reviews and loyal fans. Now she presents an endearing story about what can happen when love turns up in the most unlikely place....

©2011 Pamela Morsi (P)2015 Pamela Morsi

My favorite romance with outstanding narration too

What did you love best about Simple Jess?

This has long been one of my favorite books. I love hurt/comfort stories, and I love the big, handsome, simple-minded Jess. I really enjoy the setting in the Ozarks, and the folksy feeling to the story, dialogue, and characters. There's a lot of detail about the simple life-style and hard-scrabble existence. The book is simply perfect. I finally bought it on audio and was glued to it all over again due to the superb narration. The narrator does all the character voices and they're very authentic-sounding and fun.

Who was your favorite character and why?

Jess and Granny.

Which character – as performed by Kevin Clay – was your favorite?

They really all are. He does a brilliant job of making each character sound unique with their rural accents, and his acting is superb.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I really love all of it. Each scene is necessary and adds so much to the story.

Any additional comments?

If you like romance, you must listen to Simple Jess!

Couldn't Put The Book Down!

Wow! I truly loved reading Simple Jess. While reading, I laughed and cried. I was very upset when the book ended. I would love to see a book 2. I plan to read Simple Jess again!

A love story!

I loved Simple Jess! This book has great charters in . It was a very sweet and touching story. I loved Jess . I recommend this book . I received a free copy for a honest review

This book is so good!!!!

This book is so heartwarming! Every character is so unique, and the narrator is awesome. this book makes you give credit where credit is due. people are capable a wonderful kindness and it's nice to be reminded of that. I also enjoy sprinkle of Comedy here in there. I was very invested in this book, and finished it in like 2 days!

Captivating romantic historical fiction!

Would you consider the audio edition of Simple Jess to be better than the print version?

Yes! The narrator was top notch. His performance really added to the novel. The narrator has such a pleasing tone of voice and is very gifted at sounding like different people, including men, women, and children. I read that the narrator is from Arkansas, and I do think the accents sound authentic (I have visited that state twice.)

Any additional comments?

I received a free copy of the audiobook in return for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
This is the first book I have read or listened to by Pamela Morsi, and now she is one of my favorite authors. I was so pleased by this novel and by the narration.
I would classify this as romantic historical fiction. It does have romantic elements and a happy ending like a romance would have, but the number of love scenes is very few (but moderately explicit) and the romance is not as strongly emphasized as it would be in a romance novel. This book is set in the early 1800s in a remote, tiny town in the mountains of Arkansas. The town is full of colorful characters who all seem to want a say in what the young widow Althea should do with her life, her farm, and her toddler. It is a quaint little community that reminds me of the TV show "Doctor Quinn, Medicine Woman" but without the railroad or Native Americans. The title character, Jessie Best, is a good young man in his 20s who is not as smart as other people. When he was born, the cord was wrapped around his neck, resulting in minor brain damage. He is not autistic because he has no problem reading other peoples' emotions. His reasoning skills are rather poor, and he has trouble understanding conversations when lots of people are talking. However, he works very hard physically on the farm, and he takes his time figuring out situations and what he should do. Jessie is such a wonderful person, and it bothered me how many of the townspeople discriminated against him and also took him for granted.
The novel is very well-researched. I love the many details of daily life, and it is fascinating how much work it took to get ready for a harsh Arkansas winter.
The novel is told in third person, alternating among five people. The writer deftly handled the alternating points of view, never staying too long on any one person.
The novel has a steady pacing. Plot and relationship developments are fairly evenly spaced for most of the 12.5 hours of audio length. The steady pacing reminds me of that in Susanna Kearsley's novels, which are excellent.
Four of the five main characters are are admirable and easy to relate to. They are good people trying to stay true to themselves and do what is best for their families. The fifth main character, Eben Baxley, is such a nasty villain, and the narrator's performance of this character was impressively perfect.
I would recommend this novel to anyone who loves historical fiction set in frontier areas and any historical romance fan who appreciates a well-written Western romance. It will also appeal to romance fans who like unusual male heroes. Wonderful audio book!

This book has every emotion!

--I was given a copy of this audiobook for an honest review.

I was hesitant to listen to this book, seeing that it was book 2 of a series. But I love Kevin Clay's narrations and forged ahead and I am so glad I did! This book is fine as a stand alone. It is heart-warming, frustrating, loving, angering, tear-jerking...every emotion comes through. I really enjoyed the fact that Althea, a young widow with a small child, was a strong willed woman, standing up for herself against family intervention. I loved Jess, who while "simple" was the most wonderful man Althea could ask for. I hated her in-laws, grew to like both her suitors and even fell for Baby Paisley. This book has a little of everything and will leave you wanting to go back to the Marrying Stone.

Kevin Clay is one of my favorite male narrators. He is able to portray women's voices(which is my pet peeve with many male narrators). The emotion and warmth of his voice keeps you just wanting more.

Jess

I meant to write this review a few weeks ago, but I forgot to. Sorry!

Simple Jess had my emotions all over the place. I would laugh, then get mad, then ecstatic, then I'd be crying. I loved it!

It annoyed me after awhile that they kept calling Jess "Simple", even though I KNOW it's one of the main parts of the story. He couldn't help what happened to him.

The leading lady, which I will call "A" because I don't want to butcher her name, is one of my favorites.

Those meddlesome townspeople! And her family! I know it's not usually like that today (thank goodness), but I think she should have been able to take care of her son on her own, without having to remarry. She seemed strong enough to.

The narration was excellent! I think Kevin Clay did wonderful with It.

Pamela Morsi is one of my new Top Ten authors.

I was given a free copy from either the author, narrator, or publisher via Audiobookblast·com in exchange for an honest review, which I have given. All thoughts are my own.

Thank you for the opportunity to review this, and I do hope I get another shot at their work!

An adorable story!

A lovely little adorable story!! I thoroughly enjoyed It! Recommend to anyone who wants to read a light hearted love story

Not so Simple Jess

Simple Jess: Marrying Stone Book 2
Author: Pamela Morsi
Narrator: Kevin Clay
Listening Time: 12 Hrs. 17 Min.


I always like to preface any reviews I give with this information.
I am a 68 year old female who has been an avid reader since I was around 10 or 11 years old.
I read primarily for pleasure.
I have a great many interests and do a lot of research for personal pleasure and knowledge as well.

Disclaimer: "This Audiobook was given by the author, narrator, or publisher at no cost, in exchange for an unbiased honest review."


At the beginning of this review, I have to tell you that I have a love/hate reaction to this book/audiobook. I normally don't have that kind of reaction to something I listen to.

This is the 2nd book in the "Marrying Stone" book series.

I recently finished Marrying Stone: Book 1, which I absolutely loved. While "Marrying Stone" showed us a mainly positive side of life in a very close-knit community setting, this book shows the negative aspect of living in a very close-knit community setting. Everyone knows everyone else's business, rumors and gossip abound. People are small-minded, can be hateful, rude, and mean to others.

This story shows the negative aspects of people with selfish, grasping, greedy and manipulative tendencies.

Althea Winsloe is a young widow with a little boy whose husband died and left Althea with a farm on good land. Althea's mother-in-law who is a very controlling person wants to get control back of the land so that it remains in the family. There is prestige and power, or at least perceived power, that Althea's mother-in-law wants to continue to wield. Althea's mother-in-law wants Althea to marry back into her husband's family so that the farm would then be in control of Althea's new husband.

This book is written in the era of the early 20 century when women had no real rights to individuality and choice and women had to "obey" their husbands even if their husbands were a jerk, or wrong; it didn't matter. The male of the species was supreme then.

There is a somewhat clannish sense of division among two different families; who over the course of generations have married into each other's families. There is evident jealousy, back-biting, disrespect, and all around negativity between these families, for the most part.

Just like real life, some people are nicer, and certainly more gracious than others and rise above the more vindictive actions that we see a lot of in this particular book.

From time to time in Marrying Stone, the community holds public meetings where music is played, singing, poetry, and other forms of entertainment are enjoyed by most. Usually at these meetings there is a "Kangaroo Court" where someone is accused of a 'crime' and is put on trial. A judge is chosen to rule, there are prosecuting and defending people who can represent the accused, and also a jury to pass sentence.

Althea is placed on "trial" because she has adamantly refused to remarry. The end result of the "trial" is that Althea is told she has to remarry and has a limited time to decide who she will marry among a couple of fellows who want to marry her for all the wrong reasons. Those reasons being that they want to control Althea, and her land.

This may seem strange to us but in those days, it was believed that women had a duty to remarry and to provide their children with a father-figure if the father had passed away. It was also perceived that it was a woman's duty to have more children. In a farming community it was also necessary to have enough people to be able to maintain the land and population there.

Neither of these men are the kind of man that Althea would want to marry. They both have no real care for her. One is lazy, selfish, self-centered and a real cad, and the other is too easily pushed around by his father and has no real backbone or ability to stand up to him.

Into this mix we have Simple Jess, who was also in the first book. Jess suffered some brain damage at birth because the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck at birth and because there wasn't adequate oxygen to his brain, he has a mental disability. He doesn't process information as quickly as "normal" people do. He gets confused easily, and doesn't remember things as easily as others, and sometimes gets side-tracked and time and events can get away from him.

He is doing some work on Althea's farm in order to pay for some hunting dogs that her husband had, and Jess wants to own. So he is usually around to see all the antics that are going on with the other suitors, who want to persuade Althea to marry them.

Jess is perceived as being stupid and made fun of by a great many of the people in his community and those people fail to see the sweetness, honesty, kindness, gentleness and love that Jess is capable of showing.

The hate part of this story for me is the character of Eben who is the cad. He is a real jerk, selfish, self-centered, vindictive, malicious and arrogant.

Eben has been involved with a young woman named Mavis, and was very abusive mentally, physically, and emotionally toward her. For most of this book his character left a bad taste in my mind and made it very hard for me to really like this book as much as I could have. Eben does experience significant change but for me, his conversion from jerk to nice guy was not realistic; it happened so very quickly. People don't change that fast. Change is a process that takes time.


While I did enjoy this book, the first one is much better. This book is not as funny, there is so much more negativity in general and of course the abuse factor was a problem for me personally.

This is my 2nd book by Pamela Morsi that I have read/listened to, and it was overall, a great story. I know there is a 3rd book in this series and I want to get it, simply because I want to know what the 3rd story is.

Narrator Kevin Clay is a voice actor who is swiftly becoming one of my favorite narrators. In all the years I have listened to audiobooks and tapes (before there were mp3s), I have listened to hundreds of books on tape, CD, and mp3. I have a list of favorite narrators that is upwards of around 15 or 20 voice over artists. Kevin Clay has a wonderful range of voices, very realistic accents, is able to do a range of voice characterizations from very young children, adult male and female characters, as well as elderly female and male characters.
Amazingly, he also sings in both the feminine and masculine voice ranges and has a really amazing singing voice.
His audio work is always superb, and I know that when I see his name listed as the narrator, I will not be disappointed.

I believe anyone from the age of 20 and above might enjoy this story. It is a romance so I do believe it would appeal more to women than to men for the most part.

love this sweet story

I've read the book a couple of times and now have on audible. a sweet story about love and acceptance. I love it.