Runabout

Miss Tulsa May Bruder is, considering the standard of her day, a very independent young woman. Even though she isn't married she has been allowed a certain amount of freedom by her parents. She has a modicum of education in a time when most young girls were not educated at all. She has been able to use that education by being a reporter for the newspaper in her hometown of Prattville, Oklahoma. Tulsa May is engaged to be married to the town doctor and finally everything seems to be going her way. You see, Tulsa May has several strikes against her; she is plain, she has a gap between her two front teeth, and she has carrot colored hair. The entire town has gathered at the engagement party used to publicly announce the engagement of Tulsa May to Dr. Odie Foote. He shows up only long enough to break off the engagement. Tulsa May isn't actually heartbroken, but she is terribly embarrassed. The gossips are having a field day. Tulsa May's friend of ten years standing has a plan to help her out. Luther Briggs will begin to court Tulsa May to give the gossip about the broken engagement time to die out. This seemed like a very good solution at the time. Of course, it ended up causing more problems than it fixed. I absolutely love these western historical romance stories written by Pamela Morsi. This one dates from 1994 and is one of my all time favorites of all the stories she wrote about the people who live in this town. The characters are so warm and genuine and true to life that they seem like old friends as soon as you begin reading about them. The situations Tulsa May and Luther find themselves in are so well written that I firmly believed that those particular situations could come about naturally. Other characters in the book are well rounded out and defined by the author so they also play pivotal roles in the plot. I really wish that Pamela Morsi had not abandoned writing stories like these. I have never felt that her contemporary romances could hold a candle to the feelings she engenders with these historical romances. I keep hoping that one day she will return to these sweeter old fashioned stories. Judging from all the people who ask for my recommendation of books they wouldn't be ashamed to be caught reading in public, there is definitely still a place for novels such as this.

This book is everything a romance novel should be. Likable characters, believable story line and realistic but exciting sex scenes. The side story romance for Luther's younger brother is entertaining as well. A keeper for certain.

If "Runabout" is anything to gauge Pamela Morsi's writing by .. I definitely cannot wait to try out all her other books! I just completely fell in love with the story - it was just so sweet & endearing. The main characters, Tulsy and Luther, are just beautiful. I loved the fact that Tulsy wasn't a stunning, spectacular beauty - like most romance novels; but instead is supposed to be very plain looking girl [i didn't believe it though .. she sounded beautiful]. The plot was strong - you know why the characters love each other in the end, why they had doubts in the beginning and such. Lovely, I'm looking forward to reading more Pamela Morsi.

Runabout is a nice change of pace from the usual meet-cute or meet-him/hate-him/fall-in-love-with-him romance. Pamela Morsi can almost always be counted on to write good characters as well as a good story, and she doesn't disappoint here. Tulsa May Bruder is the town wallflower, and has just been jilted by her fiance at the altar. Sympathetically, her longtime friend Luther Briggs offers to pretend to be courting her so the town will stop feeling sorry for her. She agrees--and they both find out quite soon how quickly _pretending_ to be in love can turn into the real thing. Tulsa May (Tulsy) is an utterly charming heroine, not gorgeous, but not nearly as ugly as she thinks she is, and Luther is every girl's dream male friend. Their blossoming love is true-to-life, and completely believable. The other subplots--Luther's younger brother's puppy love for the most spoiled brat in town, and the town doctor's unexpected match--are also interesting, while not distracting from Tulsy and Luther. And the villains, such as they are, aren't totally bad or evil, just not understanding Luther and Tulsy's relationship. "Runabout" is a sequel of sorts to "Wild Oats", but you don't really need to read "Wild Oats" to understand the characters. Tulsy is every girl who discovers that her best friend has potential to be more, and Luther is any man who realizes that the girl for him is right under his nose. This is one of my favorite Pamela Morsi novels. Go find a copy!