Fancy Pants

My book suggestion this week is Fancy Pants by Cathy Marie Hake. While all of the books in this series are good (and, quite frankly, I’m a big fan of Cathy Marie Hake in general) this one is my favorite.

It’s the story of young Sydney Hathwell, a young London socialite who moves to the US from England after the death of her father to marry a man she’s never met. When she decides that the match will never work she runs away to Texas to find her long lost uncle. The only problem is that her uncle thinks that she’s a boy, and that he has no use for girls on his ranch. That shouldn’t be much of a problem. She can pretend to be a boy for a little while… can’t she?

When she arrives at her uncle’s ranch and discovers that he’s out of town and they don’t know when he’ll be back, she realizes that she must carry on the charade far longer than she ever expected.

Big Tim Creighton, Sydney’s uncle’s partner at the ranch, sees the scrawny little boy who shows up and immediately decides that he needs to whip him into shape. He cuts his hair, changes his clothes, and does his best to turn him into a real man. The other ranch hands decide to help, by taking him to the local saloon and getting him drunk and a little time with one of the ladies that works upstairs.

It doesn't take very long for the women in their community to figure out what is going on, but what will happen when the men find out?

This is a very well told story, with great moments of humor mixed with moments of sadness and serious discussions about what it mean to really be a Christian. The characters are all very realistic and likable (the ones that are supposed to be likable anyway) and I just thought it was a great read all together.