Charlotte's Cowboy

Rating:
Summary: The Heroine Ruined it!
Review: Charlotte's mother became pregnant out of wedlock, but her lover died in Viet Nam before Charlotte was born. Charlotte's paternal grandfather never acknowledges her, but, after a fight with his wife who said he should leave Charlotte *something* in the will, he left *everything* to Charlotte and nothing to his wife, providing Charlotte stay at the ranch for 2 weeks, or else everything goes to some woman. So the wife's son, Matt, has to convince Charlotte to come for the 2 weeks then sell everything to him for his mother to have. Got it?

Now Charlotte's just a tad bitter about her father and grandfather. Not knowing if her father would have ignored her too or loved her, she basically hated him anyway. She doesn't want to go to the ranch, but her mother guilt trips her into it. So, in the spirit of shooting the messanger, she acts like ditz to annoy Matt. She wears dresses and high heels at a ranch, is purposely late for everything, and, although she has riding prize ribbons, acts like she's afraid of horses when riding. She's annoyed that Matt never mentioned that her grandfather's wife and Matt's mother are the same person, while at the same time she admits that if she had known, she wouldn't have come (and, no, she had just met Matt, she had no reason to dislike him). She gets angry that Matt told her that an appointment with a lawyer (which she wanted to make sure he didn't make up the whole thing, though why he would is beyond me) was an hour earlier because he assumed she'd be an hour late. Of course, she *was* an hour late (and darn proud of it) and in lying about the appointment time, they were on time.

The reader is supposed to realize that the heroine is a good person, because, well, she thinks so, and her mother and grandmother think so too! WHY Matt falls in love with her is COMPLETELY beyond reason. There is NO REASON for him to want anything but to get rid of her. And even if he COULD live with her prissy ways, supposedly that's not the real her, so what good does that do for their romance?

It's not a complete flop, I did read the whole thing, and I didn't fling it across the room. But the characters are all flat (Matt, his mother, his 8 yr old son, who was really just a plot device, cause, look, Charlotte doesn't hate his pet mouse, looks like she's marriage material!). The conflict was basically Charlotte's pissy ways, but there was a side story with Matt's dead wife's sister. But the plot didn't really keep any tension or reach its potential. Ugh, a 1.5, which I'll round up.