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The Last Roundup #4
Beautiful Stranger
Once upon a time, twin sisters Marissa and Victoria were locked away on a castle on a hill—then brutally separated, a fact that left scars despite the gilded cage that kept them apart from the world. Stuffing down her feelings, Marissa became the fat sister, and only a couple of years ago has she learned to express herself—and lose weight.
Robert Martinez, known by his best friend Jake as “Red Dog” during the wars in the desert, finds himself parenting a pregnant teen with nowhere else to go. When her teacher, the charming and unforgettable Marissa, contacts him to discuss his niece’s issues, he finds himself irresistibly drawn to her.
But both carry the scars of a childhood that was less than perfect, and both are wary of accepting love in any form. Can they let down their defenses long enough to let the other in? Or will they stand on the sidelines forever?
Robert Martinez, known by his best friend Jake as “Red Dog” during the wars in the desert, finds himself parenting a pregnant teen with nowhere else to go. When her teacher, the charming and unforgettable Marissa, contacts him to discuss his niece’s issues, he finds himself irresistibly drawn to her.
But both carry the scars of a childhood that was less than perfect, and both are wary of accepting love in any form. Can they let down their defenses long enough to let the other in? Or will they stand on the sidelines forever?
256 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 1, 2000
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257 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
October 19, 2010
I enjoyed reading about how Marissa lost weight. The rest was a nice romance story, but ordinary.
Nothing surprised or delighted me. A gorgeous hunky Native American guy, Robert, has wounds from growing up poor and seeing ugliness in the military. He thinks he's not good enough for Marissa. She is a rich girl with her own wounds from the past. She used to be fat and now is thinner. Men now find her desirable. She teaches in a small town, has a good heart and does significant charity work with her inheritance. She wants Robert, but he is hesitant about wanting her.
There was one memorable part, which I have periodically thought about. I enjoyed the way she lost weight. She just started walking every day, a little bit more each day. I enjoyed the way she gave herself just three taco chips at the restaurant and then pushed the bowl away. She would have one-half of a doughnut. It was pleasant watching the way she chose her food, thought about it and ate. For that reason alone, I gave this 3 stars instead of 2.
Sexual language: mild. Number of sex scenes: three short ones. Setting: current day Red Creek, Colorado. Copyright: 2000. Genre: contemporary romance, native american romance.
Nothing surprised or delighted me. A gorgeous hunky Native American guy, Robert, has wounds from growing up poor and seeing ugliness in the military. He thinks he's not good enough for Marissa. She is a rich girl with her own wounds from the past. She used to be fat and now is thinner. Men now find her desirable. She teaches in a small town, has a good heart and does significant charity work with her inheritance. She wants Robert, but he is hesitant about wanting her.
There was one memorable part, which I have periodically thought about. I enjoyed the way she lost weight. She just started walking every day, a little bit more each day. I enjoyed the way she gave herself just three taco chips at the restaurant and then pushed the bowl away. She would have one-half of a doughnut. It was pleasant watching the way she chose her food, thought about it and ate. For that reason alone, I gave this 3 stars instead of 2.
Sexual language: mild. Number of sex scenes: three short ones. Setting: current day Red Creek, Colorado. Copyright: 2000. Genre: contemporary romance, native american romance.
April 27, 2012
This was interesting to me because Marissa had lost almost 100 lbs. And I liked her and Red Dog, but did not feel strongly about their being a couple. Guess I could not overly sympathize w/her being a poor little rich girl.
March 2, 2025
Rating: Meh / 5
Not gonna lie, this book probably doesn't deserve the low rating I'm giving it; but for me, I just didn't like it, and that's enough for me to rate it whatever I want. In this case, the lowest I can go.
I guess that part of this is maybe my fault, in that I was expecting something along the lines of Mackenzie's Mountain when picking this up, because that's where my mind goes when I think "Native American contemporary romance". You can't exactly blame me though, because the setup's eerily similar:
Potentailly (un)attractive teacher + hot stud dad/guardian that's Native American + the troubled teen between them.
It's the same combination as with Mary, Wolf, and Joe, pretty much. But, unfortunately, that's where the charm of the setup both begins and ends in this story.
Marissa herself as a heroine was fine, except that I felt that the author was making wayyyy too many allusions to her weight loss. Like, she mentions it once, and that's fine--we. get. it. It's not really relevant to the story either than to give Marissa confidence though (and, of course, inspire lust from Robert), so we can MOVE ON from that. Sheesh.
As for Robert himself, yeah, he was doing his best to be a good guardian to his niece and whatnot, but obviously he's out of his depth and needs a woman's touch to deal with a teenage girl (and a pregnant one at that!), yada yada yada, etc. As I've seen in some other reviews, it's nothing that you haven't see before, and therefore nothing really noteworthy.
However, when you get these two together, I didn't feel that there was any chemistry between them--or at least, none that felt natural, but that instead felt like it continued to push the boundaries of poor-boy/rich-girl as a pairing, making me think more of something like Titanic (which is alluded to in the story, actually!) rather than Mackenzie's Mountain. Like, at one point Robert thinks that he likes the smell of Marissa, because she comes from a background of privilege and therefore represents everything that he's been wanting since he was a child. I don't know if this was to play on the sympathy of the reader or engage in all the senses or whatever, but just...ew. No. I didn't like that. It sort of set up Marissa in my mind as more of a symbol or object to Robert rather than as an actual person, and additionally had me questioning why the heck she would take a job as a high school teacher (aka MY real life job) when she comes from that background of wealth and privilege. Makes no sense, y'all!
Therefore, all things considered and my expectations NOT satisfactorily met, while I will be fair and admit that this probably won't be a bad or even cringe read for everyone, for me it just wasn't doing it.
Not gonna lie, this book probably doesn't deserve the low rating I'm giving it; but for me, I just didn't like it, and that's enough for me to rate it whatever I want. In this case, the lowest I can go.
I guess that part of this is maybe my fault, in that I was expecting something along the lines of Mackenzie's Mountain when picking this up, because that's where my mind goes when I think "Native American contemporary romance". You can't exactly blame me though, because the setup's eerily similar:
Potentailly (un)attractive teacher + hot stud dad/guardian that's Native American + the troubled teen between them.
It's the same combination as with Mary, Wolf, and Joe, pretty much. But, unfortunately, that's where the charm of the setup both begins and ends in this story.
Marissa herself as a heroine was fine, except that I felt that the author was making wayyyy too many allusions to her weight loss. Like, she mentions it once, and that's fine--we. get. it. It's not really relevant to the story either than to give Marissa confidence though (and, of course, inspire lust from Robert), so we can MOVE ON from that. Sheesh.
As for Robert himself, yeah, he was doing his best to be a good guardian to his niece and whatnot, but obviously he's out of his depth and needs a woman's touch to deal with a teenage girl (and a pregnant one at that!), yada yada yada, etc. As I've seen in some other reviews, it's nothing that you haven't see before, and therefore nothing really noteworthy.
However, when you get these two together, I didn't feel that there was any chemistry between them--or at least, none that felt natural, but that instead felt like it continued to push the boundaries of poor-boy/rich-girl as a pairing, making me think more of something like Titanic (which is alluded to in the story, actually!) rather than Mackenzie's Mountain. Like, at one point Robert thinks that he likes the smell of Marissa, because she comes from a background of privilege and therefore represents everything that he's been wanting since he was a child. I don't know if this was to play on the sympathy of the reader or engage in all the senses or whatever, but just...ew. No. I didn't like that. It sort of set up Marissa in my mind as more of a symbol or object to Robert rather than as an actual person, and additionally had me questioning why the heck she would take a job as a high school teacher (aka MY real life job) when she comes from that background of wealth and privilege. Makes no sense, y'all!
Therefore, all things considered and my expectations NOT satisfactorily met, while I will be fair and admit that this probably won't be a bad or even cringe read for everyone, for me it just wasn't doing it.
December 19, 2014
There are endless treasures to be found in the troves of category romances. This love story shines.
Ruth Wind creates excellent nuanced characters that at once embody archetypes in order to explore the themes that draw a reader to a kind of character and then she sketches them so finely we can never see these people as anything but real, human, and compelling.
In this romance, we have a the less traditionally attractive twin as a larger sized heroine from the upper class and a hero who is a seen as a bad boy but sees the world and the heroine through artist's eyes.
The issues of class difference and self esteem around body image are deftly handled. The empathy and compassion that these two find for each other make a love story worth reading over and over again.
Ruth Wind creates excellent nuanced characters that at once embody archetypes in order to explore the themes that draw a reader to a kind of character and then she sketches them so finely we can never see these people as anything but real, human, and compelling.
In this romance, we have a the less traditionally attractive twin as a larger sized heroine from the upper class and a hero who is a seen as a bad boy but sees the world and the heroine through artist's eyes.
The issues of class difference and self esteem around body image are deftly handled. The empathy and compassion that these two find for each other make a love story worth reading over and over again.
May 28, 2017
This was a sweet, well-written romance. Marissa is a twin, but she and her sister were sent to separate boarding schools at a young age. Her past has caused scars that she is working on overcoming. Robert finds himself taking care of a pregnant teen who has nowhere else to go. Her teacher, Marissa, contacts him to discuss his niece, and the two are very attracted to each other. But Robert has childhood scars too, and they are wary of giving their trust or accepting love. This book can be read as a standalone story, though it is part of a series with related characters. I have enjoyed the books in this series and look forward to reading more books by this author.
July 4, 2010
Can a rich school teacher and a poor construction worker/glass artist fall in love? Besides coming from totally different worlds Marissa Pierce and Robert Martinez have a lot in common: Roberts pregnant niece who is Marissas pupil for example and a love of glass ...
Lovely novel which handles topics of Marissa's weight loss and Roberts inscurities over his background very believably.
Lovely novel which handles topics of Marissa's weight loss and Roberts inscurities over his background very believably.
November 27, 2020
I loved the first part of this book. I thought I finally found a perfect plot with really good characters. Then I found the hero's indecision really frustrating. Like come on already! At the end, I felt so frustrated on behalf of the heroine. The hero's "epiphany" felt forced and rushed. Hence the 3 stars.
October 22, 2023
3.8 to 4.0 Stars
June 30, 2024
Interesting
February 14, 2020
It ain't easy being rich.
I'm joking. The interesting premise of this opposites-attract romance is that twin sisters, the daughters of a neglectful billionaire, arrive at adulthood wearing their childhood trauma on their bodies: one is obese and one is dangerously thin. Marissa, the obese one, becomes healthy and slender, and builds a life for herself in a small Colorado town. She wants to fit in and live well. As a high school teacher in a local public school, she meets the uncle of one of her students, and sparks fly. Robert comes from an upbringing that couldn't be more different: he barely survived his childhood in the barrio and has the tattoos to prove it. And they're not nice, pretty tattoos. When he and Marissa make love the first time, they're both ashamed of their bodies, and this was a wonderful new twist in a romance, in my experience. They are totally made for each other, but have to learn to trust in order to allow their love to flourish. In the middle is Robert's niece, a pregnant teen whose horrible mother, Robert's sister, has virtually abandoned her. Crystal has her own character arc, but she serves as an irritant and a motivator to the main plot.
I really enjoyed this story because Marissa is strong. She's not 100% there yet, as far as trusting love, but she's made a good life for herself and in some scenes, she's the alpha, protecting Robert or solving problems. I really enjoy Barbara Samuel (O'Neal) romances. She is a wonderful writer. I liked this book enough to go back and start #1 in the series, and ended up reading the whole series and wishing it would continue.
I'm joking. The interesting premise of this opposites-attract romance is that twin sisters, the daughters of a neglectful billionaire, arrive at adulthood wearing their childhood trauma on their bodies: one is obese and one is dangerously thin. Marissa, the obese one, becomes healthy and slender, and builds a life for herself in a small Colorado town. She wants to fit in and live well. As a high school teacher in a local public school, she meets the uncle of one of her students, and sparks fly. Robert comes from an upbringing that couldn't be more different: he barely survived his childhood in the barrio and has the tattoos to prove it. And they're not nice, pretty tattoos. When he and Marissa make love the first time, they're both ashamed of their bodies, and this was a wonderful new twist in a romance, in my experience. They are totally made for each other, but have to learn to trust in order to allow their love to flourish. In the middle is Robert's niece, a pregnant teen whose horrible mother, Robert's sister, has virtually abandoned her. Crystal has her own character arc, but she serves as an irritant and a motivator to the main plot.
I really enjoyed this story because Marissa is strong. She's not 100% there yet, as far as trusting love, but she's made a good life for herself and in some scenes, she's the alpha, protecting Robert or solving problems. I really enjoy Barbara Samuel (O'Neal) romances. She is a wonderful writer. I liked this book enough to go back and start #1 in the series, and ended up reading the whole series and wishing it would continue.
March 3, 2016
Really good story
A great heart warming story.Just enough suspense and adventure to keep me sitting on the edge of my seat hoping for a happy ending.
A great heart warming story.Just enough suspense and adventure to keep me sitting on the edge of my seat hoping for a happy ending.
April 29, 2017
Engaging story
This book was easy to read, and the characters were likable. The juxtaposition of one being born to wealth and the other to poverty, and the pregnant niece, made for an involving story. I would have preferred a little more story and a little less smouldering. That's why I'm a big fan of Barbara Samuel O'Neal's literary romances, more story and some smouldering. That's just me. This author is beloved for her romances and this is a good one.
This book was easy to read, and the characters were likable. The juxtaposition of one being born to wealth and the other to poverty, and the pregnant niece, made for an involving story. I would have preferred a little more story and a little less smouldering. That's why I'm a big fan of Barbara Samuel O'Neal's literary romances, more story and some smouldering. That's just me. This author is beloved for her romances and this is a good one.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews