“I finished Ginger’s Heart last night, and I am completely and utterly in love.” –Mia Sheridan, NY Times bestselling author From New York Times bestselling author Katy Regnery, a modern-day fairytale about the many faces of love.Once upon a time there were two cousins: one golden like the sun, one dark like midnight, one a protector, one a predator, one a Woodsman and one a Wolf… both owning … Woodsman
and
one a Wolf…
both owning equal,
but different,
parts of a little girl’s heart.
In this contemporary love story, loosely inspired by “Little Red Riding Hood,” the woodsman and the wolf are cousins, and Little Red is the girl with whom they both fall in love.
Beautiful Ginger McHuid, daughter of Kentucky’s premiere horse breeder, grows up on her family farm, best friends with Cain Wolfram, the son of her father’s Stallion Manager, and Cain’s cousin, Josiah Woodman, son of a local banker. Throughout their happy childhood, the three are inseparable friends, but as they mature into adults, complicated feelings threaten to destroy their long history of friendship and love.
Due to profanity and very strong sexual content, this book is not intended for readers under the age of 18.
All novels in the ~a modern fairytale~ collection are written as fundraisers.
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Ginger’s Heart is part of the ~a modern fairytale~ collection: contemporary, standalone romances inspired by beloved fairy tales.
The Vixen and the Vet (Beauty & the Beast)
Never Let You Go (Hansel & Gretel)
Ginger’s Heart (Little Red Riding Hood)
Dark Sexy Knight (Camelot)
Don’t Speak (The Little Mermaid)
Shear Heaven (Rapunzel)
Fragments of Ash (Cinderella)
more
11 June 2021: It’s been a while since I’ve dived into one of Katy Regency’s Modern Fairytales. I thoroughly enjoyed the first two. They got 5-star ratings and that doesn’t happen very often with me. I’m afraid that Ginger’s Heart isn’t getting a 5-stars. This story goes at a snail’s pace even though you skip years at a time. The main reason for the slow pace is that almost every scene is told from at least two perspectives. So basically, you’re reading the same thing twice. That is the major factor in the 4-star rating. Don’t get me wrong, I love reading opposite POVs, but they are usually done chapter by chapter, not scene by scene.
12 June 2021: Well, I’m not so sure of the 4-star rating now. The scene-by-scene POV change stopped about halfway into the story and boy did it take off from there! It has totally been redeemed. So, if you pick this book up and get annoyed, stick with it….it is so worth it!
Woodman, Cain, and Ginger grew up together and have loved one another all their lives. They have traditions, memories, and experiences that are so intertwined they don’t remember how they started, who started them, or the impact they have on one another’s lives. Woodman and Cain are three years older than Ginger and she has always been their princess. As they grew older they realized they were competing for her heart. Ginger’s heart was already taken but no one really realized it until it was too late.
This is a story of family, friendship, loyalty, and love. It is heartwarming and heartbreaking. It will tear through your emotions while making you smile and sometimes give you a chuckle.
As always Katy’s storytelling is exquisitely heart wrenching but, also heart warming at the same time. “Ginger’s Heart” is told from the pov of each of the three main characters as the story unfolds. Which I loved. I didn’t find it repetitive at all but enlightening. I found myself falling for both cousins as Ginger did. It was a raw emotional rollercoaster ride with ups and downs that leave you spinning within the triangle of love. How can you root for one over the other, when you love both for different reasons?! Katy really knows how to twist your heart strings. I’m definitely looking forward to her next modren fairytale in the series.
Excellent story.
Ginger’s Heart is an epic modern adult novel based on the fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood. It is about a young girl named Ginger (Virginia) Laire McHuid, who grew-up loving two boys that were cousins. They were born to identical twin sisters. She dearly loved both boys equally, only she loved one as a best friend, and the other she was “in love” with. This meant a life time of heartache for all of them, as they were both madly “in love” with her. The boys were called The Dub Twins. Josiah Woodman, with dirty blond hair and moss green eyes, was the golden boy, the good one. Cain Holden Wolfram, with dark black hair and eyes so blue, was the bad boy and the blue-eyed devil. They’d always referred to each other as brothers. They were two cousins in love with the same girl. It doesn’t make one of them a villain or one of them a hero. You can’t help who you love. But someone’s heart was going to break.
Ginger asked her beloved Gran on her twelve birthday, “What do I do if I love them both?” Her Gran answered, “Someday you’ll have to choose.” I was reminded of an old Lovin Spoonful’s Song: “Did You Ever Have to Make Up your Mind?” “Pick up on one and leave the other behind. It’s not often easy and not often kind. Did you ever have to finally decide? And say yes to one and let the other one ride. There’s so many changes and tears you must hide. Did you ever have to finally decide?” The heart wants what the heart wants, and our hearts make decisions that our heads don’t approve. Nothing on earth ever works out the exact way you want it to.
To say this is an emotional story and book would be an understatement of large proportions. I was an emotional wreck and sobbing, and just when I thought I was done with the crying, I would read on and more tears would come. I’ve read other books by Katy Regnery, but none that left me in such an emotional or heartbroken ruin. There is always a good ending to her books, but this was far different then her usual books, and also a different kind of ending. This is not your typical love triangle, and if you want to take an emotional journey, then I highly recommend it. Katy’s writing gets better and better with each book I’ve read. 5 stars all the way!!
A beautiful modern reworking of the old fairytale of Little Red Riding Hood. Ginger has grown up with cousins Woodman and Cain as her closest companions.
“Once upon a time there were two cousins: one golden like the sun, one dark like midnight, one a protector, one a predator, one a Woodsman and one a Wolf… both owning equal, but different, parts of a little girl’s heart.”
Ginger’s Heart is the story of one girl and the two boys that she loves with all her heart, but in different ways. She seeks comfort and answers from her grandmother. ….“What do I do if I love them both?”
It is an epic tale that spans their lives from youngsters playing together in the barn and fields through their adulthood.
“She wanted him to slay dragons for her, but instead he became friends with the dragons and made excuses for their fire-breathing ways.”
#UglyCry for the win. And this will be spoilery. So avoid it if you haven’t read the book, but if you have, dive right in.
Cain Wolfram, Ginger McHuid, and Josiah Woodman.
Three children: 2 cousins, 1 girl. Two separate, but equal loves. Each guy owning a half of Ginger’s heart.
I loved this book. This is the uglycry I’ve been trying to find for months. I didn’t expect it here, but I found it. And I am so glad it happened. So. Very. Glad.
Woodman and Cain are 3 years older than Ginger McHuid, yet as children the three are nearly inseparable. Even when Cain isn’t allowed to join the parties because his social standing isn’t where the McHuids would like it to be, the three still find ways to be together. Sneaking out of parties, riding horses, hanging out in the barn…all of these activities brought these three children together. Their love for one another keeps them together. Until it doesn’t. Until Ginger turns 12 and Josiah lays a claim to the little girl who he already loves. Cain laughs, but slowly he begins to see Ginger differently. Slowly, he falls in love with her too. But he stays back because his cousin has already claimed her.
Assuming a person can be claimed.
Which isn’t possible.
It does no good to stake a claim on someone’s heart. Unless they give it to you, it isn’t yours to take. All you can do is share your heart and hope she wants it. All you can do is offer it and hope she takes it. All you can do is love her and hope to God she finds a way to love you back.
Josiah Woodman stakes his claim on a heart that isn’t his to claim when he is 15 years old. He does everything in his power to ensure that Ginger grows up to become his wife. He takes care of her, he is her best friend, he is her confidant, he is her everything. Except the part of her that belongs to Cain. Because, as I’ve said, both boys own her heart.
What Woodman wanted–more than anything else in the entire world–was to make Ginger McHuid happy.
Cain. Cain Wolfram grows up to be the town rebel. Raising Hell and screwing his way through Apple Valley, he knows he can never truly have Ginger because his cousin has already claimed her. On Ginger’s 15th birthday, he does something unthinkable and the result has him skipping town.
You know Cain as well as I do. He’s goin’ where he’s goin’, and nothin’s goin’ to get in his way but God or weather.
This pretty much sums up Cain over the next 6 years. He bails when he’s 18 and he runs again when he’s 21. At 24, he comes home for Woodman. He hasn’t seen Ginger in 3 years, but that didn’t keep him from missing her. From wanting her. From staying away because of a claim his cousin made when they were 15 and she was 12.
Ginger is the girl stuck between two cousins. She loves them both, but her heart truly belongs to only one of them. She can’t choose though. They are two halves of the same whole. Without one, she would be lost. She needs them both. But…
Something in Ginger fed off something in Cain–it was palpable and overwhelming, and he’d known it the second he’d walked into that lobby and saw them together: there was more chemistry, more passion, in Cain and Ginger’s hate than there would ever be in Woodman and Ginger’s love.
“I do know!” she insisted, turning her whole body to look u pat him. “God, Cain, I’ve always known! It’s always been you.”