He’s big and green and looking for a mate…Jackie works as hard as she can to provide for her younger sister, but they’re barely surviving. When she comes home to find that her sister has traded their COW (Comestible Organic Wafer machine) to an alien trader in return for a worthless bean, she is both worried and hurt. She thought she could trust the intriguing male hidden behind the forbidding … behind the forbidding armor.
When a giant beanstalk grows overnight, Jackie is desperate enough to climb to the top and demand the return of her COW. Instead, she finds a whole new world – and a very large surprise. Beneath the armor is a massive alien who seems to be as much plant as man.
Cormac is enchanted by the little human female who trades with him each quarter and makes his sap rise. He devises a plan to bring her into his domain, even though he knows he may not be able to keep her. But now that she’s here, how can he let her go?
A big green alien, a feisty heroine, an evil storekeeper, and some helpful plants – this sweet and steamy fairy tale is not the story you remember! (Intended for mature audiences only!)
Cosmic Fairy Tales
Jackie and the Giant is part of the Cosmic Fairy Tales collection, a collaboration of authors retelling beloved tales with a science fiction romance twist. Each book is a standalone, containing its own Happily Ever After, and they can be read in any order. Be sure to explore the other titles in the collection:
The Hunchback by Regine Abel
The Lion and the Mouse by Emmy Chandler
The Frog Prince by Tracy Lauren
The Ugly Dukeling by Bex McLynn
Contaminated by Amanda Milo
Jackie and the Giant by Honey Phillips
Escaping Wonderland by Tiffany Roberts
Rampion by Susan Trombley
more
A different, kind of cute story, with a touch of annoying thrown in, Jackie and Cormac have a cute love story, but it’s almost overshadowed by the extremely annoying existence of the side character of Bella. Seriously, if anyone could have that name, it should be a character that epitomizes it, not the antithesis of it. Jackie was blind to how awful her sister was. She was also blind to the secret relationship that existed between Bella and, well, most any man in the village, apparently, but that was the only part that threw me in this story. Okay, like aside from the whole plant man concept, lol, but that just made it a different kind of love story, so that was cool. I felt like Jackie overcompensated where her sister underachieved, but I guess that just made Jackie all that much more likable. It was different, but I enjoyed reading it.
This was a sweet twist on one of my favorite stories growing up. I loved it. Definitely worth reading and it’s part of the Cosmic Fairy Tales series where there are at least five other books written by different authors based on fairy tales we knew and loved growing up!
I loved the story and the characters. Jackie’s pluckiness. And Cormac, ah Cormac what can I say, he is my new book boyfriend. Honey did it again with a fantastic Sci-fi twist to a classic and beloved Fairy Tale.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
*WARNING* contains explicit sexual content and crude language
Honey Phillips has to have an amazing imagination to come up with such great stories. Jackie is to kind for her own good. Cormac is an amazing alien with unusual abilities, an unusual home, and Ms. Phillips comes up with the most creative male genitalia! This is a play on an old fairytale, but it’s also more. I think this story is telling us that you really have to look out for yourself at some point.
Jackie is a simple woman with a great amount of responsibility. Since her parents died she has taken over mining their claim for Vaekest crystals and looking after her fragile younger sister, Bella. Once quarterly, she goes to trade with the cloud Aliens. Jackie has taken to one particular one that sits and listens to her talk about her life while she has tea on trading days. Cormac is entranced with the strong, little human, Jackie. He wants her for his own desperately, so he puts a plan in motion. Jackie has to come to his world freely. So Cormac sells her sister, Bella, a bean that turns into a giant beanstalk and stretches to the clouds. Jackie is determined to get the trade her sister made returned, so off she goes to the clouds. What she discovers is an entirely different world and an alien who is not what he seems. While those on the planet’s surface are plotting against Jackie, will Cormac be able to protect her? Definitely read this story and find out!
I loved this re-telling of Jack & the Beanstalk! It is a sci-fi romance combined with a mystery. Cormac is such a protective and caring male hero and Jackie is no wilting flower. I like how Honey wrote a strong female lead. This story is so much more than another fairy tale! 4 stars
This book is a part of a series by several sci-fi romance writers called Cosmic Fairy Tales.
Cormac and his magical bean
I seriously don’t know how Honey Phillips keeps coming up with these wonderfully creative stories! I really loved Jackie and Cormac’s interactions and with the additional characters introduced in the epilogue I so hope that there might be a sequel to this new and fascinating world.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Cormac and Jackie, quite the pair here. Loved the spin on the old fairytale. Never really thought about turning it scifi but that’s why I’m a reader, not a writer!
I really liked Cormac, now he’s the kind of alien we all need to meet, I’d definitely climb the bean stalk for him! I can so see why Jackie did it, she’s stronger then I’d ever be.
No clue how she’d do more of these but since fairy tales are done maybe they can do legends or myths next? Love these multi Author stories!
Jack and the Beanstalk is a classic fairytale and has been done numerous different ways over the years, Honey Phillips has blown them all of out of the water with her creative take on the tale. Turning Jack into Jackie – a badass woman stuck on a barren planet working hard every day to look after her younger sister. I always thought the Jack character was a bit of an ungrateful tool but Jackie is instantly likeable. The Giant is also a really likeable character. I love the way the classic elements of the cow and harp (no golden goose though) are re thought and fit in well.
This has the potiential to be a series with an expanded universe.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Nice fairytale retelling. I enjoyed the world building. Jackie was naive but sweet. Cormac was smart, loved how he could see thru some deception. Nice ending
If like me, you loved Mama and the Alien Warrior, you will love this story, too!
Jackie is a crystal miner on a dry planet. She has a frail younger sister who she protects at all costs. Cormac is the buyer for her crystals, and over time, he has begun to fall in love with her even though he cannot speak with her. How they manage to overcome obstacles to come together is a story so sweet that you will read it again and again!
I love a good adult fairytale but have not read many with a sci-fi twist so was not sure what to expect with this one, I thought it was a really good well written book and really liked Cormac and Jackie they were great characters and you just cannot help but be sucked into their story. I really enjoyed this book
This was a very cute, quick read for me. I loved the out-of-this-world take on the classic Jack and the Beanstalk. I’m excited to read the other stories by the other authors in this fairy tale series, but I am also crossing my fingers and hoping that this story is the beginning of a great series by this author. Either way, I really enjoyed Jackie and Cormac, and I’m glad that Jackie saw her sister for who she really was.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
This was a great rendition of the fairytale Jack and the Beanstalk. The story grabbed me from the beginning and kept getting better! Without giving anything away I can say it has sweetness, action, intrigue and a wonderful hea! A Must read!
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
A fairytale with a sci-fi twist!
I love this ingenious take on the Jack and the Beanstalk fairytale! It is a story richly told, set in a desolate location. You’ll recognize many elements from Jack and the Beanstalk. I had to laugh at the creative way some of them were woven into the story. Still, this a truly delightful romance that will satisfy a reader with the excitement, intrigue, ingenuity, and a HEA.
Overall I’m a bit conflicted about this book. It was fun to read and I enjoyed the story as a whole but this book frustrated me so much. I hated how obviously her sister was deceptive, selfish, and careless and yet Jackie still made excuses for her and cared for her. Even after Jackie discovered the truth she continued to pay her sister and that made me feel like Jackie was ignorant and stupid and I felt myself not liking her as much as I could have otherwise. That’s my only main issue is that I didn’t really like the characters all to much but it wasn’t boring.
I think the fact that I never really liked Jack and the Beanstalk might have kept me from enjoying this retelling, with a sci-fi romance twist, as much as I might have. It didn’t help that Jackie was so unbelievably blind when it came to her sister.
I did like the world building and Cormac was a gentle giant.
I always like a happy ending.
Cormac is an alien that has special gifts that have been developed since he was born. He is part of a race of aliens that is technologically advanced and have done some questionable things in the name of science. He flies down from his home in the clouds to the surface to trade with the humans and other aliens. At the trading market he meets and becomes friends with Jackie. She is a crystal miner that has to take care of her younger sister since their parents are deceased. Due to Cormac’s biology, he is always in a bio-suit when he arrives for trading day; so Jackie does all the talking and Cormac just listens and absorbs. By using the shallowness of Jackie’s younger sister, Cormac is able to get Jackie to come to his residence in the clouds.
I look forward to reading fairy tale re-tellings because each author adds something interesting to the “original” story. In this re-telling, Jack is a female and the giant is a scientist. I liked the overall story, but Jackie’s blind devotion to her younger sister was annoying. For the reader it is obvious from the first meeting the sister is not what she presents to Jackie. However Jackie is so caught up in trying to be the protector and honor the wishes of their deceased parents, she is oblivious to Bella’s manipulations. Even at the end she continued to take care of her and Bella was not appreciative in the lest. This story does end on a HEA.