Jackie Foster knows normal people don’t trade cars for a handful of supposedly magical beans, but then her father had never been exactly normal and this was right on par with something he would do. When her daughter wakes her the following morning to tell her the beans he had planted the previous day had grown into an enormous beanstalk, you could say she was a little shocked. More so when Haley informs her that he had already started climbing it. After climbing the darn thing beyond the clouds, Jackie finds herself in Silwyn and her father in the grasp of a huge three eyed giant she comes to know as Liam the Large. One unsuccessful rescue attempt later, Jackie finds herself in the hands of a man she overhears the men chasing them call Tarnn the Bloody, possible murdering fiend and rapist. Needless to say she is not happy when he won’t let her go.

He had once been desired by women and sought after by the most powerful of men, but now he is a different man sought after for vastly different reasons. Ballian a.k.a. Tarnn needs the little underworlder to show him to the beanstalk before the prince escapes in order to prove what he says is true, but he can’t help being drawn to her feisty spirit nonetheless. With soldiers on the lookout for both he and the underworlder, Ballian must convince Jackie to stick with him instead of going haring after her father only to get them both caught by the impostor prince’s men. Getting whopped on the head wasn’t part of his game plan. Will he find her again before the impostor prince? Or will something else find her first?

Old Tom, Jackie’s dad, can’t believe five little beans could get him into so much trouble. All he had wanted once the beanstalk exploded through his patch of early spring peas was to find a little old golden egg or two, just enough to help them scrimp together a decent fund for Haley to go to college. Paragliding Nam vet that he is, Tom isn’t going to let some giant carry him off, no way, no how. He finagles his escape and finds himself in a place the giant won’t venture, but then again it’s not exactly someplace he’d want to be either. Will he ever find his way back to the daughter he had last seen in the possession of a man with rock-star hippie hair? Or will he find himself someplace far more dangerous then in the clutches of a giant with infected fingernails?

From the first glimpse of the cited trademarks, I was rather intrigued by this story. How was Ms. Meadows going to fit the mentioned trademarks into a work that presumable does indeed have something to do with a beanstalk? I was wonderfully surprised by the lively and colorful descriptions, similes, and dialogue that appear in this story. Jacqueline Meadows’s use of the English language is highly entertaining and I enjoyed reading it.

A variance from the classic Jack and the Beanstalk, Jacqueline Meadows has definitely put her own twists into this fantastical world and the characters finding their way through it to each other. The romance of Jackie and Ballian is quite lovely, both having issues and problems, but managing to work their way through it nonetheless. I also enjoyed the plot twists that took this tale beyond the first imagined mystery and into a whole new realm of possibilities. On a side note, the characters of Katreen and Tarnn introduced some very interesting history and gave more depth to this story which I enjoyed and I would love to see more of both in the future.

Book Stats:

• e-book, digital format
• Publisher: Ellora’s Cave
  
• Book Length: Novel
  
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9781419916526

To purchase an electronic copy of Jackie and the Beanstalk click here.

To visit the author’s website go here.