Diana Palmer

So I'm going to pick my jaw up off the floor and try to compose myself to write this review. I keep falling off the "No More Diana Palmer" bandwagon. I have seriously got to get myself a seat belt and stay on that puppy. This book is a veritable feast of tell not show with epic helpings of info dumping. When I was already full up with that I was fed a nauseating, treacly dessert of "my morality is better than yours and that's why the world is going to Hell in a sinful handbasket."

SERIOUS show more SPOILERS BELOW

I learned a lot from reading this book.

I learned things like fracking (a non eco friendly way to get oil from shale) is bad and evil.

I learned this three or four times in fact.

I learned you're a poser if you try to pass yourself off as a debutante to ranchers in Wyoming while wearing last year's colors.

I learned that it's okay to let poor girls work on ranches with those nasty cows and all that back breaking labor but that if only they'd known the poor girl came from a good i.e., rich family they never would have let her sully her hands.

I learned that scads of random conversations between two secondary characters about other people who were not in the book and were in fact only mentioned once, do not a riveting story make.

I learned that the hero Mallory, and seriously, Mallory? is in fact not an alpha male but a seriously naive, or dare I say stupid gullible fool.

I learned that there is no way that I can buy that a very rich 23 year old rancher's daughter in this day and age would not know that a guy can't just keep it up all night but needs her new husband to tell her that fact in a very clinical sex ed sort of lecture on her wedding night.

I learned that if you have just left a hunted criminal behind you with a shotgun and you hear a sharp crack in the distance, it's probably just thunder ever though there is only a light drizzle going on.

I learned that a considerate husband will break his new wife's hymen with his fingers out of consideration before he F***s her. I really wish I hadn't learned that one.

What I really hope I learned from this inane fiasco is my lesson: Stay on that Wagon!.

I received this book free for review from netGalley. show less

Must Love Christmas Cowboys is a book that contains two novellas by Diana Palmer and Heather Graham. I am in the unpleasant position to report that I disliked both. Not very festive of me, but it is what it is. At least THE PERFECT GIFT by Diana Palmer had Sara's little brother, who made the story interesting. It had way too many elements that made the story feel over the top and very unrealistic. Sara is not only a very talented artist whose talent is discovered randomly and goes from show more selling her art for 20-30 bucks to a few thousand, but she also ends up inheriting a large sum of money. And of course, she meets our hero Ty, who is mysterious, tortured, and hides from everyone after a betrayal. For a novella, it certainly had a lot of things to unpack, and it didn't focus much on the holidays or the romance.

As for Christmas, Crime, and A Cowboy by Heather Graham, my biggest issue was the lack of chemistry between Jessy and Wyatt. They just didn't work for me, and I didn't like that Jessy thought she was better than Wyatt for most of the story, just because Wyatt stayed in their small town and she went to the city. She wasn't a nice person, and the whole pairing missed the mark for me. show less

Heartless
1 Star

Synopsis:
Gracie Marsh worshipped her stepbrother Jason while growing up but now her feelings for him have evolved into something more intense. The feeling seems to be mutual but Gracie has a secret that makes her deathly afraid of love. Stung by her rejection, Jason leaves and sets in motion events that may change their lives forever.

Review:
OK, here goes my first and, hopefully, my last really negative review.

This book is awful but it is not the borderline incest that turned show more me off. Rather the characters are one dimensional and vapid, and the story is ridiculous.

Gracie’s characterization makes absolutely no sense. There is an inconsistency between her supposed mental deficiencies and her obvious social skills. Also, she becomes a teacher even though she apparently has a severe learning disability – weird. In addition, she is a perfectly sweet doormat and for too accepting of Jason's rejection and snide attitude. It is a pity that she didn’t put him in his place when he came home with Kittie the cow. Her reason for keeping her past secret from Jason is also inexplicable – there is nothing shameful about it, and depicting it as such belittles women who have suffered from abuse.

Speaking of Kittie, Jason’s engagement to her is a completely idiotic plot device. First, her bitchiness is way overdone and is obviously meant to contrast against Gracie's almost angelic status. Second, Jason’s reasoning for becoming engaged lacks credibility.

Jason is an obnoxious hero and borderline abusive. The scene in which he sets up an employee to be humiliated is a case in point as is his allowing Kittie to treat his family so badly.

The preposterous kidnapping subplots only add insult to injury. An honorable, sensitive kidnapper who just happens to be trying to save his country from a dictator and needs to kidnap people to fund his coup? The fact that there is not one, but two kidnappings? Perhaps this is an allowance for gender equality as there is one for the heroine and one for the hero?

I could go on and on but I’ll stop now as I’m sure my point is made. This is definitely my first and only Diana Palmer book. show less

Two stars because I really liked it as a teenager, but really didn't like it now. I can see how I thought it was all romantic (dark, silent type, very manly man). As I read it now, I was mostly angry and disappointed.

First, the characters are very shallow and not that interesting; we don't really know anything about the heroine (other than she's beautiful and put-upon) and we don't know anything about the hero (other than that he's manly and rich).

Second, I actually threw the book across show more the room the second time the hero called the heroine a slut and she just stammered and then acquiesced to some rather brutal kissing. He is very cruel and treats her horribly for years--and his excuse is because he loves her?

Third, after she's been treated horribly for the entire book, she's so very happy and ready to "belong to him" forever because he finally says he wants to marry her? Oh, and the whole "no meaning yes" thing just really got to me. As in, really pissed me off.

Reading it from my POV now, it really just gets one star, but one star added both for how much I loved this author 15 years ago (oh, teenagers) and because the story does move along at a good clip. I might not like what she says, but she says it well. show less