Desert Heat [Paperback]

Kat Martin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2004

A New York Times Bestselling Author

Patience Sinclair is leaving Boston University for the wide, open spaces of Texas and a chance to stop looking over her shoulder at every turn. Traveling with the Circle C Rodeo, she'll finish her dissertation on the American West while hiding in plain sight. Then the champion rider makes it clear that he's watching her . . . and likes what he sees. But if there's anything Patience understands with chilling clarity, it's what it costs to fall for the wrong man.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Young Bostonian Patience Sinclair and her sisters, Hope and Charity, have vowed to have one grand adventure before marrying or settling into a career. For Patience, a season on the western rodeo circuit, researching historic and current female competitors for her doctoral dissertation, seems both an exciting escapade and a timely escape from spoiled society brat Tyler Stanfield, a rejected ex-lover who's been stalking her. Despite the instant, if prickly, attraction that Patience shares with handsome Dallas Kingman, a World Champion All-Around Cowboy, the pair's commitment to very different careers makes anything more than a summer fling seem impossible. But the two grow closer, even as mysterious malignant forces strive to tear the Circle C rodeo, owned by Dallas's uncle, apart. Passion predominates over intrigue in Martin's second Sinclair Sisters installment (after Midnight Sun), but the suspense serves to keep reader interest piqued as the protagonists agonize their way through apparently insoluble personal conflicts. A parallel suspense subplot involving historic rodeo murders lends the story some complexity, and several side romances and romantic rivalries add considerable charm to this satisfying tale.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Patience Sinclair, the middle daughter of three (her sister Charity's story was told in Midnight Sun [BKL My 1 03]) is happy to start a summer of traveling with the rodeo as she researches the history of female rodeo performers for her doctoral thesis. On the circuit she meets all kinds, including a would-be rapist, a scheming femme fatale, and Dallas Kingman, the reigning World Champion All-Around Cowboy. Sparks fly, both in what looks like a doomed relationship with Dallas (he wants to be a cowboy and she wants to be a professor) and literally, as someone tries to destroy the rodeo company owned by Dallas's uncle through fire and deadly tampering with equipment. One of the most fascinating facets of this tale is Patience's discovery in a great-grandmother's diary of references to a serial killer who preyed on young female rodeo performers in rodeo's early days. Martin's signature tender but sexy lovemaking scenes make this an all-around winner. Diana Tixier Herald
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Zebra (May 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 082177381X
• ISBN-13: 978-0821773819
• Product Dimensions: 7.2 x 4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #237,960 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Currently living in Missoula, Montana, Kat Martin is the bestselling author of over fifty Historical and Contemporary Romance novels. Before she started writing in 1985, Kat was a real estate broker. During that time, she met her husband, Larry Jay Martin, also an author. Kat is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara, where she majored in Anthropology and also studied History. "I love anything old," Kat says. "I love to travel and especially like to visit the places where my books are set. My husband and I often stay in out-of-the-way inns and houses built in times past. It's fun and it gives a wonderful sense of a by-gone era."

To date, Kat has over twelve million copies of her books in print. She is published in twenty foreign countries, including Germany, Norway, Sweden, China, Korea, Bulgaria, Russia, England, South Africa, Italy, Spain, Argentina, Japan and Greece.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good., May 3, 2004

By 

Huntress Reviews (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Desert Heat (Paperback)

Attempting to escape a rejected love turned stalker, Patience Sinclair heads south, to the rodeo. Originally, the trip was planned just to work on her disertation, but escape becomes the focus.

The rodeo is a whole new world. Cowboys, barrel racers, and courageous clowns have their own civilization in which Patience becomes enthralled. It has its own inherent romance, and Patience soon has to face her fears when she gets entangled with an overly amorous cowboy. Before trouble can get out of hand, she is rescued by the someone who won't be turned aside. Dallas embodies everything a man ought to be, and is willing to be there for Patience.

When the city girl learns that danger lurks even there, a serial killer is on the loose, she will need all her own skills and all of Dallas' courage to handle the situation. If she lives through it, it will be time to go home, and leave behind her heart. Can she do it, or is there another way?

**** Some writers pen such wonderful books that reviewers almost hate them; it's hard to write about the story without letting out too much, and then reading lesser books is painful. However, although Kat Martin fits this category, I don't want her to ever stop. She makes the settings and people seem real, yet still has the slight larger than life quality that makes reading her books an escape from reality. ****
Amanda Killgore

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Read, May 28, 2004

By 

Elaine C McTyer "avid reader" (Dawson, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Desert Heat (Paperback)

I really enjoyed this book. I could hardly put it down. It is not a great suspense novel, the suspense is of the mild type. The romance is good and the suspense was good enough for me.

Dallas and Patience are worlds apart in their careers, but love doesn't understand careers. I liked the tangle of emotions they had to go through.

I really enjoyed the facts about rodeos. I have never been interested in them, but some of the things I learned were fasinating.

This is not a spectacular book. But it is a warm, fulfilling read. That is what I look for in a book, not great soul-searching, or drama, but a warm, cozy, feeling when you finish it.

3.0 out of 5 stars Very repetitive.., July 22, 2008

By 

Abigail N. Cox "A. N. Cox" (East Moline, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Desert Heat (Paperback)

I bought this book with a lot of Kat Martin books on eBay. The first Kat Martin book I read was Scent of Roses, I loved it. Then I read the Dream. Now that I'm on to this book, the story is very predictable. Kat's stories are always about a woman who the oldfashioned type who wants a relationship and not a fling. She's been burned in the past by previous men. She meets the main male character in the book and they have an attraction, try to fight it and in the end get together. There's some steamy romance but it's like reading the same story set in different places over and over again.

In this book, the woman is Patience Sinclair and the man is Dallas Kingston. Patience is working on her Ph.D. and for her thesis, she's writing about women in the rodeo scene both past and present. She's following one of the women in the rodeo, meets up with Dallas. Romance goes on from there. It's a pretty good book but I wouldn't recommend reading it if you've read a bunch of Kat Martin books already.