Desperado [Hardcover]

Diana Palmer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2002

"Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Mira (July 1, 2002) Language: English ISBN: 155166920X Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches Lovely Maggie Barton and hardbitten Cord Romero share a tangled and complicated past. While still a young "

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Setting: Texas, Morocco, Amsterdam

Sensuality: 7

Lovely Maggie Barton and hardbitten Cord Romero share a tangled and complicated past. While still a young girl, Maggie fell deeply in love with Cord, but he's become a hard, cynical man who no longer believes in the emotion. When Cord is nearly killed in an assassination attempt, Maggie returns to Texas to care for him, but he spurns her offer of help. It isn't long, however, before their lives are once again inextricably bound as they join forces to bring down a crime cartel that exploits young children. Maggie is a woman with deep secrets, and Cord is a man with a badly scarred heart. Is there any hope that these two wounded people will find a way to heal each other? Perhaps, but first they must survive the threat to their lives as they race across Tangiers and through Amsterdam in a desperate gamble to bring justice to an evil crime lord.

Readers will be delighted to find that Desperado features a hero and heroine first introduced in Palmer's Lord of the Desert. The settings of Texas ranch, Moroccan desert, and Amsterdam canals are well rendered, the suspense plot has some interesting, hair-raising chases, and the romantic interludes carry Palmer's trademark steam heat. --Lois Faye Dyer

From Publishers Weekly

A gripping story is sabotaged by leaden writing in this hardcover debut from bestselling author Palmer (The Texas Ranger; Lord of the Desert). Mercenary Cord Romero returns to his Texas ranch after barely avoiding being blown up by a bomb planted by his arch-enemy, Raoul Gruber, only to find his beautiful and long-estranged foster sister, Maggie Barton, at his door. Disturbed by his desire for Maggie, Cord lashes out at her. Heartbroken by Cord's hostility, and jobless she left the perfect job in Morocco to rush to Cord's side Maggie takes a job in Houston doing the books at a detective agency. She quickly finds herself tangled up in a mission to bring down Gruber and his international ring of child labor exploitation baddies and when Gruber discovers her connection to Cord, she becomes his next target. Maggie and Cord flee overseas to catch Gruber, traveling from Houston to Spain and Morocco and back again to lure him into their trap. Believable sexual tension sizzles between Maggie and Cord as they struggle with their haunted pasts and crippling secrets in order to find the strength to trust each other. Unfortunately, their cookie-cutter personalities make the romance fall flat, and Cord's me-Tarzan-you-Jane high-handed treatment of Maggie is far from sexy. Palmer's compelling suspense and beautiful visuals keep the reader interested, but repetitive and hackneyed writing ("her shell-like ear") bog down an otherwise fast-paced romantic thriller.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Mira; F edition (July 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 155166920X
• ISBN-13: 978-1551669205
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,395,474 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

48 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not worth Hardcover Price!!, June 25, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Desperado (Hardcover)

Let me start by saying that I am a devoted Diana Palmer fan, and truly enjoyed most of her older titles with the arrogant alpha hero, and the young vulnerable heroine. Diana seemed to make it work somehow. Now, it's just stale. "Desperado" is the long awaited story of Cord Romero. That's where the suspense ends. The storyline involved Cord and his Foster Sister Maggie, who worked with the Lassiter Agency (from previous books) to bring down a Child Labor Ring. Maggie had a secret from her past that tied in well with Child Exploitation, but the writing style prevented it from bringing the story to have the impact that it should have. The sex scenes in recent books, are all the same. It's more like sex education, and quite frankly, I feel that all of the romantic scenes in this book were cheesy. Also, too much details are given about things that are not important, leaving the reader feeling like they are reading from an encyclopedia and not a romance novel. Being critical of an author, who in the past, was a must buy for me is not easy, but it is dissapointing. Each new book is so similar to the last, you feel as if you are reading the same book with different names. Let's face it, The old Heroine and Hero are not blood related, but are still somehow almost brother and sister, she's never had sex, he's starts off as a alpha male but he's doesn't know how to be tender and when he does, it's hoaky, he's gonna call her "little one" she's gonna get hurt somehow, and there is going to be some mention of Science Fiction or National Geographic. Palmer fans are starting to wonder if past books are being copied with new covers. I gave this book 2 stars because it was a good storyline idea, but I couldn't get past the outdated and similar to other books writing style that continues to occur with new Palmer books. Sadly, my new Motto is, "Read one Palmer book, and you've read them all."

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars First I would like to say..., July 11, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Desperado (Hardcover)

That I am a long time lover of Diana Palmer, have all of her books and have enjoyed reading her stories up until the past few years when her plots seem to be recycled from other books she has already written. I have to agree with some of the reviewers below that the same old Virginal,sexually ignorant, Bad sex experience, dowdy dressed 21-28 year old woman with hang ups has gown tiresome and lame. I was hoping against hope that Diana would not write Cord and Maggie as the same vapid, stale characters as in previous books but was disappointed that they turned out that way.

Eight year old Maggie and Sixteen year old Cord were raised together as foster siblings by a woman called Amy. Eighteen years have passed and both had married on the rebound and lost their spouses to suicide and a drunk driving accident. Guilt and secrets are major factors in the relationship between Maggie and Cord and it puts them at odds with each other along with an intense attraction both feel for one other, but will not admit.

I thought the premise of the story about child slavery was a subject that really needed to be addressed and Diana did that well, but the hokey actions of the lead characters ruined it for me. The sex scenes were not sensual at all and read more like a sex education manual for beginners. Another thing that bothered me is that Cord is portrayed as a very sexy, good looking man that could have anyone he wanted, yet doesn't date much at all. I found this a bit far fetched as I did Maggie's ignorance about sex.

I would love to see Diana go back to her roots and write as she did as Diana Blayne (candelight ectasy) or Susan Kyle. Her romances were gripping and had a grown up quality to them that I loved. I have to say that after twenty years of reading her books, Diana is not a must race out and buy for me anymore as in the past. I gave Desperado a three star because I did feel that Diana did a good job bringing child slavery to the readers attention.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars DP does it again..., July 1, 2002

By 

Teri L. Perez "Avid reader" (Rochester, MN USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Desperado (Hardcover)

No one beats Diana Palmer for sensual anticipation; this most recent story is no exception. Maggie introduced in "Lord of the Desert", hops a plane back to the states to be with Cord, who is recuperating from an eye injury sustained while disarming an explosive device. Cord lashes out at Maggie, who is heartbroken over his hostility, and what she gave up overseas to return to Cord's side.

The pace picks up from this point on; the sexual tension flying like sparks between Cord and Maggie. Enter the Lassiter Detective Agency, and the mission to bring down Gruber and his international bad boys is off and running.

Cord and Maggie struggle throughout with their tormented pasts, especially Maggie, who has been through more than any woman should ever have to face. Can any man ever convince Maggie to trust again?

This book is what we have come to love and expect from DP. The hero is DP's usual arrogant alpha male, the heroine vulnerable, but they get beyond their usual bickering and on to the main story line rather quickly. Plus we get to find out what characters from past books are up to, and leave us wondering whom the next Soldier of Fortune book will be about. Makes for a light enjoyable read in-between the heavy-duty stuff.