Customer Reviews

Diablo (The Texans)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

The story is about an 18-yr-old daughter of Wyoming rancher is engaged to an old conniving rancher b/c he told her that was her dad's last wish. She gets kidnapped by scarred half-breed cowboy mercenary who's seeking revenge against her fiance for physically & sexually abusing him along with 3 others 15 yrs prior. Heroine is attracted to Hero who returns her attraction but thinks he's too ugly for her to willingly want to be with him.

Don't know if this is how Gentry typically writes since this is my 1st book of hers but I was either bored or annoyed with this book. The characters were like caricatures. The plot very predictable. Lots of language & theme repetitions (i.e., Hero thinks he's so repulsive to women, Hero keeps on forgetting heroine's name even though he think about her constantly, villain ruminating about how he wants heroine as his wife) as if Gentry just cut & pasted. Most times the language characters used was modern & only Westernized by the words "I reckon". The only part I liked was the author's notes at the end, which gave interesting historical view of Wyoming ranchers, the Shantee rebellion, & other historical tidbits.

Not recommended. This is my 1st book of hers but will try her other books to see if she can surpass this disappointment.

I wanted to like this book, I really did! It was my first Georgina Gentry book, and I don't think I'm going to read her again if this is the way she writes all of her books.

First of all, there were a lot of grammar errors, which is a pet peeve of mine, and it really takes away from the story.

Second, this was the stupid heroine I have ever read about. Where in the world is her intelligence? My gosh! I don't know what this poor guy Diablo saw in her, but he deserved someone a LOT nicer. She was stupid to the point where I wanted to toss her over the edge of a cliff and take Diablo for myself. He was so sweet, so caring, so hurt from his past, and what does she do? Tries to escape.

WHAT AN AIRHEAD!

She actually wanted to go home and marry her UNCLE who made her feel uncomfortable every time he was near. She would rather do that, than stay with Diablo? I can't even go over the amount of things she did that made me stop and think, "Oh my God...I cannot believe this is the woman who's supposed to end up with this misunderstood hero..."

She was an absolute biotch when it came to his scar. She thought that because he had a scar, he must be dangerous.....Um, what? And, for the life of her, it was just utterly impossible to believe that her perverted uncle was the person who hurt Diablo...Was she seriously 18? Or still 16?

Diablo was one of the best heroes I've ever read about. Too bad he had to get (somehow) ensnared by this brainless witch of a character.

I wished with all my heart that I was going to come across a scene where he'd let her off somewhere and find a sweet, NON-SHALLOW, NON-JUDGMENTAL young woman who would love him with all her heart and see him for all he was on the inside, and not try to escape him every five seconds, or sell herself to him for her "freedom." Seriously, the stuff this ditz did...

A half-breed Santee Sioux was born to a white woman. Since his birth he had not been accepted in either the white world or by the Sioux culture. His white mother had been raped by a Sioux Warrior; in humiliation of being violated she ended her life. Her family couldn't stand to raise the cause of her death and turned the child over to the Sioux's. The Sioux's wouldn't accept him as an equal and made him serve as their slave; they called him He Not Worthy of a Name.

At the age of fourteen, He Not Worthy of a Name managed to escape from the Sioux. He set out to find some place that would accept him. He traveled for days; close to starving to death he killed a cow to stay alive. While he was eating it raw, a group of cowboys stumbled upon him. He feared they would end his life for what he had done to their steer. He was surprised that they offered him their friendship and invited him into their camp. They offered him a part of their meal and spoke of returning to their homeland of Texas.

The rustler cowboys were the first people who had ever shown any type of kindness to He Not Worthy of a Name. His new found friendship was short lived for his friends were cattle rustlers. The owner of the herd caught them by surprise and ordered then to hang for their crimes. He Not Worthy of a Name watched in horror as their lives ended in a matter of seconds. The owner allowed him to live, but demanded he become a walking billboard for all other would be rustlers who thought about stealing from him. He had a group of his men hold him down and tortured him, as a lasting reminder they branded one side of his face.

Years later, He Not Worthy of a Name was given the name Diablo which meant Devil. He was known as one of the fastest guns in the west. Revenge was a poison that ran freely through Diablo's blood. Each time he looked at his reflection in a mirror he was reminded of that one horrific day. He vowed one day soon to hunt down those responsible for his pain and suffering and end their lives in a slow agonizing death.

Diablo's chance at vengeance came when the person responsible for scarring him hired a group of gunslingers to run settlers off farm land in Wyoming. Diablo seen this as a perfect opportunity to get close to his worst enemies he plotted out each one of their deaths to ensure they were slow and painful. As he narrowed it down to the main ringleader, Hurd Kruger he decided to torture him by stealing his most prized possessions, one of them being his intended fiancee Sunny Sorrenson.

Sunny is the type of woman Diablo can only dream about for her beauty would never accept a scarred beast such as himself. As the days of her captivity progresses Diablo finds it hard to resist her kindness and charm. Will he allow himself to take of her forbidden fruit? Or will his will to seek revenge against Hurd blind him from the love that could be his?

Diablo - The Texans is one of the best historical romances this reviewer has ever experienced. I fell in love with each one of the characters. When they hurt I felt their pain, when they rejoiced I was right there with them. Georgina Gentry stand up and take a bow, you have written a romantic masterpiece.

Midwest Book Review URL:
[...]

His white mother was raped by his Sioux father. He suffered the same fate when rancher Hurd Kruger and his men tortured and raped him. They failed to break him. Instead they hardened his heart with a need to one day avenge his affront. He became a mercenary gunfighter waiting for the right moment to encounter Hurd.

By 1892 fifteen years since the atrocity he suffered occurred and now Diablo as he is known, is traveling to Wyoming to confront and kill his demon. He learns Kruger plans to marry Sunny Sorrenson; which gives Diablo a powerful weapon to use against Hurd. Diablo assassinates Kruger's men, steals from his adversary, and abducts Sunny. However, instead of capturing her, she captures his heart as he revises his goal to keeping her safe.

This is an exciting western romance starring a nasty hero who finds redemption when he falls in love with brave caring Sunny. The story line combines a harsh dark backdrop of sexual predators assaulting the innocent with the pureness of the relationship between the lead couple. Interestingly whereas as she brings out his inner decency; he brings out her inner fortitude. Readers will enjoy this saga of vengeance and redemption battling for control of a soul in the wild west.

Harriet Klausner

This tale starts out from the perspective of our hero Diablo- a young half-breed child found wandering in the Texas wilderness eating raw meat to stay alive. He's been horribly tortured and abused (leaving him brutally disfigured) and has been left for dead- only to be taken in by a kind family who save his life. They teach him to read and give him a start, but obsessed with revenge on those who tortured him, he leaves the kind family, makes his way in the world as a gunslinger and plots his vengeance.

Sunny is the sweet, obedient heroine who finds herself engaged to a wealthy older man, Kruger, in order to serve her father's dying wishes, while unbeknown to her, she is marrying her father's very killer. Kruger is also the man who pioneered the torture of Diablo fifteen years before, but Sunny has no idea that she's marrying a monster. Having always been meek and agreeable, Sunny goes along with the awful scenario and prepares herself to marry the much-older and nasty rancher.

Diablo's course of vengeance includes taking Kruger's life apart piece by piece in an escalating and painstaking process. And when he has nearly everything he wants- he goes after Sunny, Kruger's obsession. He kidnaps her and takes her into the wilderness with him, and she is horrified by both his appearance and her situation, believing HIM to be the monster who would take her from the "good man" that was her father's best friend.

What follows is a beautiful love story of healing and redemption. Sunny blossoms from a meek, obedient child into a woman with a voice and an opinion. The power of Sunny's love breaks down the horror that has surrounded Diablo and the charming vulnerability deep inside him that because of his disfigurement, he'll never have a normal life or find love. Lovely tale and highly recommended. If I had one complaint about the novel, and hence why it lost one star, is that the writer was guilty of some super awkward (and even way cheesy) dialogue at times.

I very rarely throw out books since I believe books should either be put on my keeper-shelve or passed on to others. This book saw the bottom of my trash bin. It was so bad, I was too embarrassed to pass it on to anyone I know.

All through the book it seems like the writer hadn't throught the story through as it keeps hopping forward and backwards. One moment the hero skips to conclusions that are grabbed out of the blue (Sunny must be Hurd Krugers daughter! Why? No reason is given at all, except that he saw together), the next he's too dumb to draw the most simple conclusion (as Sunny being Swens daughter: She has the blondest head of hair in the entire county, except for Swen who is just as blond, and he was also in the scene where Diablo concludes that Sunny is Krugers daughter). It is filled with repetitions, such as Kruger telling Sunny she's a good cook and would make a good wife. The fifth time he said that in the exact same wording, I scrathed the sentence out with a pen! In fact, if you proof read the book and removed all of the repetitions, you'd have cut the book in half.

Oh and my pet peeve: Swen Sorrenson being a danish name? I'm danish, and it's not. It's not even an americanization. It's not even close to any of those things. So dear Georgina Gentry: If you do that much research, and the afterword seems to imply that you do, please finish your work before you start writing, or at least just say the man is scandinavian so that we can't immediately see how flawed your work is.

Georgina Gentry's newest release, DIABLO, treats readers to a look at previous beloved characters as well as introduces brand spanking new ones. The constant of this western historical romance is revenge at any cost. Or is it? Can one man change the path he has been on for love?

Half-breed Diablo is a much feared hired killer. Men are scared of him and the women want him. Only, they don't know what is in his heart. The only thing that has kept him alive is his quest for revenge on the man who scarred him and almost murdered him years ago. Starved, cut, and beaten, Diablo swore upon his honor that the man who hurt him would pay. And so he searches. When some ranchers from Wyoming hire him, Diablo jumps at the chance to wreak havoc on the man that left him for dead so long ago. How does Diablo intend to hurt this man? Why take away his most prized possession, of course!

Diablo is the typical male half breed warrior. He is sleek, sexy, and scarred. His persona is that of a `devil' but underneath his harsh veneer, there is still a young man in there looking for someone to love him without seeing his impurities and scars. Sunny is that type of woman. She is bright, beautiful, and innocent. She is everything Diablo has ever wanted but knows he can't have. His plot for revenge is a god one - he just didn't count on finding the woman he has been yearning for his entire life.

In my eyes, Georgina Gentry is the queen of western historical romances. Her heroes are rough and tumble and her heroines are innocent. The paths to their `happily ever after' are never simple - most of the time there is an obstacle for her characters to overcome. DIABLO is no different but it is so much more than a simple story. DIABLO shows how the love of a woman, the true love of a woman, sees beyond scars and past deeds. It shows how unconditional love and acceptance can bring peace to even the hardest of the hard and most of all, it explores forgiveness and how difficult that one act can be. With heady love scenes and wicked dangerous fight scenes, DIABLO grasped my hand and led me in to watch in animated silence the entire plot unfold. I was a fan before reading DIABLO and now I consider myself elevated to `in awe' fan girl status after finishing this exquisite novel!

Natalie S.