6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Melting a heart of ice......, July 12, 2005
This review is from: The Rugged Loner (Silhouette Desire) (Mass Market Paperback)
This book is really heart wrenching. Tomas Carlisle is one of three brothers whose father recently died. One of them has to have a baby within the next 12 months to keep ownership of the family cattle stations and holdings located in the Australian Outback. Tomas's wife was killed in an accident a few years ago and his emotions have been frozen since then - he doesn't want anything to do with any woman but is determined to do his part to fulfill the terms of the will. When his childhood friend, Angelina Mori offers to have his baby, he refuses because she will only have it the old-fashioned way (he wants her to have it through invitro fertilization, so he won't have to touch her in any way - he is still faithful to his dead wife's memory), but he reconsiders when he thinks she may sleep with one of his brothers to help them have a baby. What he doesn't know is that Angelina has been in love with him since she can remember. Her heart was broken on her 18th birthday when he didn't even notice that she was dressed up for him, but fell in love at first sight with her best friend (the woman who he would eventually marry) instead. Angelina even tried to talk him out of the marriage by telling him that she honestly didn't think her friend was cut out to live the outback lifestyle (turns out she was right). This only made him mad, so she did the only thing she could - went on an extended trip abroad to avoid the heartache of being a bridesmaid in their wedding. Now, she is searching for a way to melt the ice around his heart and bring him back to the land of the living - hoping against hope that he will accept the gift of her baby and her heart this time. You will almost cry when you read some of the cold hearted ways Tomas treats her to let her know that what they have between them is just sex for the sake of having a baby - making sure to push her away and not let her get close emotionally. By the end, he starts to realize that he doesn't want to let this chance at happiness go, but he isn't sure that it's not too late. Read it!!!
book summary from [...]- She made the bold proposition to get under his skin. And by Tomas Carlisle's reaction, Angelina Mori succeeded. Angie knew that tragedy had turned her friend hard and remote...like the Australian outback he loved. Still, she was scandalized that after confessing her secret fantasies about him, after offering to bear the Carlisle heir his father's will demanded in one year's time, he'd dared to suggest they make a baby...without sharing his bed. Well, she'd wanted Tomas to imagine a better way.
The way nature intended.
Because being so intimate with Tomas might not simply save his family's fortune...but the man himself.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A compelling read .........., December 16, 2007
This review is from: The Rugged Loner (Silhouette Desire) (Mass Market Paperback)
The Rugged Loner by Bronwyn Jameson
Silhouette Desire # 1666 - July 2005
2006 RITA Nominee for Best Short Contemporary Romance
When his wife died two years before, Tomas threw all his energy into the family ranch, Kameruka Downs, in the Australian Outback. Now everything that he lives for is at stake, unless he honours his father's will and produces a child. Tomas doesn't want a woman in his life, nor a child, but he can't lose the ranch. Angie and her brothers grew up with the Carlisle boys on the outback ranch, and from the time she was a teen she'd been in love with Tomas. Tomas chose her best friend to marry, and loving him so much forced Angie to leave Australia and to wander from place to place and job to job. Returning for Tomas' father's funeral, Angie hopes to put her love for Tomas behind her. Not so easy. Learning of the strange demands of the will, Angie knows that she has to help him. Tomas can't deny his attraction for Angie, but his heart is ice. Somehow Angie has to show Tomas that there can be love again and that she's perfect for him and his life on the ranch.
This one reads more like a Harlequin Presents. Tomas is one arrogant SOB at times and I found him hard to like, though he did grow on me by the end of the book. Angie has spirit and thankfully knows Tomas well enough to put up with his hurtful, selfish manners. I'm glad Tomas redeemed himself, Angie deserves her HEA.
PRINCES OF THE OUTBACK trilogy
The Rugged Loner - Silhouette Desire # 1666 - July 2005
The Rich Stranger - Silhouette Desire # 1680 - September 2005
The Ruthless Groom - Silhouette Desire # 1691 - November 2005
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