Customer Reviews

Tough to Tame. Diana Palmer (Romance)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

OH MY! Where do I start? As a long time fan of Ms. Palmer I looked forward to each new book. Her writing had a way of drawing you in and connecting with you emotionally. The key word in the last sentence was "had". The last few books have left me wondering what happened to one of my favorite writers. "Tough to Tame" should have been titled "Tough to Read"! The dialogue that I suppose was meant to be witty banter was trite and forced. The main characters were lost in a maze of secondary characters delivering one bad line after another. But the real shame in this book is that it is void of any emotion. There was no depth of feeling in the characters or the writing. I am not ashamed to admit that Ms. Palmer's books have moved me to tears in the past. Where is that writer? The only thing that moved me to tears in "Tough to Tame" is that I wasted a Sunday afternoon reading it.

I've been a long time devoted fan of Diana Palmer, but this book stunk to high heaven! The 'witty banter' made me blush it was so horrifyingly stilted, fake and beyond corny. The story is a re-tread of so many that came before it. The 'hero' was ridiculous, after one date started talking 'rings and licenses' and yet turns on her in a heartbeat. And the set ups for the next book MUST STOP! This Jacobsville place is crawling with mercenaries, international drug cartels, tall ruthless women-hating men and sweet innocent virgins -- give me a break! Time for a new town and some new ideas!

As a previous reviewer mentioned, Diana Palmer is repetitive in her stories (I can not dignify them with the title "plots"). So why do I keep reading these books? Am I hoping for a return to the old Palmer style? No-I read them for the humor-mostly unintentional (I think)- of the trials and tribulations of the residents of the ever-shifting town of Jacobsville, Texas. "Ever-shifting", you ask? Jacobsville appears to be located within close driving distance of whichever large Texas city is a key location in the "plot" of the book. Houston, Austin, San Antonio...As a former resident of Wilson County, yes, Austin and San Antonio are fairly close together (in a Texas kind of way), but Houston? Not so much.
This particular tale did not irk me as much as say, the Keely-Boone book. He was in his mid thirties, and Keely was 19? What do a man in his thirties and a teenager have in common? Even a teen with a "tragic past, and health problems"?
Cappie seemed a relatively stable individual, without serious health problems or a terrible terrible past (except for the moron ex), and Bentley Rydell was a typical Palmer hero-alpha male with (step)daddy issues. I enjoyed the fact that Palmer left out many of the tacked on history lessons that have permeated many of her recent efforts; instead,, the reader gets a primer on Vet Techs and groomers and their function in the well-being and health of a dog. As I am neither a vet tech, nor a groomer-this did not irritate me like the "history/archaeology/anthropology" spiels do (I am working on my PhD in History).
I will continue to purchase Diana's works, as they successfully provide hours and hours of comedy gold (like CSI:Miami!)

Always the same: Woman Hater, emotional abuse, virgin, older hero, young herione, parents dead, yadda, yadda, yadda. Where is the romance? Always a little petting for all of a page and then nothing until the last 2 pages when they get married. Please, a little less story on health care, video games and how they are played, and on characters from other books and more on the main characters would be greatly appreciated. I like to have old characters mentioned but they are over shadowing the main characters storyline. The only thing good about this one was there was very little of the verbal abuse the hero always lashes out to the herione. I noticed that was tamed down in "The Maverick" as well, but you are losing the whole romance thing. Why can't they "hook up" and go at it while they are trying to work out their relationship? How can you fall in love with someone and marry them without knowing if you are compatible in or out of the bed? I understand these women have morals because of parents that always had a religous background, but come on this is not Historical times this is Modern times. Again, I appreciate the tone down of the "Hate" issues from the hero as in most of DP's books, but let's amp up the romance some.

Diana Palmer has always been my favorite romance author. I have kept, and reread many of her earlier romance stories. However, I have become very discouraged and disappointed with her latest books, most of which I have to force myself to finish. What has happened to the romance? I used to love to lose myself in the love scenes, but now, I get about two pages of love scenes and what seems like hundreds of pages of "snappy" dialogue. And most of that is voiced by characters from previous books. While I enjoy playful banter between hero and heroine, I cannot make myself wade through chapter after chapter of it when the dialogue is mostly between mercenary buddies. Not when the book is purported to be a romance novel. PLEASE, Miss Palmer, go back to what you do best: give us finely etched characters who share passion and romance. Make them the stars. Not the others, who have already had their own stories told.

Wow this book was not only bad, but was a retread of all her other books from years gone bye.

I do have that Palmer was an auto-buy for me, not any more, for one thing I felt like I was picking up a novel starting on page 75, the hero as usual is a jerk, who accuses the heroine of crime, based on his own prejudices of something that happened to him years ago (when explained it was quite funny, not the crime it self but why it was done to him, totally unbelievable)

The Cappie brother storyline was stilted and strange, so I guess he is next in getting his own story were he will his own struggling vestal virgin who parents died or who is estranged from her abusing alcoholic mother or father.


It was fun while it lasted Mrs Palmer.

I grew up reading Diane Palmer. I mean, of all of my authors she was the top one back in the day. Her stories were sensual and full of in depth characters and for the most part had a good plot. But lately, all of her story lines are repetitive to the point where it's like, you can't come up with anything else! Diane, I am a loyal fan but I couldn't even finish the book because there was no depth to the story at all. I read True Colors last week and I couldn't put that book down. The heroine was not an insipid weakling, the hero didn't have too many issues, a SUPPORTING character had a rough life and the plot was really good! I was so surprised. But her other newer ones are like, "Diane, you need to take a sabbatical, regroup and come up with some new story lines. Heck, do a historical for goodness sake."

I have always been a fan of Diana Palmer, however this book and her last series romances have been quite a disappointment for me. It is almost as if she is just rushing a book to print to make sales. Story line was choppy too many secondary characters. I have been a fan for years, however I don't want to have to do research to keep everyone straight. The overall romance was thrown in as an afterthought. Not the Diana Palmer I have grown to love over the years. As another note, the cover is even wrong. The hero is a veterinarian, not a cowboy!

YIKES!!!!! that is all I can say. The first 25% of this book was sharing with everyone Ms. Palmers veiws on Healthcare reform.... She labored on and on about how the brother of the heroine did not have enough healthcare coverage.....Needless to say I could not even read it further. It was excruciating at best. I have read a number of her books however after this I can guarantee I will NOT read another.

I like the old, old Harlequin Romance books, but my friends find that a shame and are always buying me the more modern romances.
I don't usually like them, and although I read them so when the friend calls to have a discussion about the book I'm not in the dark about the story.
Amazingly I really liked this book, Ms Palmer has won me back to her. I prefer Helen Brooks, Jessica Steele, Susan Fox, and Eva Rutland as well as the late great Betty Neels, Essie Summers and Mary Burchell.
I'm a long time fan of Ms Palmer, but since she went to college to learn to write, she has been writing books that tell about the story before this book, and the story after this book, leaving only a few pages for the story we are trying to read.
I liked her older books, but she had a how to make love in three or four chapters. Although Keely Welsh and & Boone Sinclair who was a newlywed, and spoke as if we knew about their story, but I didn't. Even though the same thing happened in an earlier book about Cash Grier,and his wife Tippy.
Although the alpha females are usually virgins, they are able to have sex over and over again, many times without pain or discomfort.
Most writers make that mistake.
Now the only thing I had against this story is that the so called undercover agents had no problem blabbing about other agents and what branch CIA,FBI,DEA,CID,KGB, covert operation or black ops.
Everybody plays video games and talk the language of gamers, with left me in the dark.
Bentley Rydel, is a Veterinarian, and Cappie Drake is a Vet tech. We get a bit of insight of a Vet practice, and even though Bentley had known Cappie for some weeks, he finally notices her when her hair comes down and he falls in love, but his love is a wimpy emotion. Frank Bartlett feed Bentley a story that he believes even though he is supposed to be in love with Cappie.
When Cappie is faced with being killed, after her crippled brother is beaten by three men, suddenly Bentley sees he more of less opened the door for Cappie to be either badly hurt, or even killed by the man who had come close to killing her once before.
I was pleased Cappie didn't fall into his arms when he found he was wrong.
Unfortunately as our judicial system seems to be pro-criminals. And Frank was given a light sentence, and gets out only to come looking for Cappie. Because she put him in prison and he wants to pay her back.
Bentley steps up to the plate and defends Cappie, her brother gets his mobility back because of the beating he got from Frank and friends, and everything turns out sunny side up.