Customer Reviews

Wyoming Tough

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Morie Brannt is trying to create a life for herself. She's the daughter of wealthy and well known cattle baron King Brannt and his top model wife, Shelby. So why is she working as a hired ranch hand on Rancho Real in Wyoming? Because she is doing what she loves, learning to work a ranch, since her father would not teach her and her brother thinks she is just plain nuts. But Morie loves what she does. Too bad she doesn't like her boss, Mallory Kirk. Mallory's opinion of women leaves a lot to be desired and he isn't going to give Morie any leeway. If she wants this job she is going to need to work for it just like the men on his ranch.

Taken under the wing of an older and wiser hand and with Mallory's brothers for moral support, Morie tries to make a new life, appreciated for what she can do not just for what she is worth.

Throw in Mallory's jealous and suspicious girlfriend, an escaped convict hiding on the ranch, fancy dinner parties, the theft of a family heirloom and a surprising family member showing up at the ranch to put Morie in over her head and you have plenty of conflict.

Morie is a wonderful character, someone trying to be who she isn't but her true nature and passion come to the front at every turn. She is a constant source of surprise for Mallory and brings out the very best in him while also bringing out the very worst.

He is a typical Diana Palmer heartthrob hero...tall, sexy, stubborn, unwilling to believe he could be wrong and fighting falling for the wrong woman who is really the only right woman.

Diana Palmer has been a staple among romance fans for years now. She has always maintained a steady stream of devoted readers while consistently attracting new generations. With the introduciton of the Kirk brothers, she lays the ground work for more stories involving Cane, the war vet, and Dalton the former border agent.

I have been reading Diana Palmer books since the the 1970's. I admit I am a true fan of her Long Tall Texan series and appreciate the formula for her books.She is truly the Queen of the sensual, heartwarming, heart breaking romance where the hero eventaully comes to his senses before losing the great love of his life. This particular book is true Diana Palmer and is a must read for her die hard fans but is also a great place to start to eventually become one of her die hard fans.

At her worst she is fantastic and at her best she is amazing. With Wyoming Tough she is at her best!!!

Originally posted at The Long and Short of It Romance Reviews

"Wyoming Tough" is the first in a proposed new series. I presume that the hero's tortured brothers will also have their own books, as will the random other characters introduced - Tenny Welsh, Ty Harding, Morie's brother Cort...

It seems that several issues I have had with previous Palmer books have been addressed- there were no egregious history lectures to interrupt the flow of the narrative, no random rants on Native American rights/oppression, and Morie is not a poor, downtrodden girl with a serious medical issue. That said, "Wyoming Tough" is an improvement over many of DP's recent books, but by no means is an excellent book. The sentence structure is choppy, with many short sentences rather than linking them to create more complex sentences. The antagonist, Gelly Bruner, is DP's typical evil girlfriend of the hero standing in the way of true love. She's a cardboard cutout, as are most of the other characters in this book.

Will I buy her next release "True Blue"? Yes. Why? Because for all their flaws, I find Diana Palmer's books to be true guilty pleasures. I don't read them to be enlightened, but to see what eye-rolling situations her fertile mind can create, and how she will slightly alter her formula of <much> older hero/young, naive, underemployed heroine.

I must say that I really enjoyed this book. I am a "huge" Diana Palmer fan and have all her books. This one was "much, much" better than some of her latest ones have been. It was great finding characters from some of her other books - like visiting old friends. It was wonderful reading a story again in her "tried and true" style that we all love.

Generally, I've stayed close to trusted authors and recommendations from friends, but I decided I would branch out this past weekend and try one of Amazon's recommendations. Incredibly bad move. Wyoming Tough has to rank up there with the worst books I've ever read, full stop. Not only were we subjected to dozens of pages about this year's fashions, reminiscent of nothing so much as Mean Girls, but also another dozen pages about the environmentally correct practices of gas and/or oil drilling and how we should all view it. I do not read a romance novel, of all things, in order to be lectured on and on about gas and oil drilling. Additionally, the writing was just bad, the kind of writing that had me rolling my eyes with the ridiculousness of it. Buy this book if you have absolutely nothing better to do than wonder, with every sentence read, how this author was ever published in the first place. I want my money back and I'd also like an additional amount deposited into my Amazon account for the hour I wasted attempting to read this drivel on their recommendation.

I discovered Diana Palmer last year accidentally and ever since then I'm a huge fan. I love how she creates love between her characters and then there's a conflict and by the end you find yourself cheering for them to get together and live happily ever after! This book lacked all that. I couldn't figure out how suddenly they fell in love. I didn't get to know the male character at all, and from what I did know about him he was not very likable. What I love about her characters is that they're not very good looking but very confident and sure of themselves. This guy was supposed to be a Business head of his successful ranch but he wasn't confident. His gf was easily fooling him, that would make sense if he was in love with that woman but he wasn't! He was just stupid and mean! I was not cheering for them to get together. I was wanting her to marry her temporary fiance. Hero wasn't worth it. The charm of DP books is that the guy realizes what he did and goes to get his girl..but this dude didn't man up..he was just blah!
Another thing that bored me with this book was ridiculous conversations in a serious situation..
This book was a disappointment. I actually had to reread another DP book after reading this one just to remind myself why I love her work.

Let me just start off by saying that I so wanted to fall in love with Diana Palmer again! I have been a huge fan of hers for well over 17 years & have purchased everything that she has ever written (even her earliest books written under psuedoname). I always felt such a connection to her story lines & couldn't wait for her to produce her latest tall texan. Fast forward to the 21st century and something went terribly wrong. Palmer's formula for success quickly took a nosedive south & then has continued in that pattern ever since. What happened? How can one's style of writing change so drastically? No longer is there a tender love story with a maddening cowboy and sassy/sweet lady. No longer is there any interaction between the main characters leading up to the inevitable downfall of said cowboy. Now all we have is the hope of a story line that will make you laugh, cry & cuss (again said cowboy) - all of which I have done with Ms. Palmer. But, no. What we do receive are characters who do not interact with each other until halfway thru a 200 page book, no connection, no emotion, NO believabilty what-so-ever that these couples could have even lukewarm feelings about each other...let alone end up in bed together by the end of the book. I never thought that I would give up my faith in such a talented writer (and quite honestly she will always be favorite for her earlier works) but it has happened. I will no longer anxiously await another Diana Palmer book ever again. Nor will I purchase one. From the other reviews written for this book, I had gained such false hope, only to be let down once again. Ms. Palmer has truly lost her romantic touch and I have finally come to the conclusion that it is gone for good. I will have to console myself with one of her greats...off to find the Cowboy and the Lady!!!

Wyoming Tough is the first in a Trilogy by Diana Palmer. It features Morie Brannt and Mallory Kirk. Morie is the daughter of Shelby & King Brannt from "To Love and To Cherish" an older Diana Palmer favorite.
Morie is working at the Kirk ranch as a ranch hand. She has kept her real identity a secret because she is trying to be herself not the rich daughter of a well-known cattle baron. Mallory Kirk is her boss, one of the brothers who own the ranch. The chemistry between them is strong ,but Mallory has been betrayed before and is cautious. Morie is inexperienced in the love department but knows how to handle a rough, tough cowboy, having grown up with one for a father.
As happens in many Palmer books, there is a poisonous girlfriend who does everything she can to destroy Morie and turn Mallory against her.
Even though we have seen this before, it still works in this book because Ms. Palmer does such a good job of setting up the inevitable confrontation between the two would be lovers and again between the two women. There is nothing as satisfying as when Ms. Palmer makes the hero and villainess pay for their actions against the usually spunky heroine.
The Kirk brothers have lots of issues between them and I can't wait to read the books about Cane and Dalton Kirk. After I read this book, I had to go back and read the original book about Morie's parents. I enjoyed it as much as this book. That is the great thing about Diana Palmer, many of her books are connected and you can read them over and over and still get a lot of enjoyment out of them. This book will not be any different in that regard.

I am a Diana Palmer fan, at least I was until I read this book. I couldn't get into it at all. I kept flipping pages to try to find something interesting to read. I never did find it. I don't believe that a spoiled little rich girl would do this. Just trying to prove a point? No. All the talking about what courses they took and such were boring. I won't buy the next two. I have no desire to go through all that mumbo jumbo again. This has to be one of her worst books. I'm very disappointed. It seems I need to start paying attention to reviews. I usually just buy a book if it's by one of my favorite authors but this is the second time I've been disappointed in two of my favorites. It truly was a waste of my money.

Amazing! It has been a while since Diana Palmer has written a book like this! It was wonderful!
I love a good DP novel and this one rates up there with Evan, Lionhearted, etc. It was fantastic!

30 years ago I read everything Diana Palmer wrote so I thought I'd give her a try when I needed a light book. Oh boy am I glad I checked this out at the library and didn't waste money on it. It is so badly written I could hardly believe this is the same writer. The dialog was awful. Most of the characters spoke like there was something developmentally off about them. The hero was so unlikable I wanted the heroine to tell him to take a flying leap. And come on, this girl was 23 and she felt like she HAD to marry the other guy instead of the hero because....well, because why?!!! I checked twice what year this was supposed to take place in, but nope, it's supposedly modern times. Sweetie, it's 2012, live a little before settling for the lukewarm friendly marriage, plenty of time for that later. The real problem was with the hero. Oh my god, I hated the hero!! And the kissing scene and sex scene were completely awkward, ugh! In fact, the wedding night sex scene was horrifying; seriously, I would be surprised if the heroine didn't develop a major sex aversion after that. (Hint for heroes out there, if your gal is a virgin you don't just go to town breaking a hymen by jamming your finger in there without some serious prep, yo).
Overall, it just seemed that Palmer had taken a lot of random stuff she had written, stuck it in a blender and poured it out. It was disjointed, childish, weirdly preachy, and I'm now wondering if any sexual hangups I might have are due to the fact that I read her as a teenager. Oh, Diana, what have you done to me??!! (I'm kidding, I'm way cool with my sexuality [crickets chirping]).
Bottom line: Unless you have some weird fetish for bad writing, bad editing and phone-it-in material, stay clear of Wyoming Tough, 'cause that "I do" is a definite I don't.