Diamond Spur

Rating:
Summary: Not what I expected
Review: After reading the reviews on this book I was extremely hesitant to buying this novel. However, I bought it on a wim and absolutely loved it. I can not disagree more with the other reviews. Diana Palmer takes Kate and Jason through a whirl wind of emotional stir. Kate having always been looked at as his "little sister" caused Jason some serious life questions. An unexpected twist put them through more emotion then I have seen in most books. Granted he does smoke a lot, which is a huge turn off, however his flaws make up who he is. This book does a lot of repeat actions and arguments, however, I throughly enjoyed the emotional twister!

Rating:
Summary: Out of step with the times
Review: I bought this book not realizing it was a reissue of a romance previously published under the name Susan Kyle, in 1988, which explains why I found the relationship between the two main characters so confusing. The young, virginal 20 year old Kate has harbored a crush on Jason Donavan for years. Jason is bitter towards women in general, and is 10 years older than Kate. In fact, his personality is so surly that it's hard to see what Kate sees in him, except his good looks. However, Jason does have hidden feelings for Kate, and they share a night of passion. Jason doesn't want Kate to go to New York for her designing career, and is unsupportive of her independence. He marries her against his will because he didn't take precautions (with a virgin-what did he expect)...but actually both were hoping for a baby. That alone was weird. I won't reveal more, but Jason's attitude towards Kate was chauvanistic and she was like putty in his hands. I really didn't see the sparks between the lead characters. Jason's behavior bordered on the abusive and Kate just seemed willing to take it.

Maybe in 1988 romances were written this way,but this formula just doesn't work now. Romances today feature stronger women and male leads who have more to offer than good looks and money. This novel was not badly written, but it needed a good re-vamping to bring into this century before being re-issued.

Rating:
Summary: Reissue penned under Susan Kyle...
Review: I read this book years ago and enjoyed it during that time, but when I reread it recently, I cringed at the abusive behavior of the lead character Jason and the head in the sand, unreal behavior of the heroine Kate and wondered what I ever thought was good about it. I was actually embarrassed at the behaviors of both characters and skimmed through much of the book just to get through it. The story starts out with the same old plot of the couple knowing each other for years, the hero was done wrong by another woman, so lets take it out on the poor, virginal heroine who knows nothing about anything plot. Jason just flat out stinks as any kind of romantic lead at all. He verbally and emotionally punishes Kate for his "growing" feelings toward her and she just sits back and takes it! This man has the audacity to have sex with this young woman and then "punishes" her by staying away because he doesn't want marriage. I would severely recommend to all readers to skip this book if you have not read it. This is more like a battlefield than a romance and you will be disappointed.

Rating:
Summary: Not Palmer's best...
Review: Kate Whitman is the only person living in San Frio that isn't afraid of rancher, Jason Donovan's, temper. Since she was eighteen and looked Jason in the eye during one of his many rages, she earned more than his respect, she earned his friendship which is something that not many people have. It wasn't until about a year later that Kate realized that she felt more for Jason than just friendship. The only problem was that Jason wasn't looking for marriage. Being deserted by his mother when he was a child, he didn't trust anyone and his first and last try at getting married ended badly. Kate knew that all she had to do was get Jason to trust her and then everything else would fall in to place.

Jason had only noticed lately how attractive Kate was under the exterior. Being raised by a father who taught him that a woman's place was in the home, the only thing Jason couldn't accept about Kate was her career as a clothes designer. He knew that he wanted a woman that put him first and wanted a family too.

Diamond Spur was not one of Diana Palmer's best books. With his cavemen way of thinking, all I wanted to do was slap Jason right out of the book. It was basically four hundred pages of run arounds and misunderstandings with no plot whatsoever. I was very dissapointed, but I can see how this book would be popular in the late eighties.

Rating:
Summary: Not Palmer's best...
Review: Kate Whitman is the only person living in San Frio that isn't afraid of rancher, Jason Donovan's, temper. Since she was eighteen and looked Jason in the eye during one of his many rages, she earned more than his respect, she earned his friendship which is something that not many people have. It wasn't until about a year later that Kate realized that she felt more for Jason than just friendship. The only problem was that Jason wasn't looking for marriage. Being deserted by his mother when he was a child, he didn't trust anyone and his first and last try at getting married ended badly. Kate knew that all she had to do was get Jason to trust her and then everything else would fall in to place.

Jason had only noticed lately how attractive Kate was under the exterior. Being raised by a father who taught him that a woman's place was in the home, the only thing Jason couldn't accept about Kate was her career as a clothes designer. He knew that he wanted a woman that put him first and wanted a family too.

Diamond Spur was not one of Diana Palmer's best books. With his cavemen way of thinking, all I wanted to do was slap Jason right out of the book. It was basically four hundred pages of run arounds and misunderstandings with no plot whatsoever. I was very dissapointed, but I can see how this book would be popular in the late eighties.

Rating:
Summary: diamond spur bu Diana Palmer
Review: Simply, one of the best by lady Palmer.I can not wait for her new release in November.

Rating:
Summary: Diamond Spur
Review: The back cover reads:

"Kate Whittman never wanted anyone but Texas rancher Jason Donovan. Even as a teen, she had fantasized about his touch, masking her emotions in teasing banter and easy friendship. Now at twenty, Kate was a sensual, beautiful woman with a woman's need for a man's embrace. Yet Kate was also a woman of exceptional talent. And when her fashion designs brought her a fabulously tempting offer, she rushed to share the news with Jason. But the proud owner of the Diamond Spur Ranch had only scorn for her success--and definite plans of his own. Without warning, he covered her mouth with a blazing kiss, sparking her smoldering feelings into flames of red-hot desire. This was what she had yearned for...though surrender could turn her other dreams to ashes. For becoming Jason's woman might mean having to choose between the man she loved and everything else the world offered."

Rating:
Summary: interesting beginning....
Review: This was the first Diana Palmer book I read. I picked it up after a friend recommended her as a nice change from the cookie cutter romances I was burning out on. I didn't know this was a re-issued book at the time but honestly that doesn't matter much. A good story shouldn't be about being "politically correct" as one person stated but about good characters that are human and not perfect. Diana Palmer's style of a younger woman falling for an older man was refreshing to see outside historical novels. It adds a new dimension to the novel, a way to view things without having both the hero and herione jaded and bitter.

This story takes place in West Texas, something I loved because I live here and I could picture every scene so perfectly. It's hard to find writers who place stories in Texas and can do it both well and accurately.

The hero of this story is Jason who owns of the Diamond Spur, a sprawling cattle ranch in the dry, dusty Texas backland. Kate is the naive, playful herione who has loved Jason since she met him at 18. Jason and Kate have a unique, non-threatening relationship until one day, Jason begins to see that Kate has grown into a woman.

I really liked the first part of this story. The tension between these two characters was explosive and they pratically sizzled together. Jason and Kate are irresistably drawn together and you can't help getting a little breathless reading their scenes and wondering why no handsome cowboy ever popped into your life? But these scenes were heavily tempered by lengthy and long winded sections about Kate's asspirations to be a fashion designer and her job at the local textile factory. These scenes seemed so disjointed and irrelevent to the rest of the story and I felt like Palmer was just trying to use all the research she found on the textile and fashion industry. This happens repeatedly and I began skipping the sections as they didn't affect the main plot.

The second half of the book didn't meet the standards of the first half. Instead it was boring and frustrating to read. Jason flips back and forth from a loving husband to an abusive, raging cowboy. Kate also wavers from being strong willed and fiesty to a heap of self-pity. I wanted to scream for Kate not to take all of Jason's abuse.

The most annoying part to this book by far though was the ending. Jason has been estranged from his mother since she left him and his brother when they were young. He vows never to forgive or see her though she sends him a card every christmas. Then at the end of the book he does a sudden about face and his long lost mother is suddnely a part of the family and hard, never-give-a-damn Jason is an emotional puddle. It was unbelievable and i felt offended that Palmer would think I, as a reader, wouldn't notice the huge plot jump that had little build up.

Once Jason decides he and Kate are meant to be after about 200 pages of indecision he and Kate start "love talking." The "oh, my love" and "you are my destiny." I felt embaressed just reading it. Even people I know who are madly in love don't talk like this. It sounded incredibly melodramatic and forced.

Though this book was a fun read and turned me onto Diana Palmer i wouldn't say it was one of her best. The book fizzles halfway through and by the end the hero is nearly baby talking to the herione. For a light read check this out but for something a little more mature and with more meat check out her other books.

Rating:
Summary: Ashtray breath = Passion???
Review: When Ms. Palmer re-issued this boring, boring book, she should have had her "hero" quit smoking. I simply cannot imagine poor Kate being swept away by passion from this walking ashtray of a cowboy. Every time the two got together for a steamy kiss, Jason had to take his cigarette out of his mouth to kiss Kate. How many ways can you say gross? I guess smoking wasn't so politically incorrect back in 1988 when this book was first published, but romantic heroes these days just don't smoke! She also should have looked over the dialogue a little...so stilted.