Desert Storm

Rating:
Summary: Too much "I hate you but must have you!"
Review: Desert Sun was my second Nan Ryan book. I had read Sun God and gave it a high review. I was disappointed with Desert Sun in comparison. Sun God seemed to have a strong love underlying it all. However, Desert Sun seemed to be about anger and money and revenge and just too much of it all.

Angie Webster is a young lady who has been raised by an extremely religious father. She has never been allowed normal friends and normal events of one growing up other than church. Angie and her father have lived alone and she has been taught to be highly moral and knows nothing of the world other than that which her father has told her. Fearing Angie may turn out like her mother, Mr. Webster arranges a marriage to an old army friend, Barren McClain, who is his own age. Barren McClain is the owner of a vast ranch in Texas and believes himself to be a righteous man. However, he is a very sick man and hides his many vile and revolting ways well. On their way to the McClain ranch, Mr. Webster dies, leaving Angie alone to arrive at her future husband's home. She is shocked to see he is an older man but Barren tells her that he will give her six months to become acquainted with him. He further informs her that when they marry it will be in name only because he looks upon her as a daughter. Of course we know he is lying big time. Angie, desperate to find a comfortable place in life, reluctantly agrees to marriage and comforts herself with the knowledge that she will be protected by the McClain name and will not be required to be more than a friendly, daughter-like companion to this older man. But Angie has a much larger problem on her hands than Barren McClain and that is his son, Pecos. She is extremely attracted to him but finds him abrasive as well as dangerously desirable.

Pecos McClain is the sole heir to the immense McClain ranch. He is greatly experienced with the ladies and has recently met one who thoroughly captivated him with her beauty. However, she spurned him and he comforted himself with the thought that she was, after all, a prostitute. Yes - a prostitute he planned to eventually have but still - nothing more. Imagine his surprise when he meets his father's future bride who looks exactly like this lady of the night. He immediately deduces that Angie is actually a lady out for his father's money and land. He believes she is the prostitute he has recently met and believes none of her stories of her background. Oh, he is still greatly attracted to her but now has no respect for her as she is apparently lying and scheming to get his father's money.

There are several overused plot lines in Desert Storm that greatly distracts from the story. First is The Big Misunderstanding - and I mean this is a really big misunderstanding that lasts nearly the entire book. Then there are the many other misunderstandings that come and go and are mostly never resolved. The second overused plot line that I dislike as much as The Big Misunderstanding is the "I hate you but must have you and now I really do have to have you but I hate you!" I have never read a book with more sexual situations between people that supposedly hated each other but could not refrain from having each other physically. I lost respect for Angie's character each time she yet again wildly responded to Pecos physical advances when, each time, he would cruelly reject her afterwards. Then there are the many grave insults that Pecos constantly threw in Angie's face. He was really mean to her and although she grew revengeful, she never seemed able to say "no" to him. Angie never grew beyond my perception of her as a ninny.

Desert Storm had great potential for a remarkably intense book. It is actually, with the overused plot lines I have mentioned, still an okay read. But there is always too much anger, raging lust, and "who has the money" for it to be close to a comforting read. The sensual scenes are definitely there and rate a solid 4.0 out of 5.0 (see More About Me for rating guidelines). If you like ravishing, angry, sexual stories, this one is definitely that. And although I prefer a strong, willful, and probably alpha hero, I want him to be nice at least part of the time. I will however continue to ready Nan Ryan books. I now understand that she tends to write dark books with revengeful heroes and sometimes those suit me just fine.

Rating:
Summary: Too much "I hate you but must have you!"
Review: Desert Sun was my second Nan Ryan book. I had read Sun God and gave it a high review. I was disappointed with Desert Sun in comparison. Sun God seemed to have a strong love underlying it all. However, Desert Sun seemed to be about anger and money and revenge and just too much of it all.

Angie Webster is a young lady who has been raised by an extremely religious father. She has never been allowed normal friends and normal events of one growing up other than church. Angie and her father have lived alone and she has been taught to be highly moral and knows nothing of the world other than that which her father has told her. Fearing Angie may turn out like her mother, Mr. Webster arranges a marriage to an old army friend, Barren McClain, who is his own age. Barren McClain is the owner of a vast ranch in Texas and believes himself to be a righteous man. However, he is a very sick man and hides his many vile and revolting ways well. On their way to the McClain ranch, Mr. Webster dies, leaving Angie alone to arrive at her future husband's home. She is shocked to see he is an older man but Barren tells her that he will give her six months to become acquainted with him. He further informs her that when they marry it will be in name only because he looks upon her as a daughter. Of course we know he is lying big time. Angie, desperate to find a comfortable place in life, reluctantly agrees to marriage and comforts herself with the knowledge that she will be protected by the McClain name and will not be required to be more than a friendly, daughter-like companion to this older man. But Angie has a much larger problem on her hands than Barren McClain and that is his son, Pecos. She is extremely attracted to him but finds him abrasive as well as dangerously desirable.

Pecos McClain is the sole heir to the immense McClain ranch. He is greatly experienced with the ladies and has recently met one who thoroughly captivated him with her beauty. However, she spurned him and he comforted himself with the thought that she was, after all, a prostitute. Yes - a prostitute he planned to eventually have but still - nothing more. Imagine his surprise when he meets his father's future bride who looks exactly like this lady of the night. He immediately deduces that Angie is actually a lady out for his father's money and land. He believes she is the prostitute he has recently met and believes none of her stories of her background. Oh, he is still greatly attracted to her but now has no respect for her as she is apparently lying and scheming to get his father's money.

There are several overused plot lines in Desert Storm that greatly distracts from the story. First is The Big Misunderstanding - and I mean this is a really big misunderstanding that lasts nearly the entire book. Then there are the many other misunderstandings that come and go and are mostly never resolved. The second overused plot line that I dislike as much as The Big Misunderstanding is the "I hate you but must have you and now I really do have to have you but I hate you!" I have never read a book with more sexual situations between people that supposedly hated each other but could not refrain from having each other physically. I lost respect for Angie's character each time she yet again wildly responded to Pecos physical advances when, each time, he would cruelly reject her afterwards. Then there are the many grave insults that Pecos constantly threw in Angie's face. He was really mean to her and although she grew revengeful, she never seemed able to say "no" to him. Angie never grew beyond my perception of her as a ninny.

Desert Storm had great potential for a remarkably intense book. It is actually, with the overused plot lines I have mentioned, still an okay read. But there is always too much anger, raging lust, and "who has the money" for it to be close to a comforting read. The sensual scenes are definitely there and rate a solid 4.0 out of 5.0 (see More About Me for rating guidelines). If you like ravishing, angry, sexual stories, this one is definitely that. And although I prefer a strong, willful, and probably alpha hero, I want him to be nice at least part of the time. I will however continue to ready Nan Ryan books. I now understand that she tends to write dark books with revengeful heroes and sometimes those suit me just fine.

Rating:
Summary: My second favorite book ever
Review: My FAVE book of all time is Nan Ryan's Sun God. I thought I would never read a book that could match it, until I read Dessert Storm. Sun God will always be my favorite, but Dessert Storm falls very very very close behind! I could NOT put this down. There are constant changes in plot and things that arise to excite the reader. Not a typical romance at all! If not for Sun God it would be the best romance I ever read, hell the best book I ever read is more like it! Read this one! You will love it as I did! I fell in love with the hero Pecos McClain, the first time I ever loved a fictional man!!! I love his arrogance, cockiness, confidence and yet that he is a gentleman at heart...just my type of guy. READ THIS ONE! But not before you read Sun God!!!!!!!!!!!1

Rating:
Summary: An excellant book
Review: Nan Ryan outdoes herself each time. This was a beautiful love story I couldn't put the book down. She needs to put more books out there. I have almost all of them.

Rating:
Summary: Could not put it down! My 2nd fave (under Nan's SUN GOD)
Review: The first romance I read was the best I EVER read, it was called Sun God, by Nan Ryan. Since the night I read Sun God at age 16 (9 years ago) I have read read nearly all of Nan Ryan's novels. DESERT STORM is fantastic I could NOT put it down. READ THIS BOOK! It brought me back to thatr fateful summer night taht I picked up Sun God and could not bring my self to part with it. I have recently re-read Sun God after lending it to a friend who loved it! I read Desert Storm for the first time immediatley after finishing Sun God. I recomend anyone to do the same. Both stories are filled with suspense and keep you guessing, both have fantastic characters, both take place in a lovely Texas setting with increadable heroes! You will love Pecos McClain, I sure do!

Rating:
Summary: Desert Storm? More like Desert Tornado!
Review: This was the first Nan Ryan book I've read. I loved it. Not only are the characters real and believable, but all of the things they feel are too. The only complaint I have is that there were way too many sex scenes and not enough scenes of love in the form of caring.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyed it, but...
Review: Why?... The characters do have chemistry, you know what I mean, your heart squeezes painfully when something pulls them apart and your stomach contracts when they're together and that's all well and good, yummy and delicious, but they have to TALK! Throughout the book there were *mass misunderstandings* and as I quickly read through the book I realized there were less and less pages, when were these things going to be brought out into the open and resolved?! Some of it was, finally, but not much was dedicated to it. I *love* to escape in a romance novel, but this book was filled with soooo much steamy sex, I would have certainly have traded a scene or two to fill in a lot of the blanks. More about her childhood, her mother and father, and why all the sudden she has a twin? Where was her mother? Why did her father treat her the way he did, verbally, emotionally, and physically? Why were her next door neighbors who thought of her as the daughter they could never have even mentioned once if not again? All the sudden Pecos' father is not really his father, he's the result of a love affair and his true father did make an brief appearance in the book but never got to meet his son or even know he had one? And at least have Pecos (the hunk) say he was sorry for treating Angie so poorly, never believing her! He never even officially proposed!

Keep in mind that this book was originally published in 1987 and romance novels have definitely evolved since then. I gave the book four out of five stars because regardless of the above, I did enjoy it, I read it in less than a 24-hour period, the characters had chemistry and were definitely meant to be together, the sex was great (maybe even a little bit too much sex) but there were too many gaps that I couldn't belive weren't explained that I couldn't help but be disappointed at the end even if they did live happily ever after.

Rating:
Summary: Enjoyed it, but...
Review: Why?... The characters do have chemistry, you know what I mean, your heart squeezes painfully when something pulls them apart and your stomach contracts when they're together and that's all well and good, yummy and delicious, but they have to TALK! Throughout the book there were *mass misunderstandings* and as I quickly read through the book I realized there were less and less pages, when were these things going to be brought out into the open and resolved?! Some of it was, finally, but not much was dedicated to it. I *love* to escape in a romance novel, but this book was filled with soooo much steamy sex, I would have certainly have traded a scene or two to fill in a lot of the blanks. More about her childhood, her mother and father, and why all the sudden she has a twin? Where was her mother? Why did her father treat her the way he did, verbally, emotionally, and physically? Why were her next door neighbors who thought of her as the daughter they could never have even mentioned once if not again? All the sudden Pecos' father is not really his father, he's the result of a love affair and his true father did make an brief appearance in the book but never got to meet his son or even know he had one? And at least have Pecos (the hunk) say he was sorry for treating Angie so poorly, never believing her! He never even officially proposed!

Keep in mind that this book was originally published in 1987 and romance novels have definitely evolved since then. I gave the book four out of five stars because regardless of the above, I did enjoy it, I read it in less than a 24-hour period, the characters had chemistry and were definitely meant to be together, the sex was great (maybe even a little bit too much sex) but there were too many gaps that I couldn't belive weren't explained that I couldn't help but be disappointed at the end even if they did live happily ever after.