Okay. The hero is caught in a compromising situation with a young girl he is dating and is blackmailed into marrying her against his will.On their wedding night, he rapes her so brutally she needs stiches. Then he leaves. The heroine's father (who was the one who insisted on the marriage in the first place) arranges for the marriage to be annulled - he doesn't know about the rape, but he has found out the hero has Apache blood, which to him is unacceptable.The heroine discovers she is pregant. Her father throws her out on the streets. When she contacts the hero to let him know about the baby, he doesn't want to know. He was in love with another woman all along - he was only dating the heroine because his real girlfriend was out of town - and now he is married to her.Fast forward seven years. The hero and heroine are thrown together at work. He is divorced. She still loves him. Yes folks, can you believe, SHE STILL LOVES HIM. Apart from the hero being a jerk, this story has so many inconsistencies my head was spinning.The hero is half Apache, and looks it. Why did the heroine's father wait until after the wedding to decide it's a problem? What kind of man(a multi millionaire, we are told) throws her pregnant daughter out on the streets, particularly as her pregnancy is partly due to his own actions?The hero manages to date the heroine and get married to her without ever discovering she is only 17.The heroine is in college when they marry, but then later we are told that her employer and coworkers took care of her while she was pregant.The heroine, a teenage single mother, becomes some kind of super spy while bringing up her daughter.The heroine's daughter looks Apache, resembles the hero, and despite knowing she is six years old - the right age counting from his miserable wedding night - it takes him forever to figure out she is his daughter, despite his suspicion that he damaged the heroine so badly she might have avoided sex for a long time afterward.The reason we are given is that the hero believes he is sterile. His wife told him so after less than 9 months of marriage, of which he spent 7 months on an overseas assignment. There is no explanation as to why he should believe her.The wedding night between the hero and heroine is described in many different ways: He raped her in anger. Not even his anger could stop his desire for her. It was a night of loving, sensual touching that got out of hand and caused the heroine damage due to the hero's unusual proportions and his failure to understand she was a virgin. The same confusion surrounds the end of his real marriage. He almost died when his wife left him two years later. The day she divorced him was the worst day of his life. Or: Once the intial physical obsession wore out there was nothing left between them and he only stuck to the marriage out of pride.I don't mind big drama in romance novels but there should be some level of consistency and logic. This story has too many gaps and too much bad blood between the hero and heroine to really make sense.
Of all the Diana Palmer books I have read, this one had the least amount of things I had issues with. Colby is a jerk, true but he's been through the ringer and had to deal with being a has been CIA/merc and not being able to do things he used to do. Colby is disabled, having had his lower arm shot off during a coup in Africa. This gives this story a bit of an edge because it's not often romance stories have alpha males who are not "perfect". Sarina had issues too, the same "I've got a secret" which seems typical in these types of books. What I found unique is the lack of the usual banter between lovers, the we have broken up, we are now together, nope - we're no more -- need I say more? Colby, once fix on Sarina, remained focused on her. The relationship progressed slowly, there were no "let's hit the sack" after being back together two minutes in this story, which I found extremely cheesy. When Colby and Sarina finally got together, it felt like the right time. It's because of the levelheadedness of the characters, their situations and how everything was handled, that I gave this book three stars.
What do You think about Outsider (2007)?
I have to say once again, that Ms. Palmer is a classic. I have always enjoyed Ms. Palmers work, and I am also a collector of her work. I picked "Outsider" to write about, because the emotional pain the hero went through and also the heroine. Most romance do have problems and dark torments of past; but this one hero Colby Lane was truly a tormented soul. This story will touch anyone who reads it; it still brings tears to my eyes and I have read and re-read the story over and over. The heroine is nobodyl's fool either and she is tough, but she has a painful past as well as secrets and I for one savored each page of this book. There is no way I can pick and choose my favorite of any of Ms. Palmer's books, but I have to say this one is right at the top.
—Wateena
Diana Palmer likes to introduce her characters in previous books. Luckily I had just read the book that this particular man character was introduced in. This doesn't really bother me but I wish she put up a family tree of sorts on her website so you know what order to read the books in so you aren't missing the character's introduction. I say family tree of sorts b/c they aren't family but they are connected somehow. This is called the "Long Tall Texan" series. Last time I checked there's like 32 books in the series. A little scary if you want to read her backlog but you could start anywhere if you had a character tree. Say you pick Colby Lane, the main guy in this book. If you look his name up you'll see he's introduced in "Lawless" (I'm only 90%) sure that's the book so you really only need to read that book before this one but then if you come across another character you like you just look at the character tree to see what all books this character is mentioned in. Which reminds me a couple of other authors do this and I had an awesome friend who actually made up the character trees for two of her favorite authors that did it and she shared them with me when I decided to read their backlogs.
—Jenny
My gas, the angst!!There are things I liked in terms of characterization and drama, plus the whole Byronic thingy (yes, there is violence! surprise!). However, since this is supposed to be romance, it would be blasphemy on my part to give it any more than this because ---- ugh the hero is not hero-material!!How is it sensible to love a guy who raped you on your first night together - you being a virgin - that you had to be given 4 stitches after? Not to mention that you had to carry his child alone for 7 years because he denied paternity of the baby? @____@ T____T @____@ --> This is my cycled reaction for the first 100 pagesBut I like the relationship of the mother and the daughter. And I really like the heroine and her strength of character. I just wish that she be given a normal hero, and not this angsty excuse for a human being.
—Chrissie (is stuck in the 19th century)
