Wyoming True

A wonderful fast read

Awesome book

I was very disappointed with this book. It was so slow and repetitive . No steam at all. Also the audiobook was awful. The narrator sounded like a Paul Harvey. No offense, but not very romantic. I always loved her books, but the last few have been not up to par. I hope she goes back to her older style romance .

*3.5 stars*

I haven’t read this author for a while but I’m always happy to pick up one of her romances. A bit old-fashioned, always gentle, and people who are very black and white in nature, the surprises are in the characters rather than their circumstances. Older, experienced man rescues an innocent woman from financial or physical harm. The premise may be formulaic but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a really good read. And that is what Jake and Ida’s story was…

Ida had been married twice but still managed to have an air of innocence about her, and a core of goodness despite the wild woman reputation she had cultivated. Jake was at first dismissive but as he grew to know her, his attitude and feelings changed. Ups and downs and a lot of learning about each other later, they found themselves on common ground. If the story was a bit repetitive in spots, that didn’t take away from a love that quietly grew and made for a satisfying read…

*I happily reviewed this story
**Thank you to NetGalley

I’ve been reading Diana Palmer’s romance novels for the past 30-something years, and with the possible exception of Lacy and The Morcai Battalion, all of her other romance novels are formulaic, although this one is a little more up to date, slightly different (no swooning virgins), and while I enjoyed it a bit more than some of the previous novels in her Wyoming series, I still had more a few issues with it, which I why I’m giving it a 3-star rating.

Wyoming True is the story of battered, broken and abused Ida Merridan, whose first husband was considerably older and who treated her like a princess, except for never having sex with her, something she really didn’t question until his suicide note, 5 years later, explained that he was gay. She may be old-fashioned, as are all of Ms. Palmer’s characters, but I can’t imagine any bride not even questioning why her husband never attempted to have sex with her, and never wondering whether or not he was gay, impotent, or even asking him.

Ida’s second husband, Bailey, was a sadistic, evil, money-grubbing gambler, and an abusive jerk, whom she married after a very short courtship, and who was in prison for throwing her off the roof of a parking garage, breaking her hip, her leg, nearly killing her, and leaving her terrified of men. For all that, he was only only given a 5-year sentence, and as we learn early on, was out of prison in just 3 years for good behavior, and he still wanted his ex-wife to pay off his debts. In the interim, she’s returned to her hometown in Wyoming, a very wealthy widow, thanks to her first husband, and established a rather odd reputation for herself as a slut, whose many lovers never measured up and who wasn’t afraid to discuss their shortcomings in public–all in an attempt to keep men away from her.

Jake McGuire is another ultra-wealthy character, who, when he steps outside the local diner, notices that Ida’s Jaguar has a flat tire and overhears her on the phone as she’s told no one will be able to get to her car for 2 hours, making her late for a medical appointment, so Jake, always a gentleman, reluctantly offers to get her to her appointment, and get her home safely. While he couldn’t possibly have a worse impression of her at the outset, he eventually learns that she isn’t at all what she seems, and although he’s been nursing a broken heart since the woman he was in love with, Mina, married a friend of his, when he learns that someone has harmed two of Ida’s horses, and that she’s sure it’s her ex-husband, he goes into protective mode, moves her into his home, and eventually asks her to enter into a non-sexual marriage with him–and although Ida is still not trusting of men, she agrees.

Okay–at this point my willing suspension of disbelief snapped. First, Jake, although kind to Ida, can’t stop mooning over his lost love, Mina, and at age 37, can’t envision himself ever loving another woman again. Thirty-seven is a long way from over-the hill, and since he feels that his love life is over, why offer Ida marriage, when they merely could have lived together or simply become good friends and companions? Additionally, Jake is scarred from an IED explosion during his military service in Afghanistan, and is ashamed to even show anyone his scars. Ida is also emotionally wounded and scarred, yet accepts his proposal, knowing full well that he’s in love with someone else’s wife. Again, after a sex-free marriage to a much older, closeted, gay man, followed by marriage to a violent man she only knew briefly and which nearly ended with her death, why agree to another sexless marriage to a virtual stranger?

We finally get to the supposedly suspenseful part of this romance, but all of the suspense happens off screen, so the build-up to Ida’s ex-husband finally getting his hands on her and payback for the time he spent in prison because she testified against him, is over in a page or two, without the two of them even seeing each other again and it falls flatter than a flapjack. Bailey is painted as such a vile, evil character that the fact that we never even get to meet him didn’t make a bit of sense to this reader.

Yes, of course, there is an HEA ending to all of this, and yes, it’s a well-written novel with two likable main characters, but it could have been so much better had Ida and Jake’s relationship not been quite so unbelievable. While I’m sure that most of Diana Palmer’s many fans will enjoy this latest Wyoming novel, for this Diana Palmer fan, it left quite a bit to be desired.

I voluntarily read an advance reader copy of this novel. The opinions expressed are my own.