The All-the-Way Man

by Joyce Dingwell

"An involvement's the last thing I want."

Tim Fortescue was a confirmed cynic when it came to women he wasn't going to repeat his ancestor's mistakes. And besides, his outback cattle station was strictly a man's world.

But regardless, he wanted Jessica to pretend to be his fiancee until his matchmaking godmother was fooled enough to leave him alone.

"I'm sick of being a hunted man," he told Jessica. "And I'm certainly never going to get caught!"

Genres: Harlequin Romance, Romance, Contemporary Romance

188 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1980

About the author

Enid Joyce Owen Dingwell, née Starr, was born on 1908 in Ryde, New South Wales, Australia. She wrote, as Joyce Dingwell and Kate Starr, 80 romance novels for Mills & Boon from 1931 to 1986. She was the first Australian writer living in Australia to be published by Mills & Boon. Her novel The House in the Timberwood (1959), was made into a motion picture, The Winds of Jarrah (1983). Her work was particularly notable for its use of the Australian land, culture, and people. She passed away on 2 August 1997 in Kincumber, New South Wales.

Reviews

[StMargarets · Rating 1 out of 5]

My goodness, this was weird. Heroine goes to visit her brother in the Outback and winds up at the wrong station. The cattle baron hero wants her gone pronto, but the plane leaves while they are arguing. Hero has a brainstorm while driving to the house - she'll be his fiance to ward off his godmother and OW's matching-making plans. He's off marriage because his mother and grandmother left their husbands. Sounds like a fun set up, no?

Well, no.
The godmother and OW are both quite nice and the hero isn't very nice to them. Heroine finds herself protective of the OW. There is a manservant who is kind of Jar-Jar Binks character (he's supposed to be amusing, but is just annoying). The godmother is also nice and spends her time collecting outback recipes for a book she wants to write instead of matching the hero.

The heroine is a complete drip, and when she's not whining, she's not very nice. For instance, she's mean to a horse, taking her temper with the hero out on the horse. The hero whips her for it. (Just enough to slash her trousers. I had to read it twice - they both that it was no big deal).

Then there is the brother. He is on a nearby station that is owned by the hero, and doesn't have a kind word to say to his sister - I think it's supposed to jokey sibling humor but there isn't a bit of cleverness to it. Moving the plot along - the brother drives over to see the heroine and falls in love with OW in a day. Brother is promptly injured in a stampede, and goes to the hospital. OW pines for her new love by spending all of her time in her bedroom.

With everyone out of the way, the hero still insists heroine marry him or he will fire brother. The hero and heroine get married on the same day OW and brother elope (after OW sneaks out of bedroom and frees him from the hospital), so the whole set-up was unnecessary.

Undaunted by their own stupidity, they go on honeymoon paid for by the godmother. (Who obviously didn't care if hero married OW or not) They spend time on a beach that has caves. Hero gets caught in the cave with the tide rising. Heroine tries to rescue him. Hero hits his head, so heroine lets him sleep in the king-size bed with her. They have sex - although you can't tell until later because the heroine wonders if she will have a child. At this point I wondered if heroine though children came from cabbage patches or underwater caves or something.

Hero never mentions having sex, so heroine thinks he was concussed and didn't realize it. (LOL) He buys her an opal ring and then captures a wild horse to be tamed for her to ride. She is angry that the wild horse is imprisoned (obvious symbolism is obvious) and frees it. Hero is angry because horse will die without the wild herd, but still won't let her go. Heroine sells ring and books a flight out of there, but guess who is on the charter flight.

Godmother - with a book contract in hand. They want to take photos for her recipe book. Jar-jar Binks is delighted to have his kitchen become famous. Hero/heroine have to share the same bedroom. This time hero is not concussed. HEA.

I think I've read another one of her books. Kissing Gate? And it was weird, too. So many weird character actions that are never fully explained and then long descriptions of characters or situations that aren't important. Plus the dialogue had this staccato rhythm that was really annoying.

[Margo · Rating 1 out of 5]

Weird, in particular the consummation.

[Tia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This novel was just weird on so many levels. I can't even begin to describe what happened really. Basically heroine gets stuck with hero in the outback on his cattle ranch, he marries her and refuses to let her go. That about sums it up. It ended super short and I'm still going cross eyed from it all.

[Ellyn (Mrs. Darcy in my Dreams) · Rating 3 out of 5]

2 1/2 stars ⭐️⭐️ This was nuts!

[Trenchologist · Rating 1 out of 5]

1+? I'm not sure what to rate it because I'm not sure what to make of it, quite.

Not the first or only I've read of Dingwell, and all of them are a bit odd, with layers of mixed metaphors and gauzy emotions and thick, swirling prose. It doesn't always make sense, but it does always leave an impression.

Girl goes to visit her brother on a remote outback cattle station and has hopes of a job. He's apparently gushy and welcoming and warm to the idea--until she actually shows up and he later berates her for coming. She winds up at the wrong one of three airstrips on the station, and circumstances means she's stuck at the big house with the big boss who has ideas of using her as a shield to his marriage-on-her-mind godmother. She agrees to play along because, stranded as she is and angry as he is she's there for any other purpose, what choice does she have?*

And off it goes from there. And does not go off well at all, in the entire.

[*a lot, but this is a romance novel, so.]

There is no reason I can think of for the leads to fall for one another. There's none given that I can ascertain from the text -- even the subtext.

Which, is also a conundrum. There's so much metaphor and euphemism that a few brief, twisty paragraphs are, I finally concluded, sex? that impregnates her? on their strange "meddling godmother who wants him married off to her niece happily gives to this interloper" honeymoon (where he gets clobbered in the head by a tidal wave in a cave--thus making her assume he has no want or memory of the was-that-sex. Sure.)?

They antagonize and browbeat one another and sulk, otherwise.

I like a good fake engagement trope book. This isn't one of them. He all but smacks her around, and they both agree it's justified and not that bad. She doesn't find anything useful to do (a scenario I very much enjoy, when the heroine finds herself stuck/stranded and then goes fine, fine! and gets stuck in and makes herself useful to avoid the hero and have something to do and of course, look good to him without intending to).

She's petulant about his gifts. He gives too much too generously without warming her up as to why. She makes impulsive, sometimes just dumb, choices, and he punishes her for each. I think the honeymoon is supposed to be their time-out-of-time glow of falling (her) and admitting to have fallen (him), but it's written as a sketchy travelogue, the weird sex?I?think? scene, and no lasting conviviality or connection.

In the whole fake engagement set up, there's not much fakery or displays or them even acting like they want one another's company. Or need for it. They don't even bicker well. There's hints he fell for her early on and fights it the whole way, leading him to act as he does, but not enough hints and makes him seem overall not worth her aggro. There's also hints she will love the cattle ranch and stay forever--unlike her predecessors, who cut and run back two generations, but really, if their husbands behaved anything like the present-day hero, I can sympathize why. That and she's, as I note above, kinda useless and limp rag, so I hope she finds a hobby to enrich her days.

Very abrupt ending. Even for an old school Presents--wont for allowing five pages or less to confess, kiss, and make rapturous HEA--and that helps nothing that came before. A lot of these old schools can be some redeemed in the HEA pages; I didn't find that here. It was as twisty and layered with strange concealing prose and unsatisfying "well, okay I guess" as the rest.

The love story between the secondary characters is better, tbh.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

What was unusual about this book was the front cover. It shows a boat on a lake surrounded by mountains with snow on them. This book takes place in the outback of Australia and I don’t recall seeing any mention of boats or lakes.
The hero does indeed go all the way but the heroine thinks he slept through it. That about sums up the plot.

[Xandri · Rating 2 out of 5]

An avalanche from which there was no escape.....

[Last Chance Saloon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another fab trip into the crazy mind-whirl of Joyce Dingwell...
The heroine is coerced and causes stress with her antics and the hero is rather peculiar, but clearly in love and unable to express himself in the normal way. Oddly, for Joyce Dingwell, there are no natural disasters, no animal deaths and no OM.
At least four stars.