New York Times bestselling author Diana Palmer delivers a reader-favorite tale of Prince Charming on the rangeWhen Christy Haley moves to Arizona, she never expects to meet an irascible, yet irresistible, ranch owner. The blonde teacher can’t help but be drawn to handsome Nate Lang, who makes it clear he isn’t looking for love. But Christy will have to dig a little deeper to find the rancher’s true desires…The last thing Nate needs is an East Coast innocent who doesn’t know a cactus from a cornstalk! But Christy has already unearthed his passion…and discovered her rugged Westerner is a greenhorn himself—at love.Originally published in 1990.
Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name.
Diana Palmer is a pseudonym for author Susan Kyle.
(1)romance author Susan Eloise Spaeth was born on 11 December 1946 in Cuthbert, Georgia, USA. She was the eldest daughter of Maggie Eloise Cliatt, a nurse and also journalist, and William Olin Spaeth, a college professor. Her mother was part of the women's liberation movement many years before it became fashionable. Her best friends are her mother and her sister, Dannis Spaeth (Cole), who now has two daughters, Amanda Belle Hofstetter and Maggie and lives in Utah. Susan grew up reading Zane Grey and fell in love with cowboys. Susan is a former newspaper reporter, with sixteen years experience on both daily and weekly newspapers. Since 1972, she has been married to James Kyle and have since settled down in Cornelia, Georgia, where she started to write romance novels. Susan and her husband have one son, Blayne Edward, born in 1980.
She began selling romances in 1979 as Diana Palmer. She also used the pseudonyms Diana Blayne and Katy Currie, and her married name: Susan Kyle. Now, she has over 40 million copies of her books in print, which have been translated and published around the world. She is listed in numerous publications, including Contemporary Authors by Gale Research, Inc., Twentieth Century Romance and Historical Writers by St. James Press, The Writers Directory by St. James Press, the International Who's Who of Authors and Writers by Meirose Press, Ltd., and Love's Leading Ladies by Kathryn Falk. Her awards include seven Waldenbooks national sales awards, four B. Dalton national sales awards, two Bookrak national sales awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award for series storytelling from Romantic Times, several Affaire de Coeur awards, and two regional RWA awards.
Inspired by her husband, who quit a blue-collar manufacturing job to return to school and get his diploma in computer programming, Susan herself went back to college as a day student at the age of 45. In 1995, she graduated summa cum laude from Piedmont College, Demorest, GA, with a major in history and a double minor in archaeology and Spanish. She was named to two honor societies (the Torch Club and Alpha Chi), and was named to the National Dean's List. In addition to her writing projects, she is currently working on her master's degree in history at California State University. She hopes to specialize in Native American studies. She is a member of the Native American Rights Fund, the American Museum of Natural History, the National Cattlemen's Association, the Archaeological Institute of Amenca, the Planetary Society, The Georgia Conservancy, the Georgia Sheriff's Association, and numerous conservation and charitable organizations. Her hobbies include gardening, archaeology, anthropology, iguanas, astronomy and music.
In 1998, her husband retired from his own computer business and now pursues skeet shooting medals in local, state, national and international competition. They love riding around and looking at the countryside, watching sci-fi on TV and at the movies, just talking and eating out.
The hero of the first half was a slimy weasel, while the man he morphed into in the latter half of the book was swooney and amazing. The writing in this one was not up to par. The relationship felt shallow and the motivations were sketchy. I was shocked to see that this was published in 2015 as it seemed much more dated than that. The poor heroine was astounded to see a man's bare chest! In 2015? What rock has she been living under? Has she never been to a swimming pool? Or walked past a magazine rack at the grocery store? The h was just a bit too OTT innocent and sheltered to be believable and was too passive in her own life and choices. The H blew very hot/cold but got super sweet by the end.
Turns out that both the H/h are closet nerdy late bloomers who were secretly hot. I loved the end and believed in their HEA.
Typical but enjoyable DP. We've got a hairy manly chest, a cantankerous H, a virginal sweet natured yet naive h, some soapboxing about this and that, and voila... There's a wee twist at the end that I liked and made the H more endearing.
Christy is a virginal kindergarten teacher in her mid 20's, who has lead a sheltered and dowdy life. She decides that she wants to spread her wings, so she changes her clothes and hair and leaves Florida for the first time in her life. In Arizona on an archaeological dig, she comes face to face with Nate, the owner of the land the dig is on. Nate takes an inexplicable dislike of her. But it's not inexplicable to the reader as you get both their thoughts in this one, which helps a lot with making sense of the back and forth and hot and cold between them. Some sexy 'almost' times, but this one keeps it clean for the most part.
Love the cover…but that doesn’t look like Arizona to me!
Sweet and light. Has all of DP’s usual fare minus too much of the blow hot, blow cold capers. Well, there is some but up to an acceptable level and not those that give you whiplash! Liked the h and the H turned out quite nice too!
"It was pure bad luck that the Hokokam ruin the professor was interested in was on property owned by Nathanial Lang, who seemed to hate science, modern people, and Christine with a passion."
FINAL DECISION: The typical experienced hero, virginal heroine story is elevated by revelations the defy expectations and a hero who at first appears to be heartless but ends up being incredibly sweet.
THE STORY: Christiana "Christy" Haley is a teacher from the east who joins an archeological excavation as part of her summer vacation and recent makeover. She meets ornery ranch owner Nate Long who is a westerner and who believes that the clumsy accidents that follow Christy are her way of trying to attract him. Christy is old fashioned and barely out of her shy, awkward stage. She finds she likes Nate but his misunderstandings about her push her too far too fast.
OPINION: This is a sweet gentle romance between two people that seem to be opposite. Christy is a woman who looks beautiful, but inside is shy and awkward. She is being noticed by men for the first time and doesn't quite know how to handle herself. Nate is a confident sexy cowboy and much more sophisticated that Christy -- or so she thinks. What is revealed through the story is that both Christy and Nate have mistaken impressions about one another.
This story is elevated by the fact that Nate recognizes his mistaken impression of Christy and is then conflicted because he likes this woman but doesn't want to be hurt by her -- or to hurt her. I felt that Nate is a sweet hero.
The end of the story (no spoilers) was simply adorable.
WORTH MENTIONING: As with many Palmer heroes, Nate mistakes Christy for an experienced woman and attempts to engage in a sexual relationship with her. Here, however, Nate is much more a gentleman that some Palmer heroes.
I gotta read this one again...haven't rated any of my DPs lately 'cause I keep thinking she's saying the same thing, and so am I!!
This one threw me a tad, though. I gotta go back and re-read this little book because I missed where hate morphed into love in less than 20 pages.
Ok. Ok. It's a short book, but egads, this guy was another mixed signal jerkwad!
Does DP have a thing against attractive heroes or is it just me? Can we have ONE hottie every now and then?? Okay. I am working the backlist; so, bye for now!
The book was ok. If you have read as many of the Diana Palmer romances I have, you recognize the template feel of the writing and the carbon copy characters. Different names same plot. I gave it a 3 because it was a Palmer romance, but if you are looking for an exciting romance, this is not the book.
I purchased the steamy book Miss Green Horn by Diana Palmer, and this review was given freely. Two lonely adults make themselves over, but don't trust love when they find it.
If you're a Diana Palmer fan you'll enjoy this story. She always writes strong characters very descriptive historic backgrounds and always a Happy Ever After.
Gostei do livro, ele não foge ao estilo DP, pois a mocinha é virgem e inocente e o mocinho é experiente e interpreta de maneira errada o comportamento da mocinha.
Ela é uma professora que tem a vida protegida e sem graça, mas que encontra nesta expedição arqueológica uma maneira de fugir de seu cotidiano e pensar a respeito de um pedido de casamento por parte de um pretendente mais velho e já com três filhos.
Ela se depara com um mocinho estilo DP e TDB, experiente e já cheio de se deparar com mulheres loucas pelo seu dinheiro. Como a mocinha é bem desastrada ele acha que ela está fazendo de tudo pra chamar a atenção dele, tem cenas bem engraçadas. Aliás, ele se acha o último biscoito recheado do pacote, kkkkk!
A mocinha é bonita, mas não tem noção de sua beleza, pois é tímida e desastrada.
Didn't really like Nate. He was kind of a jerk and Christy was a doormat. I didn't really see the reason why he would blow hot & cold all the time. Also, her clumsiness because of her poor eyesight got a little old. Who would keep tripping & falling into people just because they didn't want to wear glasses? Was this before the time of contacts? They just didn't make much sense to me.
Mostly because the Hero's pretty annoying and he won't admit that he misjudged the heroine. I kind of want to slap his face. But then again it's been a while since I read Diana Palmer and I think this book is angsty. Definitely refreshing. ;)
I'm so glad this will be released in ebook format, because the mass paperback version is so hard to come by! I've been wanting to read this for a long time! Currently, there's a listing on eBay for the paperback, for £987.34!!!