Tempest. Wade Magallen led the life of a devil-may-care bachelor until Storm Roemer tamed his wild heart and calmed his hothead ways. But a devastating secret made him send away the most breathtaking girl in Wyoming and with her, his one chance at happiness. As gentle as a breeze, yet as strong willed as a gale, Storm returned to Laramie after years of trying to forget Wade. One look at the handsome cowboy unleashed a torrent of longing she couldn't deny, no matter what obstacle stood between them. Storm only had to decide if she'd win Wade back with a love as sweet as summer rain or a whirlwind of passion that would leave him begging for more.
Always a daydreamer, and often scolded for it by the grandmother who raised her, Norah Hess always wanted to be a writer. At eighteen, she was sent to Chicago to live with an aunt after her grandmother's death. It was there that she met her husband. After raising three children, Norah decided to write her first novel, and since then has had fifteen published romances. After her husband passed away, she and her two cats moved to Palm Springs, where the desert and mountains inspire her to write her Western romances.
This book would have been better had the heroine made the hero suffer as well. He hurt her so much, again and again and again. She just took it. I gave it three stars because I couldn't put it down and it made me cry buckets.
It should have been a sign when I tried to read this book 4 times, but kept leaving it to read other books.
This book really pissed me off. Wade was a complete asshole. I don't care how noble he thought his reasons were for keeping Storm at a distance, he ended up hurting her over and over again. On the other hand Storm was a pathetic, spineless, irritating woman. She complained when others would treat her like a child, but she'd turn around and act like one, unable to get a grip on her emotions by allowing shitface to continually hurt and use her. The other characters were no better, well except for Storm's best friend Betsy and the horse trainer, Raith (Sp? Sorry, I did the audio version of this book) they at least had interesting personalities. It appeared that all the other characters knew about the H/h love for each other, but all were unable to properly intervene leaving the reader to uncomfortably endure page after page of utter ridiculousness: "Was that jealousy? Does that means he loves me?"; "I love her so much, but I must hurt her again."; blah blah blah. The overarching plot was predictable and unimaginative and in the very end the shitface couldn't even tell Storm the truth about his illness. This book made me want to scream and is a blaring reminder of my flaws: the need to finish what I started.
This could have been a good story, but instead it was a case of a good idea poorly executed. Storm Roemer leaves her home for a teaching job in Cheyenne, to get over a broken heart. The man who broke it, Wade Magallan, is being what's sometimes called a "noble idiot". On the verge of proposing to Storm, he gets a letter from his brother that's a real game changer, and he then decides he's "gotta be cruel to be kind", so he dumps Storm, as if she hadn't meant much to him at all. He'd rather hurt her and let her think he's a womanizing jerk, which he assumes will be less painful than what's really going on, when he should have been honest and then they could have made decisions together. Never assume you know what's best for anyone, ask them instead!
Storm copes with her heartbreak by concentrating on her teaching career, keeping interested men at arm's length, while Wade hides his sorrow by acting footloose and fancy-free, though his latest bedmate is hoping to tie him down. The Storm comes back.
After that, Wade sure becomes a contradiction in terms. He wants to do the right thing and stay away from Storm, yet he can't bring himself to do that. He acts like he cares one minute, then treats her crummy the next. He determines to keep her at arms length, then seduces her. He regrets what happened, leads her to believe it meant nothing, then does the same thing again. after sleeping with her, he acts like it was just sex, then acts like he really cares, then tells her there's no future for them. He has a good reason to believe she's be better off without him, then risks getting her pregnant, as there was no mention of him withdrawing or using a condom (yes, they had them back then). So what the heck?????? What's with this contradictory guy, anyhow? If he really wanted to do the right thing, he never would have lead Storm on, slept with her, then made her feel it didn't mean anything, and that he was still carrying on with his bad rep girlfriend, who was hostile to Storm. You want to take Wade by the shoulders and shake him until his teeth rattle!!
I won't give away the reason why Wade does what he does, but it was something that could have be resolved before and went on too damn long. If it weren't for the secondary love story, between Storm's friend Becky and Rafe, the whole thing would just be redundant.
Moral of the story: tell the truth, no matter what, and trust in the person you love. Above all: DON'T BE A NOBLE IDIOT!
I really like this book.Wade is a tortured hero and makes sure he does the same to Storm to keep her away from him.She goes away but has to return because of a bad case of nerves in Cheyanne and finds him still the same carousing womanizer as when she left-his main girl being the town hooker who he uses to wound Storm with Her best friend whose parents were killed with Storms parents, and spent life in a series of foster homes has retuned to the area and they resume their friendship.She was molested by one of the so called Father figures and has become a hooker too. She does get even with him tho when her bro takes on a really good looking horse trainer and he invites the guy to live with them.