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Outback Man
Wrongly dismissed from her first job in Australia for stealing, Lou took refuge in the remote outback-and speedily fell in love with her employer, Steve Bryant.
The her old enemy from Sydney, Angela Poole arrived herself, determined to steal-Lou's 'outback man'.
The her old enemy from Sydney, Angela Poole arrived herself, determined to steal-Lou's 'outback man'.
192 pages, Paperback
First published August 1, 1966
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 5, 2017
Awww. This is just a *nice* story with enough tension to make it interesting. The tension comes from a truly evil OW who gets the fresh-off-the-boat English heroine fired from her job in Sydney and in an eye-brow raising coincidence, schemes to marry the hero, the titular "outback man."
Our heroine is cute as a button, a little shy, and fierce in her resolve to make a new life for herself in Australia. After the disaster in Sydney (where her boyfriend believes the OW over her) she answers an ad for a temporary governess in the Outback. After a long train ride, an argument with the hero about her suitability, and a long car ride to the station, the heroine finds out that the hero's nephews she was supposed to teach are gone - taken by their scheming mother - but there is a position open as a cook.
Our plucky heroine serves a truly dire meal, but the aloof hero compliments her on the tea. This gives the heroine enough confidence to stay with it and in no time she is cutting sandwiches as big as "door slabs" and making all the hired hands their favorite dishes. She further endears herself to the hero when she makes over his old nanny's room as a surprise and befriends her as well.
There is a persistent OM from another station. A community polo match and dance. (Heroine makes her own dress) And Christmas preparations in the searing heat. The shy heroine is finally happy even though her conscience is nagging her about not telling the hero about her dismissal for theft.
And now, enter the OW. She comes for Christmas and makes the heroine's and nanny's life miserable with all of her demands. She makes the heroine look bad in the hero's eyes at every turn, and our poor girl is nearly in despair when the OM, goaded by the OW, arranges to have car trouble coming back from the dance so he can put the moves on our shy heroine. After she rejects him, they really do have car trouble and don't arrive back until morning. The hero is in a jealous rage, but the heroine thinks he is looking down on her for her lack of morals.
It all comes to a head when the OW blackmails the heroine to leave, but the hero overhears. The OW is sent back to Sydney and the hero explains that he's known all along about the heroine's unfair dismissal (he had his lawyers look into it after the first week he hired her), and he wanted the heroine to trust him enough to tell him. He invited the OW in hopes she would repent and apologize to the heroine for her bad behavior. They declare their true feelings - plan a wedding in a month. HEA.
Like I said, this was just nice. Our hero used questionable judgment a few times because he was so jealous - but he was really a good guy and was obviously smitten with the heroine. The heroine is a sweetie - plucky and prone to giving herself lectures when her spirits flagged. The OW was a sadistic witch who shouldn't be allowed to roam freely.
Outback checklist:
Rich hero who was savvy in the city and in the outback.
Cooking giant meals for the hired hands
2 community dances
Car breakdown.
The only weather event was the extreme heat of Christmas
OW who doesn't join in the spirit of the Outback.
Our heroine is cute as a button, a little shy, and fierce in her resolve to make a new life for herself in Australia. After the disaster in Sydney (where her boyfriend believes the OW over her) she answers an ad for a temporary governess in the Outback. After a long train ride, an argument with the hero about her suitability, and a long car ride to the station, the heroine finds out that the hero's nephews she was supposed to teach are gone - taken by their scheming mother - but there is a position open as a cook.
Our plucky heroine serves a truly dire meal, but the aloof hero compliments her on the tea. This gives the heroine enough confidence to stay with it and in no time she is cutting sandwiches as big as "door slabs" and making all the hired hands their favorite dishes. She further endears herself to the hero when she makes over his old nanny's room as a surprise and befriends her as well.
There is a persistent OM from another station. A community polo match and dance. (Heroine makes her own dress) And Christmas preparations in the searing heat. The shy heroine is finally happy even though her conscience is nagging her about not telling the hero about her dismissal for theft.
And now, enter the OW. She comes for Christmas and makes the heroine's and nanny's life miserable with all of her demands. She makes the heroine look bad in the hero's eyes at every turn, and our poor girl is nearly in despair when the OM, goaded by the OW, arranges to have car trouble coming back from the dance so he can put the moves on our shy heroine. After she rejects him, they really do have car trouble and don't arrive back until morning. The hero is in a jealous rage, but the heroine thinks he is looking down on her for her lack of morals.
It all comes to a head when the OW blackmails the heroine to leave, but the hero overhears. The OW is sent back to Sydney and the hero explains that he's known all along about the heroine's unfair dismissal (he had his lawyers look into it after the first week he hired her), and he wanted the heroine to trust him enough to tell him. He invited the OW in hopes she would repent and apologize to the heroine for her bad behavior. They declare their true feelings - plan a wedding in a month. HEA.
Like I said, this was just nice. Our hero used questionable judgment a few times because he was so jealous - but he was really a good guy and was obviously smitten with the heroine. The heroine is a sweetie - plucky and prone to giving herself lectures when her spirits flagged. The OW was a sadistic witch who shouldn't be allowed to roam freely.
Outback checklist:
Rich hero who was savvy in the city and in the outback.
Cooking giant meals for the hired hands
2 community dances
Car breakdown.
The only weather event was the extreme heat of Christmas
OW who doesn't join in the spirit of the Outback.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 12, 2017
Good God Almighty, I wanted to slap the heroine into the next millennium. Why not? Everyone else did, metaphorically.
Set up by one the biggest EW bitch's EVER at her old firm for absconding funds she loses her boyfriend the EW has her eye on. She doesn't even float out a defense. Goes to the Outback to do...everything. Skimming at this point. Evil bitch from fricking HELL shows up, of course while my eyes roll out of their sockets, to manipulate this pathetic dweeb as well as smarm up to the H. THE TINY H EVEN TOOK HER BREAKFAST IN BED!!!
Evil OW sets her up again, telling the h's lovelorn swain she has the hots for him (she doesn't as it's all saved up for the H) which leads to a night of connived car problems. H isn't happy when they show up from a night in the Outback 15 minutes before the h has to start cooking breakfast.
The ONLY reason this gets an extra star is the evil OW from fricking HELL gets her comeuppance. Sadly not at the hands of the Hello, wipe your feet doormat h, but because the H hears her evil OW diatribe. Turns out he knew everything all along and, SNORT, hoped the evil OW might apologize.
I need a glass of red wine and a blood pressure cup.
Set up by one the biggest EW bitch's EVER at her old firm for absconding funds she loses her boyfriend the EW has her eye on. She doesn't even float out a defense. Goes to the Outback to do...everything. Skimming at this point. Evil bitch from fricking HELL shows up, of course while my eyes roll out of their sockets, to manipulate this pathetic dweeb as well as smarm up to the H. THE TINY H EVEN TOOK HER BREAKFAST IN BED!!!
Evil OW sets her up again, telling the h's lovelorn swain she has the hots for him (she doesn't as it's all saved up for the H) which leads to a night of connived car problems. H isn't happy when they show up from a night in the Outback 15 minutes before the h has to start cooking breakfast.
The ONLY reason this gets an extra star is the evil OW from fricking HELL gets her comeuppance. Sadly not at the hands of the Hello, wipe your feet doormat h, but because the H hears her evil OW diatribe. Turns out he knew everything all along and, SNORT, hoped the evil OW might apologize.
I need a glass of red wine and a blood pressure cup.
April 3, 2017
Clean, sweet romance with an innocent helpful little heroine with big eyes and a big ol manly outback man. I've noticed a distinct trend with Amanda Doyle romances though. There's always an evil, plotting, scheming OW who manipulates things to put the heroine in a bad light, and the heroine always accepts it meekly, even pandering to the spoiled, beautiful, posh other girl's whims. Grr.
Not much action in the physical sense, they barely kissed once at the end, but I liked Steve more than her other Heroes because he was really nice to Lou, and Lou was just a total cutie.
Not much action in the physical sense, they barely kissed once at the end, but I liked Steve more than her other Heroes because he was really nice to Lou, and Lou was just a total cutie.
September 11, 2014
Great fun....
September 17, 2014
4 Stars ~ After her parents died, Louise lived with her married sister and helped her with her two small children while her sister's husband worked overseas. With his return, Lou felt she was in the way and so she decided to immigrate to Australia, a brave move for a single girl of 21. Though her salary barely covered her expenses, Lou loved her secretarial job and she thought she had fallen in love with her co-worker, Dick. The owner of the firm's niece, Angela began to sabotage Lou on the job, making her look inefficient and inexperienced, especially to Dick. When the petty cash accounting figures were fudged and there's money missing, Lou's the obvious suspect. Dismissed on the spot, Lou's lost not only her job but she's lost Dick too when he refuses to believe in her innocence. With little in the way of savings, and without a reference for a decent job, Lou jumps at the posting of job in the Outback for a temporary governess. Luckily the job is urgent and the firm hired to fill the post, doesn't have enough time to fully check her work history.
Arriving at Nundooya by train, Lou nearly misses her rancher boss.
And so, Steve agrees to take her to Ridley Hills, it's a 70 mile drive, and just before they get there he tells her that the children are no longer at Ridley Hills, and that he hoped she was the "capable woman" he advertised for because they were sorely in need of a cook and housekeeper. Goaded, Lou can't help herself ...
Of course, Steve doesn't take her back to the train. Though her first efforts as a cook were disastrous, Lou with the help of the gardener-handyman, Jim, she quickly learnt the ranches routine and how to feed all the ranch hands. And just as Lou thought she had found a place she could call home, the phone rings and it's Angela. Seems Angela is the woman from Sydney that the men like to tease Steve about, and she's coming to Ridley Hills for Christmas.
From the first pages, Ms. Doyle depth to Lou and made her a heroine easy to relate to and one very easy to root for. She's got spunk and an honesty that charms Steve from the beginning. Steve can't help himself from wanting to protect this waif of a woman who answers his ad. He gives her a chance to prove herself and in doing that he gives her the confidence she lacked when she arrived. While we aren't privy to Steve's thoughts, Ms. Doyle cleverly shows us how much he has come to admire her. This is a lovely story given to us by a talented story teller. I'm looking forward to reading more of Ms. Doyle's romances.
Arriving at Nundooya by train, Lou nearly misses her rancher boss.
There was no one — just Lou. But no, there was someone after all, she realized, as she heard the murmur of voices and the pulling of levers' in the pinky-buff signal box at the end of the platform. She had almost reached it when someone suddenly emerged, shrugged wide shoulders deeper into a black leather jacket, crammed the inevitable broad-brimmed hat on to crisp black hair with an air of finality, and after the merest fraction of a pause, during which she was conscious of a critical grey scrutiny, strode purposefully past her toward the waiting limousine. Somehow she felt winded, as if they had virtually collided, as if she'd received a buffeting from an actual physical force. I should have eaten my sandwiches, she told herself, not just munched an apple. I'm tired and a bit hungry, and that's why I feel so hollow. It's got nothing to do with that outback man, and he's got nothing to do with me. For there was no doubt in her mind that this was an outback man — those long impatient legs encased in narrow whitish cord, the elasticsided boots immaculately shining, the shirt opened to reveal a thick, tanned column of sunburnt neck, the backward tilt of the wide hat, all added up to an outback man. Not a grazier, not a squatter, not a pastoralist. They weren't, they couldn't be, as elemental and overwhelming as that outback man.
"Oh, no!" groaned Lou aloud. "Oh, no! It can't be — not him, not the outback man." But even as she tried vainly to calm her reeling senses, to collect her scattered wits to meet the onslaught that was to come, she knew that it could be, and it was. He'd been folding his length casually in behind the steering-wheel when the other man called. But he didn't get out again casually. Oh, no, he didn't! He got out angrily, and anger sounded too in every thud of every step as it rang over the rutted ground and back round the paling. Then he was standing over Lou, legs' apart, jacket open, hands thrust into a plaited leather belt slung over narrow hips.
"Is this some sort of joke?" was what the outback man said, except Lou knew by his acid tone that he didn't think it was funny at all. She drew herself up to her full five feet three inches in a vain effort to measure up to his commanding height as he towered above her, decided to ignore the sarcasm, if such it was, and asked in what she felt to be a commendably polite manner: "Could you possibly be Mr. Stephen Bryant, of Ridley Hills?"
"I'm Steve Bryant, yes" — he brushed that impatiently aside — "but are you Miss Stacey?"
"Yes, Louise Stacey." There was a pause, during which he appeared to be controlling a spasm of some indefinable, jaw-setting emotion.
Then, "Well, Miss Stacey, if it's not a joke, may I ask how you came to apply for a post which specifically requested a woman? I distinctly said 'Capable Woman!'"
"Well, I am a woman, and I'm here," reasoned Lou. Her voice was firm, although inside she felt as quivery as a melting jelly, and it wasn't through lack of breakfast. She raised her eyes to meet the cool grey ones of her adversary, determined hers wouldn't be the first to waver, that she would successfully hide from his piercing ones the glimmer of consternation in her own.
She couldn't know, in that moment, as she looked up at him with unconscious appeal in her violet gaze, with shadows' of weariness beneath, and the soft hair framing cheeks whose pallor had been whipped to faint pinkness by the crisp air of an inland winter's morning, that she looked no more than sixteen to the outback man. Yes, a fragile, slim-legged, innocent sixteen-year-old, he decided, as he rammed tobacco into the blackened bowl of his pipe with a blunt-tipped brown forefinger, and clenched it between his teeth unlit.
"Miss Stacey, you'll have to go back. You can't stay here, and I'm not taking you out to Ridley Hills."
Really, the man was impossible! First he advertised for someone to come immediately, and then, when they did, he tried to send them back. Lou's patience evaporated. With courage born of desperation and an almost empty purse, and a stubborn streak inherited perhaps from her Irish grandfather, she bit out, "Mr. Bryant, I have no intention of being fobbed off like this. You advertised, I replied, and your solicitors found me suitable even though you apparently do not."
And so, Steve agrees to take her to Ridley Hills, it's a 70 mile drive, and just before they get there he tells her that the children are no longer at Ridley Hills, and that he hoped she was the "capable woman" he advertised for because they were sorely in need of a cook and housekeeper. Goaded, Lou can't help herself ...
Lou swallowed on a constriction of acute dismay. She'd never cooked in her life. ...... Lou's brain gave a lurch, and then ceased working altogether for a split second as a most unwelcome thought now occurred to her. How could she stay — just herself and this man alone in a bush homestead? And he'd known all the time. He'd actually compromised her by bringing her here at all. Why, the brute! The scheming, low-down, deceiving brute!
Lou's eyes suddenly smouldered with rage, her cheeks were flushed with righteous indignation, her mind, seething with fury, completely lost control of the things it had meant to make her tongue say, as she turned to him and spluttered recklessly, "Of course I can cook! What woman can't cook? I'm a capable adult, not an inane schoolgirl, whatever you may think. And as a woman, I have positively no desire or intention of taking a position in a bachelor establishment at the back of beyond. I wish to go to the station immediately. Turn this car round, please, and drive me back to Nundooya straight away."
Of course, Steve doesn't take her back to the train. Though her first efforts as a cook were disastrous, Lou with the help of the gardener-handyman, Jim, she quickly learnt the ranches routine and how to feed all the ranch hands. And just as Lou thought she had found a place she could call home, the phone rings and it's Angela. Seems Angela is the woman from Sydney that the men like to tease Steve about, and she's coming to Ridley Hills for Christmas.
From the first pages, Ms. Doyle depth to Lou and made her a heroine easy to relate to and one very easy to root for. She's got spunk and an honesty that charms Steve from the beginning. Steve can't help himself from wanting to protect this waif of a woman who answers his ad. He gives her a chance to prove herself and in doing that he gives her the confidence she lacked when she arrived. While we aren't privy to Steve's thoughts, Ms. Doyle cleverly shows us how much he has come to admire her. This is a lovely story given to us by a talented story teller. I'm looking forward to reading more of Ms. Doyle's romances.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 17, 2018
The H was such a bonehead with his decisions related to the OW that I couldn't forgive him.
September 18, 2024
Quite a nice story for the first half, except the OW was horrid and the hero supposedly saw through her - but did nothing to stop her as she was his friend and thought she would make it up to the heroine. It's a shame as the story was charming up until the point the OW came to stay. The heroine becomes a servant to her and the hero, if he loved the heroine at this point, was dumb and awful.
April 1, 2023
This book had a truly horrible OW who got no comeuppance. The weak kneed h felt sorry for her after weeks of being bullied and harassed. 🤦♀️ But the plot kept me glued so I’ll give it an extra star.
December 13, 2023
If heroines without an ounce of backbone are your thing, have I got a book for you!
It wasn't a terrible story, it just wasn't anything to get excited about. What mostly annoyed me was how the "violet eyed" heroine takes to the life of cook and housekeeper with barely a demur after training as a secretary and applying to be a governess. She states she can't cook. But after one scene where she burns dinner, apparently her feminine sense of cookery shows up because she's an old hand at it in no time with no explanation. She also apparently sews evening gowns, cleans beautifully, and instinctively knows how to place flowers.
I really don't know what the hero saw in her except maybe the undeniable virtue of being the only eligible female for miles around.
It wasn't a terrible story, it just wasn't anything to get excited about. What mostly annoyed me was how the "violet eyed" heroine takes to the life of cook and housekeeper with barely a demur after training as a secretary and applying to be a governess. She states she can't cook. But after one scene where she burns dinner, apparently her feminine sense of cookery shows up because she's an old hand at it in no time with no explanation. She also apparently sews evening gowns, cleans beautifully, and instinctively knows how to place flowers.
I really don't know what the hero saw in her except maybe the undeniable virtue of being the only eligible female for miles around.
February 5, 2017
OW Angela is too nasty for me. I wanted to see her get what she deserved but she got off way too lightly. That spoiled some of my enjoyment.
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