KEEPER OF THE FLAME... At thirty-four, Blake Hamilton was an arrogant lady-killer determined to keep his heart free. But to Kathryn Mary Kilpatrick he was a guardian stricter than the father she'd lost. She tried to rebel in the arms of another man...until a furious Blake promised to teach her a lesson she'd never forget, plunging them both into a fiery passion that was dangerously close to love!
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.
Flat guardian/ward romance with absolutely no tension beyond hero’s grumpiness and no charm beyond the heroine’s flippant attempts to hide her “love” for the hero.
Heroine is 20 and hero is 34 when the story opens. Heroine has been traveling the world and going to finishing school so she hasn’t been to the family mansion/plantation since she and the hero quarreled about some OM of the heroine’s. Hero’s mother and brother are afraid of him, as well as the heroine – although she is most afraid of those new feelings in her swimsuit area.
That doesn’t stop the heroine from wearing a Grecian style dress to her homecoming party and telling the hero he is spoiling everything by his grumpy attitude.
Fact check: he is spoiling the party – and the entire book – by his grumpy attitude. This is one charmless hero even though all the women in the district want to bed him.
Hero’s brother is one of the OMs – he’s a lightweight blond and is supposed by provide comic relief – but he’s tedious, too.
There is a brief appearance by another beta male whom both the h and H scorn for letting her drive her own car (a Porsche) during the rainy run up to a hurricane. It’s such a stupid thing and the h/H both come off as petty.
The OW is the daughter of a business investor in the hero’s textile mills. Hero is keeping her sweet to land a good deal/stop a strike/not sure – the stupidity fumes were getting to me at this point.
Hero instructs the heroine in “lovemaking” with his ashtray kisses and lectures her about leading a man on while he swans around with the OW.
Then, inexplicably, DP moves the entire enterprise – H/h, brother, mother, OW – to their family beach house on Haiti (!). The H/h have a torrid encounter on the beach one night. The next day the hero flies to ? Dominican Republic ? during a storm and they lose track of his plane. Heroine is convinced he’s alive because of their soul bond?
By this point I had cliché overload and could barely appreciate the heroine’s declaration of love and the hero’s frozen shock at the h's words as the OW wraps her arms around his neck. Heroine is packing to leave when the hero stops her and tells her the OW has left, then he asks her how many children she wants for an HEA.
Diana Palmer checklist: Hairy chest Check Breast Description small but mesmerizing in her low cut dresses Cigarettes every other paragraph Alcohol Heroine was drunk on punch at a party Town Descriptions Takes place outside of Charleston, SC so lots of travelogue info Gardenia Scent Heroine wears name-brand perfume LOL detail Hero borrowed a helicopter to fly the heroine over a flooded creek when a hurricane was brewing.
Edited to add: What is up with that cover? There is no wedding in this story. And it's not "western" as this takes place in South Carolina. Wow. That's some false advertising.
3.5 on the DP star scale. I had to laugh at this one. I was reading an old scan and every few pages Blake's name appeared as Flake. Really made me chuckle as that described his behavior (and hers) on many occasions!
"September Morning" is the story of Kathryn and Blake, and is another of guardian/ward- May/December romances. We have a h in love with the hero, a hero who sabotages the heroine's dates and wants control over her, and hot and heavy lovemaking. My issues with this book -The double standards. DP usually has chauvanistic heroes- and are usually redeemable- but this time around he deliberately did strut around like rooster while caging her, used the words like "She was asking for it" when it came to forced kisses, and he deliberately misused her innocence (calm down, only kisses) while making sure she doesnt date or move out- and still goes out with OW. -The utterly TSTL heroine. NO you DID NOT ask for it. GRRRR. And stop with the self pity and blame. So yeah this made me mad. EGH Not safe by definition 1/5
In September Morning, Diana Palmer tells the story of Kathryn Kilpatrick, a vivacious young lady with long black hair, and her guardian, Blake Hamilton. Blake is many years her senior and although he may think of Kathryn as a child, he is about to get his eyes opened!
A visit from Lawrence Donovan has Blake seething with jealousy and Blake’s association with Vivian Leeds crushes Kathryn’s spirit. How can Kathryn endure living in the same house as Blake and his apparent fiancee? Her only course is to move out and live on her own.
Unfortunately, Kathryn’s sojourn into the working world ends with her becoming Blake’s secretary. Now, she gets to see more of him and learn more about his world. Blake’s moods lead Kathryn through a roller coaster of emotions, but Blake’s true feelings remain elusive.
Can Kathryn convince Blake that she loves him or must she settle for a one-sided love?
Oookay, this book is very, truly annoying. Blake's an asshole and acting like jerk all the time while Katherine is weak, meek and willing to accept him even though he cut her heart out almost all the time.
I don't like it and the thing with Vivian is unsolved. This book left me unsatisfied. :/
A lot of these books by Diana Palmer are short so I really love that I can get my fix quickly. They all have kind of the same format. Young girl who is poor but sweet and beautiful, often a virgin, loves a powerful and rich playboy who sleeps around with anybody and everybody until finally deciding he wants to settle down and be happy. All the while torturing the young naïve girl. Why do I read these? I cut my teeth on these books and every once in a while want a walk down memory lane. There is comfort in the fact that I know what I am going to get. This one was really good.
thank u emma for my smut bday gift i need to find more books like this bc i was just GIGGLING the whole time. this is what smut is meant to be !!! no plot just historical fiction romance and enemies to lovers smut like wow.
Yeah, I do not think I like drunk Diana Palmer, she just writes the Darndest things.
What the hell is this utter mess about! So this is supposed to be the story of Blake and Kathryn Mary, he is her ward he wants to have sex with her. Yup this pretty much sums the whole thing, not much going on in this one.
During the first half of the story DP forgot to indulge us in her hair fetish , so she decided to make up for it in the second half by mentioning the “thick mat of hair over his strong chest” every ten lines.
Also we have detailed description of chest sex, with lots of chest to breast rubbing.
And why the hell do they talk and act as if they were stuck in a black and white movie.
A winning Diana Palmer book! Kathryn's character is so flippant about the underlining intensity of his possessiveness that it makes for a fun contrast. She jokes around her "revolution" movement against his protective and possessive handling of her life. Her playful taunts at him along with his younger brother as her accomplice was very quipped and funny. Blake was like a tiger ready roar and bite.
Kate é forte, independente e corajosa. E soube o momento de arriscar. Ela é muito diferente dos habituais personagens femininos da Diana Palmer. Já Blake é o típico personagem masculino. Cínico, arrogante e cabeça dura. E como todo cowboy luta, luta, luta, luta, luta, conta o amor, mas perde. Kkkkkkkkkk... Adoro quando esses homens fortes e machões perdem o controle.
Heroine was just plain nitwit for letting herself be swept away in his arms every time he touched her. And the hero was a ******** for confusing her by sending wrong signals. It irritated me to no end, his on again, off again routine.
Other than that the writing was okay. Nothing great.
Classic Guardian-ward romance. Hero is 34 yrs and heroine just turned 20. Also a typical Diana Palmer book with a shy virgin heroine and a over-bearing possessive hero.
Male chauvinistic pig. The H can fck anyone but god forbid the h even looks at a guy. I like possessive jealous heroes but feeling jealous yet mingling with ows is not acceptable.
It’s 1982 and no cliche will be left unturned in this guardian-ward romance between a nubile, poor little rich girl, and her manho, older cousin. As is common in the Diana Palmer oeuvre, the hero sows his wild oats with every skank in the vicinity while keeping the heroine more sheltered than a medieval princess and her duenna. He verbally abuses her while also giving her punishing kisses and bruise-inducing gropings. He mercilessly dangles a snout-nosed viper OW who spews her venom at the heroine with impunity. I am just surprised these two didn’t drive the heroine to kill herself cause they sure tried their best!
These campy romances would have at least a modicum of enjoyment if they concluded with some deserved comeuppance or a grovel by the hero. But we get nothing, not even an apology. The last image we have of the OW is her jumping into hero’s arms and giving him a thorough dental cleaning with her tongue in front of the mortified heroine. Then on the next page, the hero explains to the heroine that he sent OW packing and proposes to her only giving her a week to get ready, to which she melts in a puddle of goo, every torture he inflicted on her for years instantly forgotten.
I wish I could say this book was at least Gloriously Bad but it wasn’t, it was a tame, even boring number. I don’t think DP’s books became truly whackadoodle until years later, when she wrote about her fictional town of Jacobsville, where virgins with imperforate hymens can get impregnated by hero’s super sperm, and international covert agents who speak Farsi and can handle military grade weapons get to hide out from the Cartel in sleepy small towns. Those Truly Tacky, Gloriously Bad Hall of Famers are definitely more entertaining than the bland September Morning.
My favorite book of Diana Palmer is "Diamond Girl." Since my mom knows this and is an avid Diana Palmer fan, she pointed me in the direction of this book. Read it in one afternoon. It starts off with me wanting to strangle the heroine, Kathy, as she is too stubborn for her own good, but once she relents, she begins to realize that Blake (the hero) is the man she loves. It is similar to Diamond Girl, but with small differences. Kathy has lived with Blake and his family for most of her life after her parents died. Blake has always looked after her, sometimes to excess. After a few bumps, Blake is not as cruel as some of the men in Diana's world, but he is a tad overprotective, but you soon realize that he loves Kathy and is jealous of her connection with his brother, who really is like a brother to her. All in all, it was a wonderful book to read. If you enjoy Diana Palmer, you should check it out. If you don't like overbearing gentlemen, then maybe you might not, even though he changes during the course, a little. :)
Kolejna nowela autorstwa Diany Palmer, która wpadła mi w ręce to „Wrzesień pełen miłości”. Książka pochodzi z serii „Sezon na miłość”. Pierwszy raz została wydana w 1982 roku i nie posiada swojej kontynuacji. W Polsce była wcześniej wydawana jako „Gotowa na wszystko”. Jak przypadła mi do gustu ta krótka książeczka? Zapraszam do zapoznania się z mą (równie krótką) opinią…. https://taka-jest-agata.blogspot.com/...
I hadn’t read a Diana Palmer book in a while and I think this will be my last. It was ok but very anticlimactic. There were so many flaws but the thing that annoyed me the most was when the H roughed up the h and she started crying and rather than apologizing he told her she deserved it and what did she do? She agreed with him. At that point I was over the book but it was short so I finished it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
ΜΙΑ ΥΠΕΡΟΧΗ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ ΑΠΟ ΤΗΝ ΑΓΑΠΗΜΕΝΗ ΝΤΑΪΑΝΑ ΠΑΛΜΕΡ!!! ΑΝ ΚΑΙ ΓΡΑΜΜΕΝΗ ΠΡΙΝ ΑΠΟ ΠΟΛΛΑ ΧΡΟΝΙΑ ΕΙΝΑΙ ΕΚΠΛΗΚΤΙΚΗ!!! ΕΞΑΛΛΟΥ ΕΙΝΑΙ ΑΛΗΘΕΙΑ ΑΥΤΟ ΠΟΥ ΛΕΝΕ, ΟΤΙ ΤΑ ΔΙΑΜΑΝΤΙΑ ΕΙΝΑΙ ΠΑΝΤΟΤΙΝΑ, ΔΕΝ ΕΧΟΥΝ ΟΥΤΕ ΗΛΙΚΙΑ, ΟΥΤΕ ΗΜΕΡΟΜΗΝΙΑ ΛΗΞΗΣ!!!! ΜΠΡΑΒΟ ΚΥΡΙΑ ΠΑΛΜΕΡ!!!!
Better not read this as a full length novel because it's almost as if it starts from the middle of an actual full length book. And they don't even have sex after all that sexual tension. :"(
Y dicen que los hombres mayores son maduros, de cuerpo será, porque de mente no lo creo, el es su propio enemigo, tan complicado, ve problemas en todos lados, vaya que perdida de tiempo...
How many times can people say one man’s name in a book??? 432! Blake, Blake,Blake! That was so irritating in this book! Other than that, normal early 80’s romance novel.