Man of the Outback Review

Title: Man of the Outback

Author: Anne Hampson

Line: Silhouette Romance

Publisher: Harlequin

ISBN: 0671570285

Website: http://www.harlequin.com

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

I love the vintage Harlequin romances but sometimes, there will be one that is a dud.  I love a good cliché romance but this just didn’t do it well.  Before I’m all doom and gloom, let’s break it down to see if this is the book for you.

Looking for a Cinderella-type heroine that martyred herself in every situation?  Sally Baxter is your girl.  I like to preface that I’m not trying to be mean.  But it was utterly laughable that when something happened, she would end up hurt, physically and/or mentally, in some way.  It was like she believed that her lot in life was to be a martyr.  The story began where Sally was a slave - I mean, housekeeper for her 3 bratty, spoil siblings for 5 years.  Next, she has a nervous breakdown and got hit by a car.  Thusly, she fell in love with Grant but her husband didn’t love her.  But she couldn’t leave him since he satisfied her too well in bed to leave.  Finally, got herself stomped on by a horse.  This was within a span of 5 months!  I have no respect for her.

Is an arrogant, alpha male your thing?  You have it in spades.  I don’t like Grant Forsythe.  He was such a superficial character.  Considering being the big Boss, his decisions did not make sense and he never had time to listen to his wife without getting angry.  She wasn't allowed to be sad because it was an annoyance to him.  It was his way or it was wrong.  This is what he told his wife of why he married her: “You’re warmer, and you’d be more tractable.”  What a sweetie.  Then, he will win you over when he raped his wife to prove his ownership over her.  But it was okay since she wanted it in the end.  Ugh.  A man after my own heart.

Have a need for a lackluster ending?  Definitely.  The last few chapters were sort of building to a climactic ending, which fell flat like a dud firework.  I was waiting for something to happen and you get this low-key one.  And then, the last few chapters began to be oddly filled with paragraphs of description of the Outback.  It was like the author had nothing else to fill the pages.

     

Honestly, I was reading just to finish after a certain point.  It was a shame since the beginning started off good.  The story was okay with a lot of drama that was supposed to make the reader feel for the heroine, but didn’t.  The hero was your basic alpha male that really didn’t get much character development.  I found the side characters to be more interesting than Sally and Grant.  The plot was not well-paced and the character development was not there.  All in all, this was a miss for me.