Stars: 2 / 5
My Recommendation: Except for the genuine description of struggles of a champion figure skater and the unbreakable bond between Karina and her 9 yr old charge Janey, this book got so many things wrong that I barely finished the book since I don’t like to leave anything half-read.
Wyoming Legend is the eighth book in the Wyoming Men series by Diana Palmer, originally published on October 1, 2018. Diana Palmer is one of the pseudonyms used by American authoress Susan Kyle.
The primary plot revolves around champion ice-skater Karina Carter who comes to live at the ranch owned by Micah “Mike” Torrance to take care of his 9-year old willful girl Janey as a live-in nanny. Recuperating from a major injury she comes to hide-away but doesn’t realize that her heart has its own mind. Pursuing her champion career on one side, fighting her heart attracting to her boss, and struggling to love Janey without bounds keeps her literally on her toes. Which string tugs the strongest and pulls her is what the rest of the story is about.
There are so many things wrong about this book, that I cant even begin to understand where to start. So let me start with the title. The whole plot involves around Karina Carter and her obsession with becoming an Olympic champion and also her unquestionable love towards Little Janey. So why the hell did the author have a male person on her book cover. Just because she rote this under “Wyoming Men” series, did she think a male person on the book makes sense? Even the title of the book has nothing to do with the lead male character.
Secondly, the blurb that one can see on the back of the book. In fact this book comes with two blurbs – one at the back of the book and one in the introduction that the author gives at the beginning of the book. They are so different and set different expectations to the reader based on which blurb they read first.
Thirdly, the constant repetition of several story lines. If it repeats twice or thrice through out the book it means the author wants to remind the reader of forgotten snippets in case they have been reading the book for long. But if you read the same thing again and again at every turn of the page then it gets frustrating. Was Palmer trying to just fill the pages and get the word count? One cant help but wonder.
That’s just the content of the book. Now coming to the characters, Micah is a very mean, hard and sarcastic cad. Just because he was attracted to Karina and confused at his feelings because he also has a fiancée, doesn’t mean that he gets the right to be verbally abusive towards her, downright demeaning and deliberately insulting. And almost rape her too. No matter how much crow he eats after, the total persona of Micah didn’t appeal to me at all.
To top it, he was blind to the faults of his fiancée, so much so that he doesn’t stop her from verbally abusing his daughter as well. What kind of a parent does that? If one’s child is being insulted and belittled constantly and bullying too, wouldn’t the parent fight tooth and nail to protect their child? Was he so lusted and being led around by his libido that for more than half the book he let Lindy verbally abuse his daughter, his ranch staff and even him? That makes me thing he has no spine at all.
Then there is Karina, the lead heroine. What mad love she has towards Micah I don’t understand. If someone was verbally abusive towards you, and constantly ripping you apart and putting you down, and even questioning your character making you a worthless person, why in the world would you want to take that person back, or love him so much? It was maddening to me while I was reading. I felt like smacking her head and bringing some sense into her brain.
All the while Karina doesn’t want to reveal that she was a competitive figure skater, specially doesn’t want to tell Micah for the fear of losing her job. And yet in Chapter Ten, she herself reveals a lot about her skating background. Why the hell did she want to hide in the first place then? Didn’t make sense at all.
Lastly Palmer makes Micah’s character turn a 360 in the last three to four chapters, all of a sudden. He gets a change of heart and even feels ashamed of his behavior towards Karina. But couldn’t he have been a little more prudent or understanding before he was rude towards Karina? Whatever truth he was able to find almost towards the end, he could have made a little more effort early on in the plot itself instead of jumping into wrong conclusions and jumping down Karina’s throat.
The saving grace was the bond and love for each other that Karina and Janey has; and the genuine description of the battles of figure skating competitive world. Other than that the book is a total bust for me. There will be a long time before I pick another Diana Palmer book, unfortunately.
Spoiler Alerts:
Book Trivia and Plot Reveals:
- Karina Miranda Carter’s family and friends: Paul Maurice, her skating partner, and his wife Gerda and their twin boys; Mrs. Hilde Meyer, owner of the staking rink; Chad, coach at Meyer’s staking rink.
- Micah “Mike” Torrance’s family: Janey, his daughter; Dietrich, their dog; Burt, housekeeper.
- Micah’s work staff at his ranch: Ted, the guard at the front gate; Billy Joe, dog trainer; Danny, livestock foreman.
Grammatical / Character / Plot / Geographical / Historical / Mythological Errors:
- On Pg. 36, the livestock foreman Danny compare Lindy Blair, Micah’s fiancée, to a cobra. But on Pg. 114, Burt says that he had compared her to a snake already before. There was nothing in between those pages to suggest that Burt had ever had that conversation.
- On Pg. 143, line 6 and line 9 it should be Karina.
- On Pg. 169, line 4, there is a repetition of “and hugged her”.
- On Pg. 337, line 14, it should be “…if you lost your temper…”
Galavant Reflections 