Title: Tyler (Long, Tall Texans)

Author: Diana Palmer

Paperback 

Pages: 174 (give or take, this title has been reissued several times and in different formats and collections. The version I have sits at about 174 pages. The entire book of all three stories, is at around 555 pages.)

Publisher: Silhouette back in the day. Harlequin today.

ISBN: Far too many to list

Release Date: Originally 1988

Book Details: The book I’m reading is a 3 in 1 book. The first three novels of the Long, Tall Texan series are Calhoun, Justin, and Tyler. Originally they were all released as their own individual book.

Where To Find It: I found my current copy in a used bookstore about fifteen years ago. Newer versions, including eBook are available.

Time that the story takes place? As the book was released in 1988, it takes place in the late 80’s

POV? Third person omniscient

What caught your eye? Oh, that is such a LONG story. Basically, this was my mom’s book and her books were always way more interesting than whatever I happened to be reading at the time.

Did you enjoy it? Originally, yes. Today? I’m not sure.

Was it predictable? Of course.

Was it sexy? Tame? I’ll go into more detail below. At the time I originally read this, yes I thought it was sexy and just the most amazing thing I’d ever seen. Today? It is so tame, so very tame.

Did you find it funny? Entertaining? It does have humor and I guess it is entertaining . . . sort of. I mean, I sat down to read it again after all these years.

Would you read it again? I have read this many times, and I just read it again.

Is this part of a series? It is, Long, Tall Texans. If you want to get technical, this is book three in the series. Calhoun, Justin, Tyler.

According to the Diana Palmer website, this book was released in October of 1988, however my memory of reading this book and its two predecessors (Calhoun and Justin) was during my summer break. Which means I didn’t read these until 1989.

My mother had one of those monthly subscription things, pay a certain amount every month and we send you the entire line of books in this particular series. It was great, every single month she got this little box of books sent to her. All from Silhouette, which is now Harlequin. And I read every single one that came through our door.

This action partially infuriated my mother as she was trying to get me to read the teen romances and I was all, “Nah, this is where it’s at.” My mother didn’t believe in censoring what I read because she was awesome, I guess. 

I don’t want to talk smack about Diana Palmer, I really don’t, she was an important part of my teenage years, the gateway author to a bigger world of romance . . . however I hadn’t read Tyler is several years. Truly not in the last twelve years and I was slightly stunned by the book in my reread this week.

The characters are lovely, don’t get me wrong, Tyler is a man’s man. A horse riding, cigarette smoking, used to be rich but not any longer, Texan who has taken a job at an Arizona dude ranch. He’s cocky, he’s handsome, he’s got a way about him.

Our leading lady Nell is a sweet woman. I mean, she’s sweet, she’s cute, she’s young. A bit of a tomboy lacking in self confidence. She runs the dude ranch. Or she ran it with her brother before he died and now her uncle owns most of it . . . I don’t know, anyway, Nell and Tyler work and live on the same dude ranch.

I just have to step away from things to talk about the term dude ranch. When I was a young girl, the term made me giggle as all I could conjure were feedlots full of shirtless men eating hay and bulking up until they were ready to be sent out into society where they would proceed to devastate the female population with their rugged ways honed by years of being in seclusion with a bunch of sweaty men and fed nothing but hay and craving nothing but virgins.

Virginity is a HUGE theme in nearly every Diana Palmer book I have ever read. In fact, I grew up believing that not being a virgin was worse than being an atheist. Thank the stars I grew out of that one.

Now don’t get me wrong, this book is good. It’s sweet and enjoyable. There’s no shocking sex or crude language. Cigarette smoking is probably the worst vice displayed with regularity. All of Diana Palmer’s men smoke (at least the early ones do). However, this was written in the 80’s and thus current attitudes are on full display. 

Fourteen year old me LOVED this book. I really thought I was getting away with something back then. I was reading dirty stuff. Forty-seven year old me? Not nearly enough to get the blood pumping. I’m almost ashamed that I’m even admitting I read this again, on purpose.

The one thing I did enjoy in this was the lack of technology. No texting, no emails, no social media, I don’t think these people even had cable. It’s refreshing to just read the story without all the other stuff that we use today.

To see a NSFW rant, click here.