Title: Unlikely Lover

Author: Diana Palmer

Paperback (However it looks as if eBook is the only format you can get now.)

Pages: 189

Publisher: Silhouette (Harlequin)

ISBN: 9781460335994 (eBook format)

Release Date: December 1986

Book Details: I have the original release copy of the book and it measures in at around 7×4 (again, not exact numbers here, you all know I don’t do math.)

Where To Find It: As it looks as though eBook is the only available source, I would say wherever eBooks are sold. Though my husband will tell me to look on various internet shops.

Time that the story takes place? 1986

POV? Third person.

What caught your eye? It was a Diana Palmer book, need I say more?

Did you enjoy it? I really did.

Was it predictable? Yes, but not in an annoying way. One of those things where you’d be talking to the television, “Go after her, you dork!”

Was it sexy? Tame? By today’s standards, it was pretty tame. However, at the same time, pretty sexy.

Did you find it funny? Entertaining? Smile worthy, not laugh out loud funny. And it was very entertaining.

Would you read it again? I absolutely would.

Is this part of a series? Yes and no. While there are characters from a previous book, Rawhide and Lace, you don’t need to read that book at all in order to enjoy this one. Just checked Diana Palmer’s website and it talks about the Rawhide and Lace Series, but it looks just to be those two books.

Ah, matchmaking aunties, gotta love ‘em. Especially Aunt Lillian. 

Aunt Lillian has convinced her niece, and our Leading Lady, Mari, that: “The boss is fading fast . . . he wants young people around to cheer him up, help him write his memoirs.” While all the while Aunt Lillian has been fretting over her niece to Ward, our Hero. “Poor little Mari, I’m so worried about her, this awful traumatic experience . . . the emotional scars!”

Both are brought together under false pretenses that are quickly discovered by the leads pretty early on. However, it is rather amusing watching Aunt Lillian trying to keep them from talking about certain things too much, but wanting them to talk enough to start falling in love.

Ward Jessup—the Hero—is a man’s man. He’s got a ranch, he’s into oil, he likes making money. That’s his life. He doesn’t have girlfriends on reserve, in fact, he’s not really a playboy like a lot of Diana Palmer’s male characters. He’s a touch on the lonely side. Sure he’s got that wonderful arrogance and swagger that makes a girl’s heart swoon, but he feels like an anomaly in Palmer’s Pantheon of Heroes. He doesn’t smoke, he doesn’t really drink, his biggest vice is homemade apple pie. He enjoys history . . . and he’s normal. After reading some of the Long, Tall Texans, Ward is just normal. And it’s kind of nice. Sure, sure, he does make a point to note that Mari is a virgin, and this dude can’t keep his hands off her, in fact in many ways, he kind of wears his heart on his sleeve.

Only Mari isn’t experienced enough to notice it.

Oh Mari, you adorable little thing you. I really liked her character, she was believable. There was nothing extraordinary about her but there was nothing average about her either. She felt like a woman you would know, heck, we could have been her. At 21—nearly 22—she’s been working in a garage as the secretary, on a manual typewriter . . . oh my gosh, gentle reader, I nearly hurt myself laughing at the scene where Mari is going to help Ward with some office work and after an hour, he goes to check on her and she’s all, “Don’t you have a typewriter?” Ward is horrified that Mari is still using a manual typewriter at the garage and informs her that he uses “modern equipment” and gestures to the computer. Mari, who had been reading the instruction manual, tells him that it took her an hour to figure out what to put in the big slots. “Diskettes,” he tells her, “Program diskettes.” I snorted so hard that I hurt myself and looked at my thumb drive on my desk. Sister, my computer doesn’t even have a floppy drive.

I really miss my Commodore 64. That was living.

The one thing that occurred to me after I finished reading this was that in a lot of ways, there wasn’t a plot. Don’t get me wrong, the premise of the story is that Mari believes that Ward is dying and has come to help him write his memoirs. Ward believes that Mari has suffered a terrible attack/mugging and is needing somewhere quiet to recover. That’s the hook, the thing that brings them together. Just when they figure out that they’ve both been lied to, Aunt Lillian breaks her leg, forcing Mari to stay a while longer. And in turn, giving Mari and Ward time to get to know each other better.

Which is exactly what happens. They fall in love. And on the second pass of this book (second pass? I’ve read this one a few times in my life), it’s pretty obvious that they fall in love pretty quickly. In fact, I think it’s pretty obvious that Ward falls hard pretty darn fast and it scares the hell out of him. He does everything he can to keep away from Mari, he even goes to South America to check on something, I don’t know what, they never say. 

Ward gives in to his feelings and in what I’m sure he thought was a great plan and a super idea, basically tells Mari that he’d like her to be his mistress. Complete with bank account and apartment in the city. So, you know, people don’t talk.

Naturally, Mari is not hip on this. While she admits that she’s young and old fashioned, she won’t be anyone’s mistress. In a flood of tears, she goes home. As her job at the garage was filled in her absence, she ends up getting a job at a bank and working there. Roughly a month goes by before Mari and Ward speak again. Mari calls the ranch to check on her aunt and doesn’t expect Ward to answer the phone. Aunt Lillian is at her church meeting and won’t be back until later in the evening. Ward keeps Mari on the phone and the two talk. Though the conversation ends with Mari in tears.

Ward comes to Mari’s work and convinces her to come back home with him. He misses her, Aunt Lillian misses her, and the house just isn’t the same without her. (The man went to Atlanta, to bring her back to Texas!)

I won’t spoil the ending for you, however, I have to admit that I found it rather touching. 

The story is predictable as I said at the beginning of the review, but again, we are reading a romance novel, a happily ever after is a must. The beats of the story are familiar in a comforting way. You know this is going to happen and it will most likely be followed by that, which will result in a whole bunch of this.

And it’s great. It’s glorious. There is such an innocence to this story that honestly it could happen in any time period. And I loved every single word of this book. I really did.

I had a bit of a revelation while reading this book, and if you want to read it, I put it here.

If you are lucky enough to find a paperback copy of this book, grab it. Or go for the eBook. And . . . there’s a Manga version. I’m trying to be strong, I really am because we all remember what happened with the Manga version of Evan don’t we? So, I’m not going to buy it. I’m not . . .

I’m not. I mean, the cover of this thing is kind of . . . dirty.

I’m not buying anymore Manga versions of romance novels. I’m just not.