Title: Love on the Line
Author: Deeanne Gist
Publish Date: October 1, 2011
Publisher: Bethany House Publisher
Format: Ebook
Page Count: 320 pages
Source: NOOK store
Date Read: February 19 - March 29, 2020
Review:
Oh no. Wrong number. Hang up. Pretend you are not home.
This is the second book I have read from the author this year and I am sorely tempted to delete the other books off my e-reader. This story involves Georgie Gail, a proto-feminist living in a small town in Texas and working as a telephone operator. She idolizes Nellie Bly and is a hard core birder. And for the most part I really liked her character.
The problem came in the form of the "hero" Luke Palmer, a Texas Ranger who goes undercover as a telephone repairman and Georgie's new boss. Nobody gave Georgie a heads up about the plan, even though her workplace is also her home and she is a single woman unchaperoned with a man for long stretches of the day. Palmer is on the hunt for the leader of a gang robbing trains. The gang has a good reputation among locals because 1) getting a cut of the money robbed helps the robbers' families pay the bills and 2) the leader is a Texas version of Robin Hood, helping the locals with problems. I was okay with Palmer until the 33% mark and then I just didn't want to read anymore of this book -
Palmer, in order to ingratiate himself into the inner circle of this gang, decides to join in on a home invasion of Georgie's home so that he can "protect" her virtue, because one of the guys made verbal and physical threats to rape Georgie. Instead, he ensures that her long term project is destroyed and that she is tied to the bed so that she can't go get help and ruin the crime. Then he comes back later that morning and feigns complete surprise at the destruction of her project and unties her. He was there "early" to deliver a May tree in her honor....and takes care of her so she can be somewhat pulled together for the town fair that afternoon.
What the ever living fuck? This is supposed to be the hero? The psychological and physical abuse Georgie endures at his hands is then topped by the gaslighting. I just couldn't see myself believing in their HEA at this point. And I still had 66% of the book to go.
Georgie falls for Luke, Luke continues to lie and gaslight Georgie and decides make out sessions with her. But he is a Ranger and doesn't intend to marry at all. When all this shit comes to light, Georgie feels sad....for all of three minutes and then helps Luke round up the gang and they profess their love. There is no groveling or anything. She's just glad he was there that night so nothing "bad" happened to her.
The plot twist I saw coming a mile away and I was completely bored by it. I was so turned off by the author's gratuitous use of terrorizing the heroine and the hero's involvement in her trauma that I just didn't care about either one at the end. I should have DNF the book, but I was reading it for a reading challenge.
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