Sweet Memories & One Tough Texan

by LaVyrle Spencer

Product Details Hardcover: 649 pages Publisher: Harlequin Books; Book club edition (1999) Language: English ISBN-10: 0739404555 ISBN-13: 978-0739404553 Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 1.5 inches... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0739404555
• ISBN13: 9780739404553
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Harlequin Books
• Length: 649 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 5.5" x 1.3"

Customer Reviews

Four Stars for Spencer 0 for Freed

Sweet Memories is not one of Spencer's best, but it is in good standing with her exceptional ability to bring the reader into the story. She knows her characters and writes of them as if she is the actress portraying the part. She must have used a model for this heroine, because she wrote a little too close to home about the typical red head, fair skinned woman and her personal problems with blushing, sun burn and frizzy hair syndrome. All in all, the characters were perfect, the setting was perfect and like I said, you really felt you were in their lives. Spencer is a very descriptive writer and researches her settings in depth no matter how simple the setting. This one really brings you into the typical American home in the late 70's/early 80's. As for the Freed book, it was pathetic to compare her to Spencer. There is no comparison. Freed started out with a great concept and went off in the strangest direction. Two chapters into the book and they're getting mugged in a latino ghetto? Huh? What did that have to do with anything? Just bring the hero and heroine together in any light and stay there. That's what LS does so perfectly. She writes a romantic story about 2 people. She doesn't stray from them. I put the book down at that part and would have thrown it away if it weren't for the fact that it was my only copy of Sweet Memories. Jan Freed should try READING a Spencer novel before she attempts to share a book jacket. If I were LaVyrle, I'd sue the publisher!!

Highly recommended

I have read everything La Vyrle Spencer has written and Sweet Memories is still one of my favorites. These characters are so real they come off the pages. Spencer develops her characters so that you feel what they feel and you understand the choices they make. I was hooked from the moment I picked up this book and I've been reading her books ever since. I only regret that she has stopped writing.

Mixed Bag--but buy it for the Freed!

When I reviewed this book for All About Romance, I gave the Lavyrle Spencer story a C-, and the Jan Freed story an A."Sweet Memories" is a reprint of a 1984 romance by Spencer, and it shows its age. I admit to being a relatively new romance fan, and I like the snappy fast paced romances prevalent now. The slow, dragging story, zero action, and painfully self-conscious afterschool special "message" (Breast reduction surgery can be a Very Good Thing!) made this story a chore to get through, although the writing is very good.The Jan Freed story, "One Tough Texan", on the other hand, is everything I like. There's certainly nothing new to the plot--rancher has to raise orphaned niece and falls in love with the woman acting as a nanny/surrogate mom to the little girl--but Freed makes the characters come alive as individuals who are quirky and believable. It's too bad you have to buy both books to get this one, but it is definitely worth it!

Truly awesome!!!!

LaVyrle is one of the most romantic writers I've ever read! She call tell a love story. She can bring you to tears and then make you laugh all in one chapter! If you read one of her books you haven't read them all--she's not a cliche'! Read one of hers--especially this one--and you'll be a dedicated fan for life! It's terrible that she gave up writing! Please write us a new one LaVyrle--we need it!!!

TWO OF ROMANCE'S BEST TOGETHER!

LaVyrle Spencer can do no wrong. And neither can Jan Freed. If you haven't read this award-winning, multi-RITA finalist yet . . . well, what are you waiting for? Her characters walk off the pages and into your heart. Her writing resonates with emotion, her stories sing with her incredible voice. And now, in ONE TOUGH TEXAN, she offers up the wonderful Matt and Abby as well as an awesome cast of secondary characters so real you'll want to step into the pages for a nice long vacation on the ranch -- not to mention for the down home cooking!