Because I like Palmer's formula. I know how it's going to end and the book is highly predictable but that's part of what brings me back to Palmer time and again. Every once in a while you want to cuddle up and read something familiar and this is it.
This novel is well written with 3-dimensional characters that were likeable most of the time. I found the heroine stronger than many of Palmer's heroines. She would stand her ground and talk back, when she wanted to. She would LET the hero "force" her to do things that she secretly yearned for. I don't call that weak. I call that giving into ones desires.
The Rawhide Man is a fast read and good for a dull day. If you're looking for something new by Palmer, this is not it. But if you want the Palmer classic story, you've come to the right book.
The hero is "hard as nail", as the cover states, but he isn't heartless. If you can bare with him through the entire story I believe you'll find in him a man who's torn by his desire for a woman and his instincts not to get hurt by loving her. There were times when I wanted to slap him, and I imagine the heroine did too, but to hear him pour his heart out to the heroine at the end was worth the wait.
The heroine is definitely not a 21 century's ideal woman. She didn't slap the hero, try to give him a hard tme, or make him jealous. But does that really make her a spineless weakling? Or does that make her a mature woman who doesn't want to resort to childish games? To me she was stronger than the average heroine because she didn't try to do all those childish things immature heroines did. (sleeping with other men, professing her hatred or the hero, attack him physically, etc.)She is always honest o the hero about her feelings. She wasn't afraid to tell the hero she wanted him, hated him, and loved him. She isn't a victim either. When she really couldn't stand any more of the hero's taunts she tells him plainly she doesn't want him (instead of doing the average "I hate you for making me feel this way" routine). And the hero didn't force her either, as most heros would have done in his position.
To me, Bess and the rawyhide man are mature adults who refused to behave like children. They had disagreements and insecurities and I cried with them. But I never once felt so frustrated with the immaturity and selfishness so often displayed by romance hero/heroines. It's true that the hero is no tender romeo and the heroine is hardly Xena, the warrior princess. But this book is certainly a rare achievement because in the end, it makes you believe in the pure, melting,healing, intensity that is true love.