The latest installment in Julie Garwood’s collection, The Ideal Man, follows her winning recipe of introducing the female protagonist in conjunction with the major conflict of the plot, quickly followed by the first encounter with the male protagonist. As the plot evolves, minor conflicts also reveal themselves, adding complexity to the tale before the violent plot climax when the minor and major plot conflicts resolve themselves in a rapid succession.
While I find this 322 page tale to be very enjoyable, the relationship between the protagonist characters develops much faster than in Garwood’s past novels. There is a distinct lack of delving deeper into the conflicts of the plot, causing this story to be fast paced but not as satisfying in terms of character development.
The female protagonist’s sarcasm and spirit does bring a nice sense of reality to the story for those of us readers who are not naturally ‘kind’ or ‘sweet’ as a large number of Garwood’s protagonists are portrayed to be. To warn readers interested in the continuation of the Buchanan family: the only mention of a Buchanan family member appears on page 316.
