MET HER MATCH
by Jude Deveraux
Publisher: MIRA
Release Date: September 17, 2019
Reviewed by Hellie
In small towns, no one
lets the facts get in the way of juicy gossip…
Terri
Rayburn is a girl with a reputation. She doesn’t deserve it, but having grown
up on the outskirts of Summer Hill, Virginia, she knows how small towns work.
The only way to deal with vicious gossip is to ignore it. So she keeps to
herself as she runs the summer resort on Lake Kissel.
When
she returns home from a short trip to find a handsome stranger living in her
house, she smells a rat. Someone is trying to fix her up, and she has to admit
that Nate Taggert is just her type. However, Nate is engaged to the daughter of
the mayor and strictly off-limits.
Nate
and Terri form an unlikely friendship while he throws himself into life at the
lake. As Nate starts to hear rumors about Terri he’s confused. Knowing how
smart, beautiful and strong she is, he’s determined to discover the source of
the gossip. Terri doesn’t want to revisit the past, but Nate won’t stop until
he discovers the truth—even if the truth might be more than either of them can
handle.
Set in the beloved
fictional town of Summer Hill, Virginia, Met Her Match examines the
tensions between the wealthy townspeople, the summer vacationers and the
working-class people who keep the town and resort running. Told with humor and
heart, Met Her Match is the perfect summer escape.
Hellie’s Heeds:
I am biased when it
comes to Jude Deveraux. Aside from a few books in the late 90s, I pretty much
adore everything she writes. At a RWA in New York, I attended her workshop and
got a page of paper with her book notes on it--for which book, I am not sure. It
could be a book that never even got published, but it has her handwriting on
it...and I think it’s brilliant. I feel similarly about J.K. Rowling. We all
have an author we are biased about, yes?
Thus it will not
surprise anyone that I thought this book was hysterical and romantic and pure
Deveraux writing gold. I’d read this book at lunch; and when the break was
over, I’d go next door to my co-worker (who finds romance novels too hilarious
to actually read) and would summarize what was going on, reading the best lines
to her. One of these meetings, my boss was also there--and I read aloud about a
scene where Terri has had it with Nate’s behavior, acting as if he’s been
stringing her along, that he had been using his body to toy with her emotions
when he was engaged to someone else--and thus she gets revenge by parading
about in a miniscule bikini while having two men fawn over her, all while Nate
is unable to unswallow his tongue. My boss actually laughed out loud (and he
has even less approval of romance novels than my co-worker) and said he felt
jealous on Nate’s behalf.
I know this is classic
Deveraux. The hero acts on behalf of the heroine, being all chauvinistic in the
process, and the heroine proves that she doesn’t actually need him to rescue
her, thank you very much, even if it almost kills her, and eventually they talk
to each other rather than at each other or use sex in lieu of talking--and
voila! They argue their way into a happy ending. I adore this. I’m looking for
my own Montgomery hero to run off with--though I suppose I’d make do with a
Taggert, if needed. (I’ve always liked my heroes scrawnier than a
Taggert.)
The first half of this
book is the classic Deveraux romance. The second half is solving a mystery that
would seem unconnected to the story at all, if the mystery wasn’t the heroine’s
mother. When I was reading the book the first time, I remember hints that made
me wonder what that had to do with the funny classic Deveraux romance I was
reading--and then when the romance seemed to wrap early and the mystery
revealed itself, I was like ah-ha. But sometimes it did feel it was two
different stories going on and they weren’t always smoothly aligned. I went
with it because the story kept me vested; however, I realize some readers might
find this kind of storytelling disjointed. In fact if you read the blurb,
there’s no hint of a mystery to solve--so you may go, “What are you talking
about?” Believe me, there’s a mystery. It’s a doozy!
The other classic aspect
of this story is the Montgomery Effect. I’m not sure if that’s actually the
term for it, but it’s where one of the rich Montgomeries (in this one, Kit
Montgomery) uses his power and influence to get what he wants. Namely his son
Rowan together with the mayor’s daughter, Stacy. Except Stacy is already
engaged to Nate. You see where it gets complicated..
The Summer Hill series
reminds me a lot of the Edilean series, which are some of my favorite books of
Deveraux’s. And this one made me go back and read the other two books in the series,
THE GIRL FROM SUMMER HILL and AS YOU WISH. Reading them all made me appreciate
this one even more. You definitely don’t have to read all of them to understand
what is going on--though in the love story of Kit Montgomery and his wife
Olivia, reading all of them does help clarify some things.
AS YOU WISH
by Jude Deveraux
Publisher: MIRA
Release Date:
Reviewed by Hellie
New York Times bestselling author Jude Deveraux returns with
the highly anticipated third installment in her beloved Summerhouse series,
where three women have the coveted opportunity to answer the age-old question: What
would you do differently if you could do it all again?
One
fateful summer, three very different women find themselves together in Summer
Hill, Virginia, where they find they have much more in common than they
realized…
Sixty-year-old
Olivia’s first marriage was long and unhappy, but now she is a newlywed,
thrilled to finally be starting her life with the man she’s always truly
loved—even if they are getting a late start. Kathy is in her forties and
married to a handsome, successful businessman. Theirs would be a fairy-tale
romance if it weren’t for one problem: He’s passionately in love with someone
else! Twenty-something Elise is also in a troubled marriage, stuck with the man
her wealthy parents chose for her. Now that he has a pregnant mistress, he
seems willing to go to drastic lengths to take Elise out of the picture.
Though
each of them wound up at the Summerhouse for separate reason, it’s not long
before they begin to open up about their regrets, their wishes and their
dreams. And when they’re presented with the opportunity of a lifetime—a chance
to right the wrongs of their past—all three discover what can happen when
dreams really do come true.
A
heartfelt, magical tale, As
You Wish is a
shining example of Jude Deveraux’s enchanting storytelling that will charm
longtime fans and delight a new generation of readers.
Hellie’s
Heeds:
This
book is divisive. I don’t think it’s a book that people are going to feel Meh
about. They will either really love it or hate it. There will be no in-between.
I am in the Love It Camp. I thought it was funny and romantic--and who hasn’t
had a time in their life they wished they could go back in time and “redo” it?
So if you’re of the mindset that regrets should remain regrets and we shouldn’t
change the past because we are who we are--this book is a big PASS for you. The
book is called AS YOU WISH and there is a lot of wish fulfillment in it.
Another
aspect that may annoy many readers is that all the characters at the start of
this are married. Olivia is married to the man she’ll be married to at the end
again--but the other two are married to other men they don’t love and who don’t
love them. One of the heroines is in love with another man. The third isn’t in
love with anyone, but does wish her husband would man up and leave her already
because he does have a girlfriend. Many readers will be, “Why didn’t they leave
their husbands? Why wait for them to do it?” I would say it’s that the story is
more about the heroines all becoming worthy heroines than about finding the
right men.
Elise
is the only child of parents who expect her to be married to the boy next door,
even if he’s keeping a mistress and their children in a separate life. Olivia
had a previous marriage with a man who used her, blamed her for everything, and
then left everything to his mistress and children when he died. Kathy is
married to a man who doesn’t find her attractive but does love her. Through
him, Kathy is able to get approval from her father, however tiny the amount
actually is. All of them are approval seeking, carrying guilt that is not
theirs, and afraid of making too much noise and being denied love altogether,
due to their experiences up to this point. So...no...they’re not going to leave
their husbands because if they even try--as Elise did--they’ll be thrown into
an asylum.
They
each get to travel back into a moment in their past and spend three weeks there
creating a new present. They can only truly fix themselves...so what would they
do differently with the knowledge of wisdom they have now? I mean, wouldn’t we
all do that? (I mean, I might--but never to my teenage-hood. I would NEVER go
back to that era. Once was enough suffering for anybody.)
I
would say I was probably disappointed that Kathy’s story was sacrificed for the
sake of the other two. I did want to know more about her and Cal. But since it
was already at 400+ pages, and this story was really more about Olivia and Kit
than the other two couples, I think this was just how the story was meant to be
told. I do recommend it--but with caveats. :)
Are you a Jude Deveraux reader? If so, which men rev your engine: Montgomery or Taggert?
If given the opportunity, would you go back in time for a "re-do?"
