Rating: 
Summary: It wasn't even a good thriller.
Review: I started this book with the high hopes of reading another good Jude Deveraux book. I didn't like the main characters and felt that there was no chemistry between the two of them. I forced myself to finish the book. Prose was nonexistant, writing was sloppy and character development was poor. This was not Jude's best writing. I do not believe it would have been published if it weren't for her already successful writing career.
Rating: 
Summary: WONDERFULLY ENTERTAINING
Review: For anyone who reads Sandra Brown, Nora Roberts, Linda Howard and needs a bit of change, this is a great choice. The romance is slow in developing but the storyline makes up for it. You want to keep reading this one! What I enjoyed most is the subtle wit and that it made me laugh outloud. I also cried a couple of times before I was a few pages into it. You won't be sorry if you decide to read this. It was my first Jude Deveraux book but it won't be my last.
Rating:
Summary: A very guilty pleasure
Review: Ford Newcombe became a best-selling author by tapping the emotions of his family--his birth family and the wonderful family that his wife brought to him. But now he has exhausted that resource and lost his wife as well. For years he's been hanging around, looking for inspiration. He thinks he may have found it when a young woman tells him a story about the devil and the woman who loved him. Devil stories are rare and Ford thinks that he can use it. With money no object, he hires the woman as a research assistant, buys a huge Victorian home in haunted Cole Creek, North Carolina, and thinks about writing. Jackie Maxwell is stunned when she finds out that her fiance has stolen all of her money--stunned enough that she actually takes the job Ford offers her. She knows that she shouldn't feel any attraction toward the man who has to be twice her age, is overweight, only likes eating high-fat snack food, and hopes to vampire her story ideas into his next great novel. Still, she can't deny the evolving attraction. But she finds herself recognizing everything in Cole Creek--and begins to have visions, visions that become terribly true. She also finds herself busy spending Ford's money and liking it. Jackie and Ford meander through an investigation of a long-ago murder--the death of the woman who loved the devil while denying the attraction between them. Author Jude Deveraux sure can write. It is hard to sympathize with a spring/winter relationship, especially one between an athletic young women and a couch-potato man, and Ford's self-pity could grate. Yet under Deveraux's strong writing spell, I found myself glued to the story, anxious to find out if my guesses about Jackie's strange competitive love interest were right. Deveraux's snippy insights into the difference between prize-winning fiction and romance are both insightful and clever, adding to the novel's appeal. Despite myself, I can't help recommending this book. Deveraux's writing is just too good to pass it up. A couple of recommendations, though--skip the self-pitying first chapter--it turned me off to Ford so strongly that I kept hoping that Jackie would dump him for the first half the book. The resolution of the devil portion of the story is weak--I can't believe the devil would have gone to all this trouble, or would have had to even put Ford and Jackie together to get his goals, but I still found myself smiling at the end. I know this is a backhanded recommendation, but I feel guilty about liking this book--but I did.
Rating: 
Summary: BIzarre.......and only for lovers of the supernatural
Review: This story just didn't work for me. For much of it I felt that Deveraux was struggling to fill the number of pages required by her editor or publisher, taking numerous paragraphs to define a character's state of mind and body in three or four slightly different ways when the fact is it had been quite clear in a couple of short sentences how the character was feeling at that time. The story never gripped me and if I hadn't been confined while nursing a loved one I probably would have skimmed the end and then put it in the pile to be donated to my local library. I found the ending to be unsatisfying not to mention bizarre and unbelievable. This book was a waste of my time and money and reaffirms my belief that some books make (and linger on) the list of best sellers for reasons other than their content.
Rating: 
Summary: Disappointing for Deveraux
Review: Frankly, this one doesn't live up to standards I have for Deveraux novels. It is interesting but could be BETTER. It is good but could be GREAT. I feel that Ms. Deveraux needed Ford's dead wife Pat to edit this work... and point out the problems she created but didn't solve. A chapter from Ford's viewpoint; rehash the same happenings from Jackie's viewpoint and create a few new happenings; rehash those new happenings from Ford's viewpoint... well, you get the idea. We've got a hero(?) who is almost twice his counterpart's age (she's 26 and he's at least 49 (graduated at 22, married for 21 years, wife dead for 6 years = 49+). To work as his assistant and track down a tale of the devil, she up and moves to another state with him to live in a rundown house and doesn't even discuss salary until after they get there (get real Ms. Deveraux). Once there, Ms. Deveraux doesn't get into the "mystery" until almost the last chapters of the book. Then she solves it without telling us any of the details, other than the fact Jackie has a grandmother and that the devil tempts Ford. Oh, at the end of the book Ford snickers that Jackie now knows why he saves his energy (he supposedly wore out Jackie sexually) - ...
Rating:
Summary: Deveraux is no longer a Romance Author
Review: This newest offering from Deveraux has left me with no hope for another good classic Deveraux romance. While Ms. Deveraux seems to be toying with the dark side in her most recent novels, I have been seeking out other authors who can still supply me with what a good historical romance. (Kathleen Givens, anyone?) When I pick up a book in the romance section, I expect just that, romance. While I understand that Ms. Deveraux is branching out in her writing, I would ask that she please target these offerings to a new audience. I have every single Deveraux book. Wild Orchids will be my last.
Rating:
Summary: The new Jude Deveraux
Review: After reading Wild Orchids, I couldn't decide really whether or not I liked it. I can say it wasn't a terrible novel, but it was not memorable either. It really depends on the person, as I have read some great reviews of this book, but in the end, when I finished it, I just felt really disappointed. Jude Deveraux used to be one of my favorite authors, with incredible romance novels like Sweet Liar, or the Velvet Series. The new direction which her writing has taken, such as in The Mulberry Tree and Forever, just does not interest me at all. She did a great job in A Knight In Shining Armor, incorporating time travel and romance into a thoroughly entertaining book. But I just don't understand where these new ideas are coming from.
Wild Orchids is not your typical romance novel, in fact I would classify it more as general fiction. There were some good moments in the book, and others just too ridiculous for me to comprehend. This was how I interpreted the book: A famous author in his 60's who is in mourning for his deceased wife and past relatives, hires a young woman (in her late 20's or so) who cannot completely remember her past but is linked with the devil. They travel to this town where her past is uncovered, fall in love, and both end up speaking to the devil.
If you read this summary and are intrigued, then you'll probably like the book. However, if you read it, and just laugh, then it's probably not for you. Wild Orchids was not the book for me, Deveraux's writing from two perspectives was interesting, but her male protagonist's point of view was not very believable. Overall, I found the book to be quite boring, and honestly, a little silly. There wasn't enough romance in the book to carry it through, but the intrigue wasn't mysterious enough either. If you liked Forever, you'll probably like this book. Romance authors I would recommend instead include Susan Elizabeth Phillips (especially This Heart of Mine), Brenda Joyce (her Deadly Series), and Judith McNaught (except her most recent one).
Rating:
Summary: Great character build up and not enough substance
Review: What a disappointment and cop out, you get these great characters of Ford, Jackie, Noble, Toodles, and Tessa and they all get thrown away for some lame story about the devil and the town of Cole Creek. The whole story felt rushed and for everything to be summed up in 20 pages at the end just does not cut it. We're left with a open ending I would have like a epilogue for closure. Normally I do enjoy Ms. Deveraux's books but the last few just seem like someone else is writing them. If you must read this take it out of the library or wait for it to come in paperback.
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I was anxiously awaiting the latest Jude Deveraux book and I must admit this book is not worth the wait. I loved many of her previous stories but the last few have been dull with improbable plots and characters. I was so tired of reading yet again about an incredibly rich older man who spends enormous of money on a young impoverished but appreciative woman. It is entirely unbelievable that a woman who has worked as a university researcher for years does not have any decent clothes to wear to a small town function but miraculously finds something perfect in an old attic. Also, I can not believe that in this day and age, she would drop everything and leave town with an unknown man for a job without having any information about the job, her salary, or even where she will live. And when they arrive, she has no problem living with him, being totally dependent on him and becoming nothing more than a housekeeper. She does not seem to question that she is not doing the research he has hired her to do and happily takes his money whenever she needs anything. Since Ms. Deveraux's strengths have always been in providing interesting relationships between the key people in the book, I wonder why in her past few books, that is the one piece that is missing. There was none of the excitement as the attraction between Ford and Jackie is supposed to grow, and their relationship was lost in a group of misfit secondary characters. Even the mystery part was dull - Agatha Christie has done the young woman moving to an old house she has supposedly never been in and knowing all about it, so much better. I did like the fact that we were able to see both people's perspectives in the alternating chapters and I was so touched by the relationship between Ford and his wife Pat. That was the true romance of the story. I can appreciate that Ms. Deveraux is expanding and trying new things, and I do love a good mystery. I am only hoping that in the future she can combine the mystery and the romance to give us a story that sparkles - as only Jude Deveraux knows how.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoyable Read!!!
Review: This was such a wonderful enjoyable book to read. I have liked most of Jude Deveraux's books, from "a Knight in Shining Armor" to "The Mulberry Tree" This was quite different in as much the romance wasn't quite as juicy yet subtlely there nevertheless. It is a story about one man's losses and another woman's losses and how they meet on a mission to find out about a murder mystery involving the "DEVIL". It kept me interested and I really enjoyed reading it. It was different for this author. If you are expecting a hot love story like many of her books can be you won't get it. You will, though, get a lovely read about two people who come together who need each other and it is a interesting concept. The devil part and all. I recommend it to anyone who likes this author.
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