Rating: 
Summary: What on earth has happened to Jude Devereux ?
Review: I have read every one of Jude Devereux's books, and feel they've gone sharply downhill in the past few novels. This latest one has not only gone downhill---it's fallen off a cliff. This book was hard to follow, confusing, disappointing and just BORING."A Knight In Shining Armor" and "Legend" are my all time, favorite books. I can't say I've loved any of her books since them. Her older novels are wonderful too ! For anyone who hasn't read Jude Devereux's books before, start out with any of her older novels. This one is a waste of time and money. I wish I could have both of mine back.
Rating: 
Summary: Bland, Bland, Bland... the story, not the food
Review: I've been a Deveraux fan forever, and having loved The Summerhouse, was eagerly awaiting another contemporary story from her. This novel, however, has more problems than I have room to list, the greatest of which being its blatant disregard for the details and subleties of its own plot. What seemed to start as an exciting, discover-yourself story for Lillian, quickly turned into an analysis of recipies rather than relationships. While her canning, preserving and cooking processes took up pages of the story, her friendship with Patsy and Janice simply materialized, despite their strange behavior and Lillian's need for secrecy. Her relationship with Matt is also steamrolled - what could have been a beautiful love story became the background for bits and pieces of a story about food, sleuthing and abuses of all kinds - and no theme was played out completely. Even the resolution to Jimmie's life of mystery is given in the last few pages, laid out plainly and quickly as if Deveraux's deadline was upon her and she needed to wrap it up. We didn't even get to see Matt propose! All of this rushing results in a story that could have been so much more, from an author whose work has been more, and hopefully will be again.
Rating:
Summary: Badly written, confusing book
Review: This was a poorly written, quite confusing book with so many characters that at a point I just couldn't care anymore. The main character (Lillian or Baily) was not likeable. I don't believe that someone that was that much of a doormat with her first husband could change the way she did. Oh, are we to believe that Jimmy (who had surgery on his lip and and covered it with a mustache would not want his wife to be at her most attractiveness. . . duh??) And those cooking skills??? Come on now. . . let's get real. Could anyone really care about the Golden Six? Don't people ever live through those high schools years and get on with their lives. Since her sister never met Jimmy, it was hard to believe that she hated Lillian as much as she did for marrying him. That was just another unbelievable subplot. And there were many of them. Here's another stupidity. We are told that Jimmy loved Lillian, but then he left her nothing in his will. Of course, in the case of novels of this type, all turns out well in the end. But if Jimmy truly loved Lillian he would have told her his story and left her his money instead of setting this silly plotted book into action. Stupid, stupid, stupid!! I guess I am done with Jude Deveraux.
Rating:
Summary: what a waste of my time
Review: Jude
Stop and rest awhile, this was too busy and confusing a story to follow.
The dead husband was no charmer and had a "terrible secret".
The problem is by the time the book is over you do not care about the secret, you have lost all interest.
The love interest is boring, no sparks fly. She sure does cook for him but no passion in the kitchen. And as a canner I do not need the Bell book quoted, some action would have been better.
Too many characters, no one you really cared about and story lines that drop away and are forgotten by the author.
Avoid or better yet, just re-read one of her earlier gems.
Rating:
Summary: Too cliche'd, but it had its moments
Review: Deveraux's a lot of fun, and while this book has its moments, I just could not get past how cliché'd and formulaic it was - to say nothing of completely unrealistic. Okay, The Summerhouse was more of a fantasy and I loved that one, but the difference in plots between that and the Mulberry Tree involved the plausibility of the characters' decisions and reasoning once given the choice upon which the plot hinges. In The Summerhouse, the characters take the opportunity to re-do their lives - who wouldn't, if life had disappointed? But in The Mulberry Tree, who in her right mind walks away from billions of dollars? Deveraux tries to explain this by having interjected a scene where the woman who does this is shown, before she lost the billions in the first place, to have set up her own room in the back of one of the many mansions her husband owned, a room that was basically designed to middle class tastes and budget, because she has middle class desires and was more comfortable in such a setting. Oh, please. I could go on about what doesn't really make sense here - after cooking her way into the second husband's heart she suddenly realizes that she needs to have a life of her own and not depend on a man again? After working so hard to make him look forward to her feeding him? After the way the narration lingers over his orgasms over her cooking? Well, about time she came to the realization that women who don't take care of themselves are in big trouble in the long run - but unlikely, since dependency was her modus operandi the first time around, and it seems to be working here before she has this inexplicable awakening to self-sufficiency (admirable, but it just doesn't make sense). Besides, isn't the "a way to a man's heart is through his stomach" kinda old? I know more than one woman whose husband didn't even know she could cook before he married her. Her reason: "I want him to fall in love with me, not my function." Devereaux is sending her readers as many mixed signals as the central character is sending her man in this plot line (but maybe it's about time women in romance novels start doing this as often as the men seem to). Too, the final unraveling of the mystery was rather convoluted. The surrounding characters were much more interesting than the primary ones, and I was very sorry when a far more enjoyable teenage character - the well-pierced and very creative Carla - disappeared for no discernible reason. Deveraux has flashes here of her wonderfully creative play with the usual romance formula - unfortunately in this book, those flashes happen on the edges of the story. Its cliché'd heart made this more of a skim than a read.
Rating: 
Summary: Okay, but could have skipped this one
Review: This book was okay, but it was very confusing at times. There were way too many characters to keep track of, and some of their names kept changing, which made me have to keep flipping back to see who she (the author) was talkig about. In general, it just didn't hold my interest as much as her other books, and I was a little disappointed. I am also frustrated that she never did explain what happened between Patsy and Janice to make them stop talking to each other. Or maybe she did and it just got lost in all of the sub-plots. Save your money on this one, and get it from the library.
Rating:
Summary: Oh Jude....where did you go wrong???
Review: This book stinks too high heaven period!
Rating:
Summary: Disappointing...
Review: I have read all of Jude Deveraux's books, and I agree with most of the other reviews I have read about this one. The Mulberry Tree could have been much better. It reminded me a little bit of Sweet Liar, which was, in my opinion, her last really good book. The Mulberry Tree started off in a promising manner, but then towards the end of the book, just completely fell flat. All of a sudden characters were getting killed off left and right, and it totally didn't fit with the rest of the novel. The point of the story, was for the protagonist to find out the truth about her husband and her past, but really about finding herself. I liked the book pretty much up until about halfway through. Jude Deveraux should stick to writing romance novels, and not try to be a romantic suspense novelist, like Linda Howard. It just doesn't work.
Rating: 
Summary: Mulberry Tree grows on you
Review: I hadn't read Jude Deveraux for a while so I didn't know what to expect when I picked it up. I didn't put it down until I was finished. It moves along very quickly with greatly developed characters and snappy dialogue. It is a great contemporary mystery/realationship book. If it was a movie you would be cheering for some of the characters and hissing or booing some others, you get so involved with them. The end ties up just a little too conviently but all in all is a great summer read. I highly encourage you to read it!
Rating:
Summary: ok - could have been better
Review: There have already been several reviews of the plot of the book so I won't go over the story again. Little things irritated me like Bailey (her new name) being able to go into a kitchen at midnight in a home she had just moved into and can truly exotic fruit and vegetable combinations by the jar-ful - this is not the piece of cake she makes it appear to be. I also got a little confused toward the end when everyone involved seemed to have a different original name. I think there were too many "unusual" personalities for one story. I have read every single Jude Devereaux book she has written (even Casa Grande)and I don't mind she has gone into the mystery/suspense mode but the number of characters involved needs to be limited if you have a mystery to unravel too. It wasn't a bad read, just a confusing one.
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