Rating: 
Summary: Change your life!
Review: When Madison (model-gorgeous, with brains to match her beauty), Leslie (ex-dancer, timid wife and mother), and Ellie (writer fighting depression) agree to meet again after almost 2 decades, none of the women is sure what to expect. The three friends have only met once before, but that first meeting has stayed with them the past 19 years. Deveraux does a good job of making the women's friendship believable, even though they haven't spent much time together... their unique bond is just one of life's rare gifts: Sometimes you just happen to meet someone you just "click" with (whereas with some people, you spend years trying to form a bond to but sometimes it's just never as strong as you'd like). The best parts of the book involve the idea of being able to change your life if you are unhappy. Cleverly, Deveraux not only employs the time-travel idea as a way to change things, but also she illustrates through one of the women (I don't want to give away too many details and spoil it for anyone so I'm trying to be vague) that a person can choose to change his or her life (without any fantastical elements) if only he or she can take the first brave step toward following his or her heart. To summarize, this is an excellent book that makes one think on what he or she might like to change in his or her life; it's also a novel that will make you laugh (and cry) out loud. Worth reading!
Rating: 
Summary: A bittersweet summer read
Review: The only major complaint I have about Jude Deveraux's _The Summerhouse_ is this: Now that Jude Deveraux has written it, I can't write it. I've been obsessed with alternate pasts/futures ever since I saw the Back to the Future movies as a kid. I loved the movie Sliding Doors, years later. So, of course, I enjoyed this fairy tale of three women who get the chance to change their pasts and find out how the present would have been different.Leslie, Ellie, and Madison are middle-aged and unhappy; all of them wonder whether they could have avoided their present problems by making different decisions in the distant past. They are all led to the mysterious psychic Madame Zoya, who offers them an incredible chance. Each woman gets to return to the past for a three-week period of her own choosing. At the end of three weeks, she will find herself again in Zoya's parlor, with the knowledge of both the known life and the "alternate" one. She can then choose which life she wants, with the option to remember or forget "the road not taken". Admittedly, this novel is a romance novel, and as such, falls into a few old romance cliches. Inner transformations often are heralded by weight fluctuations or new hairstyles. And even the "good" men have slight chauvinistic streaks. But, all in all, I enjoyed this book. It was light reading and yet thought-provoking. You might shed a tear or two, and you will certainly consider, afterwards, which three weeks *you* would choose, in your own life.
Rating: 
Summary: I was disappointed by the middle/ending of the book
Review: I was really very excited to read this book because it sounded similar to the plot of my favorite movie "Sliding Doors". I even got my girlfriend who is a devote of that movie psyched about the title, however I am not sure if I want to give it to her now, I don't want to disappoint her. This is a new author for me, I have never read one of her books, and I really hate it when people give away the whole storyline of the book. However, I will say that the book had a great beginning and even the middle where they get to go back to their past lives was pretty good. My complaint with the book is that the author spent too much time focusing on the beginning of the book and not enough on what happened to the characters during their three week period or what happened to them after they came back and why they made the choices they did. I don't know whether she ran out of pages or time, but I was really disappointed in Part Two and Part Three of the book. It was a major let down after building up the characters so much. I will read another title by this author, however as most people I hate to be disappointed and love a good book to "sink my teeth into". But if I am disappointed again I can't bring myself to read another title by her. She needs to focus on the characters in the middle and end of book as she does in the beginning.
Rating:
Summary: A Mystical Tale of Three Women's Lives
Review: The Summerhouse AUTHOR: Jude Deveraux PUBLISHER: Simon & Schuster REVIEWED BY: Barbara Rhoades BOOK REVIEW: Three girls from different cities meet on their 21st birthday at the Division of Motor Vehicles in New York City. While waiting for their driver's licenses to be prepared, they celebrate their birthdays with a cake and become fast friends. Nineteen years later, they plan to meet for their 40th birthdays. They haven't seen each other since that first meeting at the DMV. Each woman feels her life is a sadder tale that those of the other two. They meet at a summerhouse in Maine and spend the first days retelling the story of the intervening years to the other two. After this, they decide to go shopping for birthday presents for each of the others. Upon returning, they find themselves draw to a mystical woman who gives them a chance to relive a part of their pasts. They story that follows makes you not want to put the book down until you find out their choices and what it means to their lives in the present. Jude Deveraux has written another intriguing tale that should be included in your reading.
Rating:
Summary: I was disappointed by the middle/ending of the book
Review: I was really very excited to read this book because it sounded similar to the plot of my favorite movie "Sliding Doors". I even got my girlfriend who is a devote of that movie psyched about the title, however I am not sure if I want to give it to her now, I don't want to disappoint her. This is a new author for me, I have never read one of her books, and I really hate it when people give away the whole storyline of the book. However, I will say that the book had a great beginning and even the middle where they get to go back to their past lives was pretty good. My complaint with the book is that the author spent too much time focusing on the beginning of the book and not enough on what happened to the characters during their three week period or what happened to them after they came back and why they made the choices they did. I don't know whether she ran out of pages or time, but I was really disappointed in Part Two and Part Three of the book. It was a major let down after building up the characters so much. I will read another title by this author, however as most people I hate to be disappointed and love a good book to "sink my teeth into". But if I am disappointed again I can't bring myself to read another title by her. She needs to focus on the characters in the middle and end of book as she does in the beginning.
Rating:
Summary: Sometimes a Girl Just has to Read a Romance
Review: Leslie Headrick has a husband who she believes is having an affair with his personal assistant, a girl half her age named Bambi of all things. Her children don't seem to know she's alive. And her life seems to be one committee meeting after another. Her husband has taken over the house she loved and turned it into a showcase she hates. Years ago she had a summerhouse out back that she'd planed on setting us as a dance studio, her retreat from the world, but her husband put a TV out there and her children started storing their junk in it, so now even that isn't hers. Elle Abbott is a writer who hasn't been able to write a word ever since her good for nothing husband took everything she had in a brutal divorce. He claimed he co-wrote her books and the judge believed him, so now she has to support him for the rest of his life off her royalties. And if that isn't bad enough, she's gained forty pounds since the divorce. Her life has gone to pot. Madison Appleby, who used to have such big plans, wound up going back to Montana to care for a fiancée who had jilted her. He'd had an accident and can't walk. His wealthy parents were cheap and because Madison had some nurses training all of a sudden she was a good catch for their invalid son. She married him and her life had gone downhill ever since. Nineteen years ago, these three woman met when they had such promise, now Elle wants to meet her friends again. She asks them to visit for a few days in a cabin in Maine. Leslie and Madison come and while out for an evening walk they decided to go to visit Madam Zoya who tells them she can send them back to any point in time and they can change their lives. Can she? And if so, will the change be for the better? I am a voracious reader, but as a general rule I don't read romance. My tastes run more to King, Koontz, Baldacci and Grisham, but every now and then a girl just has to read a romance and when I do, there is no contest, I buy a book written by Jude Deveraux, because she writes a story as good as anybody out there. Plus she can add that certain touch of the unbelievable, a la Madam Zoya, and have the reader swallow it hook line and sinker, and come back begging for more. Ms. Deveraux never disappoints and THE SUMMERHOUSE is one of her best. Reviewed by Stephanie Sane
Rating: 
Summary: Silly
Review: This is a poorly written book, full of cliches. Don't waste your time.
Rating:
Summary: Interesting and thought provoking
Review: This is the first book I have read by Ms. Deveraux, but it will certainly not be my last. I am not a big fan of time travel science fiction, so I didn't like that part, but I really loved the writing, and the way things turned out for all of them. And there were so many truths in this book that some other reviewers seemed to have missed! First of all, someone suggested that the premise that it was all three of thems birthday is pretty far-fetched - actually it's brillian, not far-fetched at all. They were all three there to renew licenses that had just expired, and licenses expire on you birthday! DUH! And it was not a coincidence at all that the bakery had a birthday cake for them (NOT Ira), because it seemed that Ira did this all the time. Read it again and you'll see.
The story line of their first life is not far-fetched at all - when you go through something like that personally, you know that it can really happen.
The truth is that even if you do have a career - and these three women all seemed to have fabulous careers - what truly matters in the end is really the men - or family - in your life - it's the relationships that can make or break a person. You see that even with a great career, Ellie got totally broken by this ex of hers. At that point she had nothing - no career, no husband, etc. And anyways - if you don't think men are important - then why are you reading a romance novel? What happened to Ellie may sound unrealistic, but from personal experience I can tell you that its not. No matter how smart you think you are, if the other person really wants to break you - its scary how easy it is. I was really glad to see how she went back to fix THAT up! And Madison - that story, although horrible, could have really happened - poor girl marries rich guy who really treats her badly - and who does she have to complain to? What choices does she have? You have to realize that Madison was a poor girl from nowhere - when she saw beautiful girls are a dime a dozen in New York, she got scared and ran home. She probably felt she didn't have too many choices - and certainly not the confidence to do anything to really get anywhere in big big New York. The only way she WAS able to change her past was by using confidence gained over the years - not something she would have been able to do originally. Only a heart of stone would not be happy for Madison the way it turns out in the end, but I really loved the ending for Leslie - it was just so perfect. I really love happy endings.
Don't be fooled by other reviews - this is a really great book.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful book!
Review: This book was amazing from start to finish. The characters are very real, tender people who make you feel as though you know them. This book ran me through a rollercoaster of emotions. It was an utter joy to read!
Rating: 
Summary: Good concept, but little imagination in the writing
Review: This book had potential, but it was poorly written in my opinion. A little imagination & intelligence goes a long way. I can't tell you how many times bland adjectives like "little" & "big" were used to describe mundane things, making them seem more mundane instead of bringing them to life. Somewhat cliched.
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