Rating: 
Summary: Best Jude Deveraux since A Knight in Shining Armor
Review: I got this book in the mail on Wednesday and was up until 2 in the morning finishing it! What a great story concept.... what would YOU do if you had the chance to go back and make a different choice in your life? "The Summerhouse" is just what I look for in a book, good characters and a plot line that is a little out of the ordinary.
Rating: 
Summary: At least it's better than High Tide
Review: At first I really liked this book. It reminded me of how Jude Deveraux used to write. There was some fantasy, some heartbreak, characters that you believed, but then I got to thinking about it after I was done. The whole premise of the book (if you are to believe the blurb) is supposed to focus on what happens when these three ladies get a chance to correct that one big mistake they made which screwed up their lives. Well, that doesn't come until Part 3, which is about when 2/3 of the book is complete. The majority of the book is truely about what their lives are like now. So then there they are, back to the crucial three weeks, and Ms. Deveraux glosses over that part in about twenty pages or less for each of the three characters. I guess she decided that since she had devoted so much of the book to what their lives were like with their mistakes, it wasn't necessary to really go into detail about how those three weeks were spent. Instead the reader is left with a character suddenly getting involved with a murder mystery (the point of which I never did understand. There was really no place for it in the story) I felt cheated. I main reason I was really excited to read this book was because I liked the blurb. I thought it would be interesting to read how these three people would change their mistakes. Instead, I was given twenty pages that almost felt like an afterthought. I would have loved to have given this book five stars. Originally I was thinking that Ms. Deveraux had gone back to her earlier style of writing which I loved. However, instead I'm left with a book that the more I think about it, the more ... unhappy I guess, I am with it. I wish she would have gone with only one character to have allowed for more development. I wish she would have more fully explored the characters that she did have. I really wish she would have written more about those three weeks instead of doing a rush job. Instead, I'm once again left hoping that her next book will be better than the last.
Rating: 
Summary: Enjoy the fantasy
Review: Almost two decades ago, the three women met for the first time at the New York City Motor Vehicle Bureau. The trio shared the same birth date. They ultimately followed different paths into adulthood. Leslie, a natural dancer, married the boy next door and now has two teenage children. Madison expected to become a great model. Ellie became the very successful author Alexandria Farrell though she has not written anything in three years. Now, on the verge of their fortieth birthdays, they plan to get together in a SUMMERHOUSE in Maine. Overall life has been okay, but there have been major bumps for each of them. In Maine, Madame Zoya offers to each one of them the opportunity to relive any three weeks in their lives. If they believe and have the fortitude, will they choose a pleasant memory or something they want altered with a second chance at life? Though used in movies and books quite often, Jude Deveraux provides a fresh perspective to the reliving of pivotal moments in one's life. She does that through her fully understandable three middle-aged women rhetorically wondering if that is all there is? The story line works as readers observe the choices made by the women and believe that history is being rewritten at least on a small scale. As expected from Ms. Deveraux, the characters make the novel leading to the audience whimsically pondering "if that could only be me, I would choose to relive..." Harriet Klausner
Rating: 
Summary: Would someone please teach her how to write?!
Review: I don't usually read books of this genre, but I liked the premise of having an opportunity to go back to an earlier time, to redo a past mistake(s). And the author had received many favorable reviews. But the book was a disappointment. The writing was stilted and awkward - her words and sentences were without beauty or grace. Similarly, there was no subtlety in the way she discussed her characters. Everything was spelled out bluntly, as if she doesn't expect her readers to be bright enough to read between the lines. I will not be reading any of her other work.
Rating:
Summary: A great read even the third time!
Review: This book is just fast enough to keep you on your toes. The characters are real enough to care about and the plot although not realistic (by intent) is well plotted out and exciting to witness. You won't be bored for even a moment!
Rating:
Summary: Good concept, but little imagination in the writing
Review: I would definetely recommend this book to anyone looking for a great read! I found it to be horribly close to the American home, the three women involved going through such real (sometimes exaggerated, but nonetheless real)disasters. And then a chance to do it all over again... This book teaches about the rarity of second chances. Live life to the fullest now!
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