The Summerhouse

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: 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: 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!

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: 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: Silly
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: The Summerhouse basks with imagination
Review: While The Summerhouse requires a fertile imagination to be appreciated but once your belief is suspended, the wistful read will enchant with sheer escapism. Jude Deveraux begins the sorority read with a serendipitous meet at the New York Motor Vehicle Department where three women Leslie, Ellie and Madison fatefully exchanged their personal tales. When they reunite twenty years later at Maine, each is haunted and distressed by their personal lives. Leslie finds the happiness of her marriage on the verge of crumbling; Madison gave up a modeling career to care for her wastrel-of-a husband and Ellie is viciously betrayed by her husband, leaving her impoverished and depressed. The tale takes a twist when they chanced upon Madame Zoya who offers them the opportunity to relive their past for three weeks and leaving them open options thereafter.

The Summerhouse's unconventional plot is narrated with clarity from Deveraux's focused writing. Beneath the cloak of fun time-travelling and a glimpse of the past bears a gentle cautionary tale of living lives without regrets. The warmth of the friendship and reunion basks against the reclaiming of their self-esteem, love and belief. With such a bright perspective on the small miracles of life and luminous ever-afters, The Summerhouse engages as the perfect beach-read.