Wild Orchids : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Stick With What You Know
Review: Why is it that all the good writers i.e. Jude Deveraux, Judith McNaught, Julie Garwood, and Elizabeth Lowell think that they need to "branch out" and take their writing in different directions. The stories about relationships and characters are what sold their books in the first place and it is unfortunate that these women want to concentrate more on the overall plot and sub-characters now. I enjoy a story about 2 main characters and think that that is were these authors are strongest. In this book there where way too many wacky and unbelievable characters who took away from the very under-developed main characters. If you are a long time Jude Deveraux fan I think you will be dissappointed. This is nothing like the magic of books like Sweet Liar or AKISA. Deveraux's strength is in writing a good sit down romance. A romance where you read the book in 3 hours because you just can't put it down. I struggled through this one for three days and had a hard time finishing it. My vote - bring back the fun and excitement of the Taggarts and Montgomerys.

Rating:
Summary: Not a Romance, but So well-written
Review: This book had some great characters and made you interested in those characters. Its format of 1st person went back and forth between the two main characters so that you saw the situation and the plot from two different perspectives. Really enjoyed it, perhaps even more than some other Deveraux books that I have read.

Rating:
Summary: Stick With What You Know
Review: Why is it that all the good writers i.e. Jude Deveraux, Judith McNaught, Julie Garwood, and Elizabeth Lowell think that they need to "branch out" and take their writing in different directions. The stories about relationships and characters are what sold their books in the first place and it is unfortunate that these women want to concentrate more on the overall plot and sub-characters now. I enjoy a story about 2 main characters and think that that is were these authors are strongest. In this book there where way too many wacky and unbelievable characters who took away from the very under-developed main characters. If you are a long time Jude Deveraux fan I think you will be dissappointed. This is nothing like the magic of books like Sweet Liar or AKISA. Deveraux's strength is in writing a good sit down romance. A romance where you read the book in 3 hours because you just can't put it down. I struggled through this one for three days and had a hard time finishing it. My vote - bring back the fun and excitement of the Taggarts and Montgomerys.

Rating:
Summary: Not your normal Jude Deveraux Romance
Review: I have read quite a few of Jude Deveraux's books, and have always come back to her for a good story. Wild Orchids was written so differently, but yet it worked. I wasn't expecting the twists and turns, and the ending was completly worth how long the book felt. The Ford/Jackie chapters were a little tedious, but I think that in the end it was neat to see how the two characters thought and reacted. I really enjoyed this book, but its only real flaw was the last page(s), and the ending to the book. It seemed like because Jude didn't fit any of the "romance" or rather the sex between the two protagonists in the book she ended up cramming all that into that list piece. (Sorry for the spoiler.) I think that it was a given that those things could and would happen, and was unnecessary to end the book in that fashion. I was captivated up until that point, because I assumed that this book like many of her others would have the constant underlying friction of their sexual attraction. It was refreshing to read a book without a whole chapter on the characters having sex.
Anyways, if you are a die hard romance book lover I don't recommend this Jude Deveraux book....try Sweet Liar, or all of the Velvet series. I bought this book on a whim, and was amazed at how much I enjoyed it.

Rating:
Summary: Avid Fan
Review: I have read every book Jude Deveraux has written and always will.
This is not one of my favorites, but any book she writes is worth my reading time. Every Author has great books and the one's that aren't so great. Can't please ever reader.

Rating:
Summary: *sigh*
Review: I am so disappointed. Not only were the characters dull, but it left me absoloutely cold. I have laughed, cried and lived in Jude's world for a very long time. I live in Scandinavie, so getting my hands on her books is very difficult for me. This time I have to say', it wasn't worth it. And to make it even worse, there was a flaw in the printing of it, so I there were 50. pages missing and 50 pages written again. All in all. The biggest disappointment yet.

Rating:
Summary: BORING !!!
Review: Sorry to say this but this is the worst books i've ever read,i could not believe it that it was a Jude Deveraux book,my gosh ! I was so bored with this book that i almost didn't finish it,it took me a week to read this and in that week i read two other books while in the middle of reading another,i've never done that before ! So disappointed,i love Jude's books but this one was bad,sorry...
The chapters of this book is what one character thinks of the situation then the next chapter is about what the other thinks,ugh,sorry it was just boring and redundant...
BIG DISAPPOINTMENT from a huge JUDE DEVERAUX fan ....

Rating:
Summary: Wild Orchid
Review: Let me say I've been a fan of Jude Deveraux's forever it seems. I didnt think it was possible for her to write to me anyway a boring book. Sadly thats just what I found in Wild Orchid characters that left me indifferent, and bored. A story that left me indifferent, and bored. I dislike personally first person perspectives and tend to avoid them like a plague. But even for Ms Deveraux, I was willing to endure because I just knew she wouldnt let me down on the story, and being such a huge fan I kept psyching myself into believing it would get better.

It didnt, not for me. Sadly like a victim of a car wreck I couldnt quite give up all hope either. I wish I had though. Lackluster story, coupled with characters one couldnt get interested in much less care about with an endng that sputtered and died add up to a book I cant say was one of Ms Deveraux's best and truthfully was quite disappointing.

Rating:
Summary: Exquisitely Done - Rare Talent in Modern Fiction
Review: Ford Newcombe is an aging writer who has lost the desire to write and is basically living in the past. He knows he needs a jump start to get back to writing and is thinking of putting together a collection of stories of the occult. When he asks Jackie Maxwell to be his assistant, she puts him on the track of a story she had heard long ago about a woman in a small North Carolina town being presseed to death for allegedly consorting with the devil.

When Ford and Jackie move into a crumbling Victorian house in the deep woods of this town to investigate the story they start finding troubling answers that raise even more troubling questions. Such as why does Jackie seem to have so much first hand knowledge of Cole Creek? Could a body found recently point to a community using a "ghost story" to cover up nefarious activities? And if this is a true, could they be exposing themselves to real danger by exposing the killers?

It is rare to find modern fiction with character developemnt of this caliber. By page 23 I was so into the character of Ford Newcombe that I had to read privately in case something made me cry. (He recounts the best moments in his life with his late wife). The format, one chapter from Newcombe's point of view followed by one from Jackie Maxwell's gives each character time for development as well as enhancing the story line by letting us see multiple angles somtimes of the same event.



Rating:
Summary: How did this book get published?
Review: Probably one of the worst books I ever read. Actually, I couldn't even finish it-it was so bad. The story is written from the point of view of the two main characters, a man and a women. The character development is poor and erratic and the story is sooooooooooooo boring. I picked this book up in an airport thinking it would get me through a long international flight- boy was I wrong!