One Little Word

Jude Deveraux was one of my first adult favorite authors. I remember reading her as a teenager, which concerned my mother because she was afraid there'd be rape scenes and I'd learn about "bad sex." But Deveraux was never one of those kind of writers, and what I learned was about connection.

I loved the sets of series. She had the Montgomerys in Britain/Scotland and the Taggerts in the American West, and they intermarried and then we had a new set of books, in the more recent past, with all the family tree. And then contemporary stories full of Montgomerys. Time travels and, in the past couple of years, some really, really weird paranormals.

I can't say she's one of my favorites anymore. I've changed, and her voice doesn't speak to me as well as it used to. But I still buy and read her books, and usually they compel me. And she'll always be the reason I love interconnected stories of any type.

So the past few days I've been reading First Impressions. I've had it for six months, and just haven't been in the mood for that type of book. It took me a little longer to get through it than usual, because I was able to put it down and read Time, People, and Entertainment Weekly instead. There is NOTHING in the book to connect it to any of her previous books (that I can remember--let me know if Mrs. Farrington had anything to do with The Summerhouse or something and I'm missing it).

I'm getting off track. Point: The book was good, but less compelling than I'd hoped, and not one that was too hard to stop reading. But man, the last line made the whole book memorable. It's so cheeky, so winky, so delightful!

SPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILERSPOILER

"Montgomery. Jared Montgomery."

END SPOILER END SPOILER END SPOILER END SPOILER END SPOILER

If you highlight the lines in between the spoiler lines you should be able to see it.

I just felt the urge to share that, in the hopes someone would understand. My husband sure didn't. :)