Book Review: Someone To Love

Okay, let me say first that I didn't hate this book. In fact, when I consider the previous two Jude Deveraux releases (First Impressions and Carolina Isle) I would say that this wasn't a bad book. It is nothing compared to her books of about ten years ago, but people change, so I won't hold that against her. But I still felt like there was a strong Deveraux presence to this book. (Honestly I have been wondering if maybe she doesn't have a ghost writer... the copyright on the book is Deveraux, Inc., which isn't conclusive, but does make me wonder...)

The plot of this book is pretty simplistic, really. Jace Montgomery was in England on business with his fiancee, Stacy, when Stacy suddenly left their London hotel room one night after an argument and ended up at a pub in rural England. She rented a room for the night and was found the next morning dead from an apparent suicide by overdose of sleeping pills.

Jace is devastated, of course, but he's also haunted because Stacy's family insists that she killed herself because she was having second thoughts about marrying Jace and she was too terrified to tell me. So Jace is left wondering what it was that he did that drove the woman he loved to kill herself. Three years later he finds a postcard addressed to Stacy in one of her old books that has a picture of an English mansion on it and a note that says, "May 11, 2001, together again," or something like that. She died on May 12, and the mansion in the photo is in the same town where she died. Seeking answers, Jace takes out a loan from his billionaire uncle and buys the mansion.

The classic Deveraux kookiness comes into play because the mansion is haunted, and Jace for someone is one of a few people that is able to see the ghost. He thinks that perhaps the ghost can give him answers. So the book develops along two lines—the ghost's story, and the investigation into Stacy's death.

I personally thought that Carolina Isle came very close to being incoherent, so the fact that everything in this book made sense was kind of a relief, to be honest. The characterizations weren't the best, but they weren't bad, either. The book was easy to read, kept me interested, and had a satisfactory resolution. Overall, I was pleased. But, I went in with extremely low expectations having read her previous works. If you pick up this book after reading classic Deveraux from ten, twenty, thirty years ago, you'll likely be disappointed.

Lindsey's Grade: C+