Summer of Love Week 4: The Girl From Summer Hill by Jude Deveraux

Each week Stephanie, Lenore and I will be featuring a Summer of Love review on our blogs.  If you missed Stephanie’s post from Monday, check it out at Once Upon a Chapter.  If you missed Lenore’s post from Tuesday, check it out at Celebrity Readers.

If you’ve followed the blog for any length of time, than you know I love Jane Austen and more specifically her book Pride and Prejudice. I love it so much that I actively seek out retellings of her works. My choice for this week is just that. If you enjoy sweet and slightly steamy, I highly recommend it. Check out the rest of our posts from Week 4:

• On Monday, Stephanie shared her favorite contemporary romances.
• On Tuesday, Lenore showcased summer romances and reviewed The Summer of Jodi Perez (and the Best Burger in Los Angeles) by Amy Spalding.
• Tomorrow, we will be featuring a coreview of Once and For All by Sarah Dessen here on Mom with a Reading Problem (we’re a day late….sorry!)

Week 5 kicks off Monday on Once Upon a Chapter.

The Girl From Summer Hill by Jude Deveraux
Series: Summer Hill #1
Published by Ballantine Books on 2016-05--03
Length: 369 pages
Reviewing Kindle from Amazon
Rating:

The first novel of New York Times bestselling author Jude Deveraux’s breathtaking new series set in Summer Hill, a small town where love takes center stage against the backdrop of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice

Enter Elizabeth Bennet. Chef Casey Reddick has had it up to here with men. When she arrives in the charming town of Summer Hill, Virginia, she leaves behind a demanding boss at a famous D.C. restaurant and a breakup with a boyfriend jealous of her success. Some peace and quiet on the picturesque Tattwell plantation is just what she needs to start fresh. But the tranquility is broken one misty morning when she sees a gorgeous naked man on the porch of her cottage.

Enter Mr. Darcy. What Tate Landers, Hollywood heartthrob and owner of Tattwell, doesn’t need on a bittersweet trip to his ancestral home is a woman spying on him from his guest cottage. Mistaking Casey for a reporter, Tate tries to run her out of her own house. His anger, which looks so good on the screen, makes a very bad first impression on Casey. Hollywood he may be, but he’s no sweetheart to Casey—and she lets him know it!

The plot thickens. Sparks fly—literally—when Casey is recruited to play Elizabeth Bennet opposite Tate’s Mr. Darcy in a stage adaptation of Pride and Prejudice. Just brushing past Tate makes Casey’s whole body hum. As they spar on and off stage, Casey begins to think she’s been too quick to judge. Tate is more down-to-earth than Casey expected, and she finds herself melting under his smoldering gaze. But then Tate’s handsome ex-brother-in-law, Devlin Haines, who is playing Wickham, tells Casey some horrifying stories about Tate. She is upset and confused as she tries to figure out who and what to believe. As she finds herself falling for Tate, Casey needs to know: Is the intense, undeniable chemistry between them real, or is this just a performance that ends when the curtain falls?

The Girl from Summer Hill by Jude Deveraux is an endearing retelling of Austen’s classic Pride and Prejudice, set in the hill country of Virginia. Casey Reddick is trying to find herself in the seclusion of Summer Hill when the owner of the estate Hollywood movie star Tate Landers crashes into her life. Sparks ignite between them, but not the good kind as Casey’s prejudice wounds Tate’s pride. Overcoming their bad start makes for a swoon-worthy, often funny read.

Casey is a great character. She’s independent, relies on no one and takes pride in the work that she does. She’s a cook, a star in the culinary world and takes her job very seriously. Her short-comings though come in the form of naivety. Rather than trusting the very honest movie star, she trusts someone she thinks is normal, a nobody like her. Her prejudice against Tate and his ability as an actor leads her to distrust him and not be fully honest with him. As the reader, it’s heart-breaking to read!

Tate is my new book boyfriend. He’s mine girls, you can’t claim him 😉 Tate is the exact opposite of what you’d think since he is an A-List star. He’s self-conscious, keeps to himself, doesn’t like publicity, and is a family man. His little sister and niece are his world and let me just tell you how endearing that is!

When he catches Casey watching him shower (this happens in the first few pages of the book so it’s not a spoiler), he loses it. Tate came to Summer Hill to get away from paparazzi and here they are on his property. Technically he doesn’t know that she is renting the little house from him when she catches him in her shower. Casey is in shock. How dare the man she doesn’t know yell at her when he is in her house. She threatens to call the cops! Both are in the right and I felt for both of them. This scene is perhaps the funniest in the book and the catalyst for the story.

Miscommunication and misunderstanding make for a funny read. Jude Deveraux is the master of dramatic irony. Telling the story from all points of view so that at any given time you as the reader know what the characters are thinking, what they are feeling and the motives behind their actions. It really is a superb read! I so enjoyed the aspects of Austen’s classic flowing throughout this tale. All the characters we love and hate are represented and the title of each chapter is a subtle, fun homage to Austen.

Overall (if you couldn’t tell already) I really loved this book! I devoured it in one day. Yes I skipped sleep and neglected my adult duties of laundry in order to do so and YES it was worth it. If you are a fan of Austen, love contemporary romance, or you’re looking for a sweet read, I highly recommend you grab a copy of this book!

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