True Love (Nantucket Bride #1) by Jude Deveraux
Romance Contemporary/PNR
July 9, 2013
Ballantine Publishing

Reviewed by Tori

Favorite Quote: “Why let facts ruin a good story? “

Alix Madsen is surprised when a friend of her family’s passes away and leaves her a Nantucket mansion to live in for one year. Alix is even more surprised when she discovers the nephew whom is living in the guest house is non other than famed architect, Jared Montgomery. Alix, having just finished up architect school, is thrilled with the opportunity to meet the master.

 Jared Montgomery (Kingsley) is tired and doesn’t want or need Alix’s hero worship. When his plans to leave the island before she arrives are thwarted, he finds himself slowly becoming intrigued by Alix’s passion for life and skills as an architect. As they spend more time together, the real reason for Alix’s stay in Nantucket come to light. Jared’s aunt wants Alix to find an old journal and solve a two hundred year old mystery that has plagued the family.

With a wedding in the works, secrets coming to light, and ghosts revealing themselves in the most particular ways, Alix and Jared discover they will need to fix the past if they have any chance at a future.

I have been a fan of Jude Deveraux’s since I first picked up The Velvet Promise and fell in love with Gavin and Judith Montgomery. From that day on, I devoured anything Deveraux wrote that centered around the Montgomerys and Taggarts. While I have enjoyed her historicals immensely, her contemporaries have always been hit and miss for me. Especially when paranormal aspects are incorporated. When I was informed that True Love was the beginning of a new series involving the Montgomerys and the Taggarts I requested right away. I was curious to see if this might be the one that might bring me on board with her present day romances. Needless to say, it was not.

At 400 plus pages, this is a hefty book. The first half of the book was literally a chore to read. Deveraux spends an inordinate amount of time introducing Jared to Alix and and working her way to the reasons Alix is really there. While some of this is necessary to the story, the sheer amount of mundane activities, repeating details (the lego story), and the never ending architectural references dragged the story to a monotonous crawl. What made it worse is once the story picks up, you realize that half of the information was not needed. It was mostly filler.

Once the flow picked up, I was happy to go finally forward but I found myself uneasy with the objectives of the multiple plot lines. The main conflict itself is a confusing conundrum. A young woman is called to solve a two hundred year old mystery concerning a family she isn’t related to and really knows nothing about. Of course, she can’t really be told what her mission is, it has to revealed in stages. The ghost, whom is a central figure in the story and mystery, is suppose to be only seen by those in the Kingsley/Montgomery family but can’t be mentioned to the female relatives for reasons unknown. Of course, Alix can see him and interact with him (which she does on occasions) but she can’t know he’s a ghost…because…it may scare her? Add that to Alix planning her best friend’s wedding, trying to facilitate a romance with Jared, deal with her parental issues, and build tiny architectural masterpieces and we are left with a plethora of plot lines that essentially left this reader scrambling to keep up.

The characters are amusing (at times) and plentiful but as overwhelming as the plot(s). There are multitudes and trying to keep track of the connections is confusing. We have the Kingsleys, Montgomerys, Taggarts, and then various residents of Nantucket who are related to all three through marriage somewhere on the family tree. Entwining the past with the present doesn’t help but actually hinders as you try to figure out who is who and what their connection is in the story and each other.  Add in the reincarnation theme and I threw up my hands.

The romance between Alix and Jared is presumed and the chemistry is blase. A lot of tell but not show. I never got over my feeling that Alix loved Jared the architect first and foremost and the man second. I never saw where they actually crossed the line (emotionally) from attraction to love. Rather, we are just reading along and suddenly they are in bed together and their feelings have evolved. And that right there was my problem with the book as a whole. No real drama or emotion. Things happen but they are cleared up in the next paragraph and everything is all better. The story follows a predestined path and it never veers off that path. There are no surprises. No real twists or turns. It just all…happens.

The ending perked me up a little as I did want a certain character to get their happily ever after and we are given clues to the next installment but like I mentioned above, it was all too pat.

While I’m glad Ms. Deveraux is continuing her stories involving the Montgomery and Taggart family, I’m afraid I will be stopping here.

 Rating: D

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