The Girl From Summer Hill by Jude Deveraux – a Review

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Description:
Sparks fly as fiery Casey Reddick and brooding Hollywood actor Tate Landers clash in the Virginia summer heat. A chef who puts her career first and her love life second, Casey doesn’t see what every girl in town is swooning over. She made up her mind the moment she met Tate—he’s gorgeous, but stuck-up, nothing like his ex-brother-in-law, Devlin who’s playing the Wickham to Tate’s Darcy in local production of Pride & Prejudice. Casey makes the perfect Elizabeth Bennett—how could she be star-struck when she’s heard Devlin’s damning stories about Tate? As they rehearse together, however, Casey finds herself attracted to Tate—he’s much more down-to-earth than she expected and any physical contact between the two of them literally gives her a tingling, electric shock. As opening night draws near, Casey has some difficult decisions to make. Whom should she believe? The seemingly sincere, slighted Devlin or Tate, whose rough, arrogant exterior may only be skin deep. She’s come to love that jolt she gets when they touch—but will she get burned?

Review:

The Girl from Summer Hill by Jude Deveraux is the first book in her new Summer Hill series. This was a sweet romance story, but different in that it also was sort of a modern day version of Pride and Prejudice.  Casey Reddick, who is our heroine, has just moved into a house for the summer, and to her shock, she sees a naked man while sipping tea . Tate Landers, is our hero, who is a famous actor in town to help a friend perform the role of Darcy, in the town’s theatre.  When Tate spots Casey watching him dry off outside, he gets angry thinking she is a reporter trying to take pictures.  Needless to say, this was a bad start, and Casey,even if he is a gorgeous movie star, thought he was downright rude.

Casey is a chef, and will be providing the food to the actors in the play.  Tate tries to make amends with his anger when they first met, but Casey has no interest in him.  This is helped by the false information she gets from another member of the theater crew, who just happens to be Tate’s ex brother in law.

In the fashion of Pride & Prejudice, Casey believes what she is told by Devlin, who is truly the villain in this story.  When they need someone to help perform some roles, Casey steps into the part of Lizzy, and her anger at the man playing Darcy, makes her so believable, she is offered the part in the play.

This was a slow build romance that was beautifully done.  Tate does his best to win her over, as he begins to have feelings for Casey, but her believing what she was told about Tate keeps her at a distance. It will take a family member to show her how wrong she is.  In time, Casey opens her eyes to see the real Tate, and how much he truly does care for her. Devereaux does a wonderful job building up this relationship, as well as creating some great secondary characters.  I suspect we will revisit some of those characters in future book of Summer Hill.

What follows is a wonderful fun sweet & hot romance between Casey and Tate.  The story is similar to Pride and Prejudice, with some suspense, and a villain who fooled many.  But the key to this was the great characters besides Casey and Tate; we enjoyed Jack, Gizzy, Olivia, and many of the others who made this an enjoyable and charming read.   If you loved Pride and Prejudice, then you will love Jude Deveraux’s modern day take on that story.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher