Jude Deveraux

Leah comes from a poor family, but she's always been fascinated with wealthy Wesley Stanford. When he mistakes her for a prostitute one night, Leah ends up pregnant. Forced to marry her, Wesley abandons her with his family while he builds a farm in Kentucky. He's irate because he always wanted to marry Kimberly, a beautiful and spoiled woman of his class. Meanwhile, his family takes to Leah and teaches her manners and what else she needs as the wife of a wealthy man.
This is all pretty good until Wesley returns, and the story 'jumps the shark.' Leah and Wesley head to Kentucky with Kimberly in tow to get a divorce there so that Wesley can marry Kim. Kim treats Leah as a servant, and Wesley changes his mind, but now Leah wants no part of him. From there, it just got more ridiculous.
I liked the first part, but the second half of the book was a disappointment.… (more)

Think I was given this as a Christmas or Birthday present, as I dont remember buying it myself.

Start of what looks like a series, a young woman is willed a house by the elderly woman who was her mentor. It introduces her to a large (and yet very small) community that seems to know everything before it happens and Ramsey the lawyer seems to have been earmarked as a potential suitor.

The story deals with her beginning to settle in, whilst trying to deal with Ramsey and her attraction to his cousin Luke. Meanwhile they start to dig into Miss Edi's past.

Lots of threads remain untied at the end of the book, possibly willing you to read the next book in the series. e.g. how did she get a $50,000 mortgage with no known income (ok, the house is large but was going to eat up the money).

And I was always taught: never introduce a new character or subject in the last quarter of the book. So why do we find out about Luke's other job in the last chapter? In the same chapter we've met Joce's grandfather for the first time?… (more)

I've read a few of Ms. Deveraux's books with mixed reactions, but I decided to try one more and picked this, one of her best-known, on Sarah MacLean's recommendation. I love Ms. MacLean's books, but I disliked The Black Lyon.
The characters are awful; Lyonene is an airhead who never grows up and constantly gets involved in bad situations after being told to do the opposite. Ranulf is rude and abusive but somehow is soft inside though he never really shows it. The plot is ridiculous, just one stupid scrap after another, usually because Lyonene is afraid to talk to her husband. To be fair, he does backhand her once, so her fear is justified.
I don't necessarily care much about the historical details, especially in an older bodice-ripper, but so much was wrong with the history. The rules of inheritance were completely wrong, and I almost lost it when Edward I thought it'd be funny to give a drunken Lyonene white wine instead of water to get her even more drunk. I should have DNF'd this book but it was so bad I had to keep reading to see what happened next. Anyway, it wasn't for me, and Ms. Deveraux's books are off my TBR list.… (more)

A Justified Murder by Jude Deveraux was an excellent murder mystery novel that took some wild twists and turns I didn't expect!

Sara, Kate and Jack work together to try to solve an old woman's murder. Everyone seems to like her... or do they? There's more than meets the eye when this elderly woman is brutally murdered, and the plot begins to thicken when her drama is released into the public...

I honestly adored this book! It was sweet, simple and yet so thrilling all at the same time. It felt very cozy yet it wasn't a total contemporary, cozy mystery. It was packed full of unique stories that I hadn't expected (but I also hadn't read the first book in this series, so who knows... maybe I would have seen them coming!).

This book can easily be read as a standalone, but I know I want to pick up the remaining books in this series now. It was super enjoyable and enough information was given for me to understand what was going on in the story.

I will say this: If you are looking for a murder mystery book where you will be able to connect the dots, this book is not it. It's a bit more scattered brained and the kind of book you just sink into and let it ride itself out. There was no way you could guess what was going to happen until the information was given by the author. There's no dots to connect.

I am very curious if this romantic relationship that was being hinted at develops... I guess I gotta find the rest of the series to find out!

Four out of five stars.

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.… (more)