As You Wish (A Summerhouse Novel)

Just read The Summerhouse and Return to Summerhouse again (3rd time)and really wanted another book. I didn't know she had written a third one and it was everything I wanted and needed in a great summer read.

For some unknown reason, this book got pushed to the back of my shelf. Which is weird because I love this wonderful woman's books. I can't say enough, camaraderie between generations, humor, love between the women and all the " family" really, fantastic plot and don't forget the Montgomery men. Did I say Montgomery men? Sigh....
I don't know if I want to pass it along to my daughters yet or reread parts! This story makes me want to go back and reread all the books involving Montgomerys!

After decades in an unhappy marriage, 60-year-old Olivia has just married Kit, the man she fell in love with at 17 and never stopped loving. When Kit has to leave for urgent business, he asks Olivia to meet a man and two women at a restaurant and take them to the abode of Dr. Jeanne Hightower, a psychologist whose summer home is on the same estate as Kit’s. The three strangers have sought Dr. Hightower’s counsel for marital problems and will be participating in a retreat at Dr. Hightower’s home in Summer Hill, Virginia. When one of the women fails to show, Olivia takes her place. And so begins the formation of friendships and personal revelations that will change the course of four lives.

Let’s begin with forty-something Ray, as he’s the first to walk into and out of the picture. Ruggedly handsome, Ray is polished from head to toe, but Olivia quickly sees that wasn’t always the case. Ray admits he started out on the poor side of town and was heavily involved with a gang, until his best friend’s death turned his life around. Now he’s married to his boss’s daughter, Kathy --- a sweet woman who he deeply cares about --- but he’s madly in love with someone else.

Next to enter the restaurant is twenty-something Elise --- born of money, raised by a mom who disapproved of everything she did, married to a man who treats her like nothing more than his secretary, cook and maid, despite her constant efforts to win his love. When Elise falls in love with Alejandro, the gardener on the estate she shares with her parents and in-laws, she tries to fight the feeling and stay faithful to her husband. She does remain faithful, but fighting her love for Alejandro proves impossible, especially since the feeling is mutual. Alejandro returns to Mexico, and Elise discovers that his sister is her husband’s pregnant mistress.

Knowing Ray and Elise would be uncomfortable sharing the house without a third party, Olivia stays with them, and the three become quick friends. By the end of the first day, they’ve shared many personal details of their lives, gotten drunk together, and even pulled a prank that involved Olivia and Elise running naked through the woods. But the threesome is soon to lose Ray, who is called away on international business and has to leave the next day. When Kathy arrives with everything he needs for the trip, she decides to stay.

With each turn of the page, the reader discovers the people, circumstances and heartaches that led Olivia, Elise and Kathy to this point in their lives. If only they could have turned back time, made different choices and took different paths. And therein lies the twist. Presented with the highly unexpected option for time-travel, all three are faced with the opportunity to take those different paths and make their dreams come true.

Fans of Jude Deveraux, a prolific New York Times bestselling author, will love this story of three women who get a second chance at getting it right.

Reviewed by Susan Miura

While it started off a promising light summer read, this novel quickly became tedious to read and left me feeling disappointed. The three main characters are hard to like - they all came off as entitled, self-indulgent brats. I would have stopped reading it earlier, but one of the characters did at one point raise the question of whether their lives actually *have* to be shaped by men. This gave me some hope that the novel might show these women actually doing something independent of the men they long after. Unfortunately that was not the case, and the ending tries to neatly tie up that all three women end up happy because they ACTUALLY went back in time to change the men they were with. It was disappointing and lazy. It was evident they were in the unhappy situations they were in because of decisions they made - I would have liked to see them own those decisions and change their situations themselves, rather than erase the lives they did live.

As a woman, it's sad to see a yet another novel written on the premise that women are only happy (and "complete") when they are with a man who can take care of them and have babies with them. For god's sake, one of the women tells her end-game man to make a baby with her WHEN THEY FIRST KISS. I rolled my eyes way too many times while reading this book.

Magical realism, time travel and the Montgomerys and Taggerts should have made As You Wish a can't miss. I think that this book would appeal to Devereaux long time readers, based upon past books and the aspects listed above. I am one of those long time readers and I ended up disappointed. Perhaps it is because there has been so much anticipation for this book, and I had built it up in my mind. I do not think it would stand alone well, and as part of the series, it's a little weak. When I say weak, I mean the characters are not layered enough, they are hard to connect to. I also found the family aspects I look for missing. I always appreciate the superb dialogue in Jude Devereaux books, always appropriate to character and situation. The story itself was entertaining, and I didnt feel the read was wasted, it's just not my favorite.

Three woman, all facing life altering decisions, are sent to a private retreat where they share in each other’s life stories, until an unfathomable opportunity arises…they can go back in time and change decisions they made to achieve the life they’ve always wanted. What would you do if you could have not the life you are living but the life AS YOU WISH?

This is a slow building story that in the end had me completely hooked. If you don't like cheating the beginning of this book is going to be as hard for you as it was for me. But, I have to say I was utterly riveted to the three women's stories about 1/2 through. NOT AT ALL WHAT I EXPECTED BY THE SYNOPSIS!

I received this copy of <b>As You Wish</b> from HARLEQUIN - Romance (U.S. & Canada) - MIRA. This is my honest and voluntary review.

I won this book on Goodreads. Three women find themselves together in Virginia. They are very different, Olivia is 61 and had a long unhappy marriage but now she is starting her life with the man she always loved,Kathy is in her 40's, married but her husband is in love with another woman, Elise is in her 20's with a troubled marriage. They tell their stories and then are allowed to go back in time for 3 weeks to relive and change things. They are able to find out what happens when their dreams really can come true. Interesting idea.

I enjoyed this latest installment of the Jude Deveraux Summerhouse series. Once again characters are contemplating their life choices and fate. For this reason, I do consider this more women’s fiction even though there are happy endings all around. It was a little slow to start but once I got in to it I thoroughly enjoyed it. Great storytelling and now I want to go back and read the earlier books again.
I appreciate how she also included Kit Montgomery and therefore linked to THE GIRL FROM SUMMER HILL and other novels featuring the Montgomery family. The parallels between the lives of the three women were interesting. While each woman was in a different stage of their lives, they all had a marriage that wasn’t a love match. This led to each have a routing value all their own. I was waiting for them to overcome the obstacles put in front of them such as a greedy stepson or a self-involved husband. I won’t tell you how they accomplished these things but trust me, you will enjoy it.

An entertaining read, but in a way, this kind of wrecked Tate and Casey's book for me. I didn't believe the corny magic element. here. What's wrong with making dumb decisions in your 20s and learning lessons from them, if you get a HEA with your long lost love at the end? Why do we have to have a "medium" who can send you back in time to fix those mistakes? A nice fantasy, but not realistic. I was happy that Kit and Olivia got back together in the Casey's book. Still, this book made me laugh and cry in spots.

This was an interesting story, but there were a lot of characters to keep straight in the beginning of the book. Once I got into the story I liked Olivia, Elise and Kathy. I didn't realize that this is part of the Summerhouse series when I started it, but I look forward to reading the other books in the series. The story really made you think about the characters lives and your own life and wonder what you would go back and change if you had the chance. This was a very good book!

Jude Deveraux was one of my favorite authors when I was a teenager. I haven't read one of her books in probably 20 years so when I received this I was very enthused to find out if I would like her books as much as I did when I was young. Jude Deveraux does not disappoint! This was a great novel.

Jude Deveraux is one of my favorites! Her stories have depth and detail (do you notice that so-o-o many authors repeat details of their storyline over and over again; ad nauseam.) With Deveraux, NEW! is on every page. Very happy reading.

That's a question my husband and I occasionally ask each other. Thankfully, we seem to have gotten it mostly right the first time! Reading about others who were less fortunate but then got a second chance was captivating.

I had read the previous Summerhouse books and was excited for this one. It’s definitely a much slower start. I was confused a lot in the beginning but about halfway through I remembered why I enjoyed the other books and ended up really enjoying the books. The characters are all very different with interesting stories. It took me awhile to get through because I wasn’t as engaged in the beginning but once I got more into it I found it hard to put down.

This was another Great and Fun Book in the Summerhouse Series. I'm glad my online Library purchased my recommendation of it. I really enjoy these stories and I am jealous because I want to do it for myself.

I really loved this book! It was so well written, both characters as well as the plot. Each woman's personality seemed so different that it was almost impossible to believe how well they meshed and interacted with each other. The ladies realized they were responsible for their own lives and the choices they made! I enjoyed immensely that their choices led them to happiness, not based on a man but on their courage. A wonderful read!

Makes you think about your attitudes & choices in life & where they take you. Young women should read this before they commit to a man in their life, just for the sense of considering what their future will bring.