High Tide [Paperback]

Jude Deveraux (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2004

Fiona is the creator of fashion doll sensation Kimberley, and is quite satisfied with her career-focused life. Yet when her boss informs her that she must win over a new account by going camping with the creator of a hit children's TV show, she is extremely reluctant. Nevertheless, she goes to Florida to meet Roy and his Guide Ace Montgomery. When Roy is found dead with Fiona holding the bloody knife, she becomes the prime suspect - though she has no recollection of what happened. Things get worse when she learns that Roy, until now a stranger to her, left her all the proceeds from his new TV show, giving her a strong motive for murder. Suddenly, she and Ace find themselves on the run, and being condemned by the press for murder. They must prove their innocence by discovering the true motive and murderer of Roy. Fiona and Ace figure out they are linked through her father, and it is then that Fiona learns the secrets of her family's past, turning her world upside down.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

"One night I went to bed and when I woke up, there was a dead man on top of me... " is only one of the problems faced by Fiona Burkenhalter, embattled heroine of Deveraux's latest novel. Fiona is a hotshot at Davidson Toys in New York, and she's the obsessed creator of Kimberly, a popular Barbie-like doll. She is furious and pouty when her boss forces her to leave her beloved Kimberly for three days to negotiate a deal with a client in the Florida Everglades. In the Fort Lauderdale airport, petulant Fiona sees a man being attacked by a giant alligator and springs into action, hurling a pink bowling ball case at the beast. The alligator, however, is a mechanical contraption, and it explodes. Fiona is arrested for her heroics, and the man who just saw her destroy his $15,000 investment has to be forcibly restrained from choking her to death. Upon her release Fiona embarks on her dreaded meeting with her client and his guide, a man named Ace Montgomery, hero of many previous Deveraux adventures. Ace turns out to be the same man whose alligator Fiona incinerated, so their antipathy begets the inevitable flying sparks that camouflage mutual attraction. When Fiona's client ends up stabbed to death in her bed , Ace acts fast: he drugs Fiona and drags her off to a hotel to hide and decide what their story is going to be. By morning their photographs are splashed across the front pages, fugitives wanted for the murder. Ace and Fiona go on the lam, bickering, wearing disguises and learning about each other as they try to outrun the police and unravel the mystery. Fast-paced, suspenseful and shot through with goofy humor, Deveraux's latest adventure romance should please fans who like a low danger quotient, slap-happy dialogue and a corny but sassy love story. (Nov.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

Sent to the Everglades (of all places) to promote a new doll, Fiona Montgomery falls for the handsome river guide and then gets charged with murder.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; Regular Print/Single Titl edition (June 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0671037501
• ISBN-13: 978-0671037505
• Product Dimensions: 4.4 x 1.2 x 7.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (94 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,249,442 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jude Deveraux was once a fifth-grade teacher who loved to read. When her imagination began to be filled with her own stories to tell, her career as a writer began. Jude's novels have been set in both contemporary and historical periods. Her strong, lyrical writing style and ability to write stories with memorable characters, rich detail, and believable dialogue has garnered her many devoted readers.

Jude has had over thirty books on the New York Times bestsellers list, has over 60 million copies in print, and has been translated into 18 languages. When she's not writing, she enjoys reading murder mysteries, working in her garden, and in boxing class she likes to show much younger males that she can throw a mean right cross.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Still a fan of JD's, but not of this book., December 22, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: High Tide (Hardcover)

I consider myself a huge Jude Deveraux fan, however it's hard to believe she wrote this particular book.

The good parts: The relationship between Fiona and Ace.

The not so good parts: The entire cast of other characters and the whole convoluted plot.

There were way too many secondary characters, none of them fleshed out very well. And, for the most part, none of them the least bit likeable or interesting.

There is a strange side trip into a retirement village that seems to be inhabited entirely by these weird secondary characters.

The plot involves a murder, a doll, a map, some gold lions and a host of old weirdos from Fiona's past.

And, if Fiona was so beloved by her father, why is her middle name the same as one of the "bad" characters? Confusing and too scattered to be interesting.

I truly hope that I must have missed the entire gist of this book because if this is where she's headed with her writing style I really do want to enjoy it.

But she's written enough great historical romances that she deserves to do anything she wants.

I'm still a fan of hers, but not of this book.

25 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not Worth a Deveraux Fan's Time, January 12, 2000

By 

Wren Mills - See all my reviews

This review is from: High Tide (Hardcover)

I have been in love with Jude Deveraux's writing since I was a teenager. Her historical novels are the best that I've ever read. I normally love her modern tales, too, but there was something odd about this one... almost as if she hadn't written it.

The style of this latest book didn't seem to be hers. I felt an abrupt change at the end of Chapter 18, and from then on it was as if an amateur writer had taken over-- there were too many "baby" this and "baby" that phrases which were totally out of character for Ace Montgomery. The murder-mystery concept was a good one, and it was fairly well done and quite enjoyable, but I kept getting the sense that I wasn't reading Ms. Deveraux's normal style. It was very unsettling. The love plot within it was subtle and growing nicely, but it came to too quick of a climax and resolution, almost as if Deveraux decided, "Oops, I've written too many pages! Must end the story NOW!" In the end, I was left very disappointed.

If you are a Deveraux fan looking for another great read, you're not going to find it here. I've given my copy to my mother to read to confirm my bad feelings about it, and then it's going to Goodwill. I refuse to add it to my collection of her other novels.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Where were the Montgomerys?, November 18, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: High Tide (Hardcover)

HIGH TIDE is a major improvement in Jude Deveraux's writing of late. It is much, much better than AN ANGEL FOR EMILY and THE BLESSING. The writing is cleaner and while the story is not "true-to-life," it is at least credible. It moves well and the characters are interesting.

The main problem is that this is a Taggert novel, not a Montgomery except in name only. When Ace Montgomery finds himself in trouble, he does not go to his Montgomery family but to his Taggert cousins. His brother is mentioned in an aside and never by name, but Michael and Frank Taggert are heavily involved in helping Ace and Fiona clear their names. If this book was supposed to be a return to the Montgomerys, why didn't we see any of them other than Ace? It would have been more interesting if Ace had gone to Reid Stanford and Dougless Montgomery Stanford (from A KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR) for help, rather than the Taggerts. I love the Taggerts but wanted to revisit old favorites from the KNIGHT.

All in all, HIGH TIDE is worth the cover price, but it does not measure up to classics like A KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR and SWEET LIAR.