Customer Reviews

Mountain Laurel

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

a huge Jude fan, and would read any of her novels based on hr authroship alone. But this book stands alone in her series and no romance book I've ever read makes me cry so much, laugh so hard, or fall in love with the same man so often (just don't tell my future husband that).

'Ring isn't dreamy, he's too straitlaced and perfect. Tall, dark, handsome, devoted to his duty as an army officer and to his men he needs excitement.

Enter LaReina, the singing duchess. She's actually a mountain girl, daughter of famous explorers who's sister Laurel has been kidnapped. For ransom she must transport gold in her giant coach under the cover of a singing tour.

Her friend sent for one man to escort her but since he died Ring the tight-butt comes along to spar verbally with her and warily watch her three hired companions.

Filled with beautiful descriptions of Native Americans, really colorful secondary characters, and great humor that will have you giggling this is a timeless escape.

And the love between these two characters is so real it will instantly make you remember how it feels to fall in love. No hate-love here it's simple attraction and two very well rounded characters with their own wounds and insecurities coming together in desperate times.

The sex is very minimal and towards the end but this is the most sensual thing I've ever read. The anticipation that builds between these two will have you chasing your honey that night.

How I wish they'd make a movie of this novel! But for now, I'll keep reading it, and it would be so terrible if you missed this one.

Admitedly, the follow up "Wishes" about their son is very funny but lackluster in comparison, but you revisit with these heroes. And twenty some odd years later in the second book, you feel their love just as strongly.

Don't miss this or you will be sorry!

I was positively charmed by 'Ring! I put him up there along with William Mongomery and Mike Taggert as far as being the perfect man to fall in love with. As for the rest of the book, the comedy was so great, I laughed out loud most of it! Jaime's ('Ring's brother) little prank left Maddie and 'Ring in handcuffs for a couple of days with no horse or anything to get them into town, and that gave her time to trust him with her problems, and it gave him time to make her see him as something other than captain. 'Ring is a little prankster himself, and poor Maddie is victim! She can hold her own, though! That isn't all there is to the book, but it really is just so freakin' hilarious! Every page they are in together is full of humor! This book is perfect if you are in the mood for a book that will lighten your spirit and make you smile.

Madelyn Worth (Maddie) is a World famous opera singer also known as La Reina the singing Duchess. She journeys out to the West to rescue her sister, Laurel, who has been held hostage. She must sing in 6 towns and deliver letters at each post.

Captain 'Ring Montgomery has been assigned to escort her across the rough terrain by General Yovington. He's none to pleased to be babysitting a 'travelling singer', not knowing the purpose of her journey into the West. At first he tries to scare her so that she goes running back to safe East. He fails and stands by his duty and escorts from one town to the next.

Maddie does not want 'Ring to travel with her as she thinks that he will put Laurel's life at risk by attempting something dangerous like chasing after the kidnappers. She does all she can to dismiss him but fails. As the journey across the West in search of Laurel, they find a growing attraction for each other that they cannot deny.

It's a pleasure always to read a Jude Deveraux book, especially ones that concern the Montgomery clan. Those Montgomery men sure are to die for. Always handsome, gentle, caring gentlemen. However, I was not drawn into the love story. I could not believe that these two people really cared for each other. Neither did I warm to Maddie who I thought was rather spoilt. However, the plot runs smoothly and the secondary charachters add flavour to the book. 'Ring Montgomery also makes an guest appearance in "Eternity" also by Jude Deveraux which I thought was a much better book than the present.

Lea Ling Tsang

Mountain Laurel was a pretty good book...but I just didn't thought it was complete enough because the heroine, Maddie, just wasn't the heroine that should have been there. In my opinion, I think Jude made Maddie way too concieted, selfish, and and way too vain. First of all, Maddie keeps on saying that her voice is the best in the world, and in my opinion, that's way too vain! I couldn't stand it! And she's selfish because all she cared about was herself and not anything about 'Ring. She just wanted him to follow her around the world to listen to her sing, and she didn't care a cinch about 'Ring's Warbrooke Shipping Co. All she cared about was her own life, and how she has to sing...blah blah blah! But I'll give Jude some credit on 'Ring, the hero. He was nice, kind, and sweet. All he did was think of the best, but no...Maddie didn't care. All she thought about was herself. In my opinion, this book does not even deserve a star.

Basically if you like an easy read with a romance, funny comments, and declarations of love in the end...then this book is for you. It's not highly intelligent or factually correct, but it's cute and warms your heart. If you then also have a little knowledge of opera, or just like it, then you'll probably get this book and the characters a little bit better too. I loved it! Hope you will too!

This is one of my top five favorite Jude Devereaux books. `Ring Montgomery is a priceless character; a sexy, stubborn Dudley DoWright. I love his little cameos in Jude's other books. Enchanting, hilarious reading.

It's been 10 years since I read Mountain Laurel for the first time, and since then I have read too many many romances to remember. However Mountain Laurel has stayed with me - the one reason for that is simply Maddie and her voice. Yes `Ring is a great hero (he really is) but the whole framework of the novel revolves around the fact that Maddie is the greatest singer in the world. Her voice, her talent, is a character in itself with a past, history and progression all its own. Maddie's voice plays an integral part of Maddie's life, shaping her past and her present, her current quest, even `Rings love for her. Her voice has such influence because it is a voice better than any the world has ever known. Maddie herself is not extraordinary but her voice is and she acknowledges this not with conceit or with vanity, but simply as fact. Without this fact, Mountain Laurel would be just another western-type romance - a good, funny, witty love-story yes, but not one that forces you remember it 10 years after you've read it, and definitely not one that makes you yearn for another heroine with an extraordinary talent that you just cannot forget - even if that talent is only fiction.

I love Jude Deveraux's other books, but this one was so hard to relate to, I couldn't even finish it. Pompous opera singers are just not people I run across or care about. Sorry. Give us more like "Wishes" or "Knight in Shining Armor".

Sorry I finished this one. A total waste of paper. I never did understand why the Montgomery chap went West or why he stayed so long. The ego of the heroine was only exceeded by her general stupidity, and when the hero and heroine get together, it's amongst the most disgusting couplings imaginable. (A log cabin, with a force that pushes the heroine across a floor---full of either splinters or dirt---and bangs her head up the wall while 100 or so miners are outside taking bets on when they'll come out. YUK.) The little sister is also a strange character. She speaks with a hill billy accent, even though she grows up in the Rockies and has a cultured mother and an educated father. Apparently Ms. Deveraux watched "The Unsinkable Molly Brown" one too many times.

I wasn't really expecting to like this book based on some of the other customer reviews I had read, but it was much better than I anticipated. I agree with some of the other reviewers about their opinion of the heroine - she was just a little too vain. (And what in the world was the little sister all about? - she was creepy). The most redeeming part of the book was Ring. He was great. I never saw him as the heroine did. I thought everything he did was to protect her. At least in the end everything worked out enough to leave me satisfied - unlike some other of Ms. Deveraux's books.