Customer Reviews

The Mulberry Tree

5 star:		(24)
4 star:		(20)
3 star:		(17)
2 star:		(18)
1 star:		(12)

 

 

This was a fantastic story. The mystery keeps you turning pages. Starting over is never easy. Bailey changes her looks and identity after her multi billionaire husband dies. She inherits an old farmhouse in Virginia. Bailey thinks she can start over but the past won't let her.

Twists and turns in the plot always lead back to the Golden 6. What really happened? That's what kept me reading.

I love Jude Devereaux's writing. It was nice reading one of her old books. She is a talented author. You will enjoy this book.

The writing is a 5, but I give it a 3 because I like the traditional Jude love story and The Mulberry Tree is an example of another good romance writer jumping on the romantic/suspense bandwagon. I'm disppointed because the book begins in a such a way that I thought I was reading a classic Jude Devereau story .... a story about a woman who overcomes obstacles, discovers her personal strengths, and finds love along the way. Instead it takes a turn into a mystery-suspense about "The Golden Six." If you like romantic suspense, you'll enjoy Jude's latest.

The book started out with all the earmarks of a great read. And it almost was. Loved the premise of the story, the murder mystery was well done and kept me guessing until the very end and some of the characters were exceptionally well developed. Loved Patsy and Janice.

But the story was rather carelessly patched together in spots and in some places credibility was stretched so thin that it jolted me out of the story. Things always worked out just a little to well for Bailey and some of the characters motives were a little far fetched. Had to stop reading and roll my eyes several times. Ms. Devereaux could have spent a little more time thinking things through and might have come up with a real winner here.

However if your not a nit picker like I am, and you like a good romantic suspense story, you will probably enjoy this book.

I've been a Deveraux fan forever, and having loved The Summerhouse, was eagerly awaiting another contemporary story from her.

This novel, however, has more problems than I have room to list, the greatest of which being its blatant disregard for the details and subleties of its own plot.

What seemed to start as an exciting, discover-yourself story for Lillian, quickly turned into an analysis of recipies rather than relationships. While her canning, preserving and cooking processes took up pages of the story, her friendship with Patsy and Janice simply materialized, despite their strange behavior and Lillian's need for secrecy. Her relationship with Matt is also steamrolled - what could have been a beautiful love story became the background for bits and pieces of a story about food, sleuthing and abuses of all kinds - and no theme was played out completely.

Even the resolution to Jimmie's life of mystery is given in the last few pages, laid out plainly and quickly as if Deveraux's deadline was upon her and she needed to wrap it up. We didn't even get to see Matt propose!

All of this rushing results in a story that could have been so much more, from an author whose work has been more, and hopefully will be again.

Wow, what happened to the Jude Deveraux that I've read and loved for 15 years? This book was just awful. Could anyone else use a different name, what were there 4 people with 2 names each? It was like 3 or 4 plots all rolled into one very bad and disjointed story. Too many people, not enough character development, strange plot lines, and who edits these things?
The character of Arleen had her name spelled Arlene in the last 2 chapters.
I will be VERY careful before I spend [this much] on another Jude book.
What a shame.

I have read all of Jude Deveraux's books, and I agree with most of the other reviews I have read about this one. The Mulberry Tree could have been much better. It reminded me a little bit of Sweet Liar, which was, in my opinion, her last really good book. The Mulberry Tree started off in a promising manner, but then towards the end of the book, just completely fell flat. All of a sudden characters were getting killed off left and right, and it totally didn't fit with the rest of the novel. The point of the story, was for the protagonist to find out the truth about her husband and her past, but really about finding herself. I liked the book pretty much up until about halfway through. Jude Deveraux should stick to writing romance novels, and not try to be a romantic suspense novelist, like Linda Howard. It just doesn't work.

There have already been several reviews of the plot of the book so I won't go over the story again. Little things irritated me like Bailey (her new name) being able to go into a kitchen at midnight in a home she had just moved into and can truly exotic fruit and vegetable combinations by the jar-ful - this is not the piece of cake she makes it appear to be. I also got a little confused toward the end when everyone involved seemed to have a different original name. I think there were too many "unusual" personalities for one story. I have read every single Jude Devereaux book she has written (even Casa Grande)and I don't mind she has gone into the mystery/suspense mode but the number of characters involved needs to be limited if you have a mystery to unravel too. It wasn't a bad read, just a confusing one.

I loved this book. It is not a stereotypical romance, and that may explain some of the not so stellar reviews. I thought it was complex and moving. I loved how the Jimmie character was so real, and like a real person had a good and bad side. This is not a story of a perfect woman meets perfect man and they have a perfect life. The characters are much more complex, much more real. And the mystery portion was original and well paced. I found it quite suspenseful and it kept me up until 2am to find out the end! The romance portion was not all steamy and dramatic, but more subtle, more real and more like the way REAL love develops. I guess some readers like to be taken away into a fantasy world, and if that is the case, this may not be for you. But I really enjoyed every last bit of it. WARNING-the food descriptions may make you hungry in the middle of reading. Not a good book for dieters! This book reaffirmed my passion for Jude Deveraux's writing and I can't wait to read more!

When I think of a Jude Deveraux novel I instantly think of a wonderful love story that sizzles. The Mulberry Tree had nowhere near the wonderful story of Ms. Deveraux's previous books like Eternity, the Princess, the Raider, etc.
While the story was nowhere near that of these previous books, it was still a better than average story. Lillian Manville was left a widow when her billionaire husband's plane crashed. Lillian had loved James with her whole heart, and even lived for him because he needed her. In the time after James' death Lillian had been left virtually penniless and the owner of a farmhouse in Calburn, Virginia. The natives of Calburn were all rather odd, and the history of Calburn was saturated by a group of men known as the Golden Six. The enigmatic history of Calburn, the Golden Six, and even Lillian's husband James Manville all revolve around the summer of 1968, and specifically the 30th of August. Lillian, as Bailey James, came to Calburn with the belief that she knew about James' past, but the reality emerges that she knew absolutely nothing about him. The people that we meet in Calburn are all rather eccentric. There are Patsy and Janice, the cousins that do not speak to each other and Violet the pot smoking 60ish woman are some of the more eccentric characters that we meet. The romantic story that is supposed to evolve here really never does. Matthew Longacre is the son of one of the Golden Six, and he becomes Bailey's housemate in a rather odd way. Matt eventually helps Bailey figure out some of the aspects of the history of the Golden Six, and even some of the history of James Manville.
Personally, I love Ms. Deveraux's works with my whole heart. However, this novel left me with some unanswered questions regarding the motivations that certain characters face. However, this was a fast and enjoyable read.

This was a poorly written, quite confusing book with so many characters that at a point I just couldn't care anymore. The main character (Lillian or Baily) was not likeable. I don't believe that someone that was that much of a doormat with her first husband could change the way she did. Oh, are we to believe that Jimmy (who had surgery on his lip and and covered it with a mustache would not want his wife to be at her most attractiveness. . . duh??) And those cooking skills??? Come on now. . . let's get real.

Could anyone really care about the Golden Six? Don't people ever live through those high schools years and get on with their lives.

Since her sister never met Jimmy, it was hard to believe that she hated Lillian as much as she did for marrying him. That was just another unbelievable subplot. And there were many of them.

Here's another stupidity. We are told that Jimmy loved Lillian, but then he left her nothing in his will. Of course, in the case of novels of this type, all turns out well in the end. But if Jimmy truly loved Lillian he would have told her his story and left her his money instead of setting this silly plotted book into action. Stupid, stupid, stupid!!

I guess I am done with Jude Deveraux.