| Scarlet Nights: An Edilean Novel |  | Author: Jude Deveraux
Publisher: Atria
Category: Book
List Price: $25.99
Buy New: $8.00
as of 9/10/2010 08:28 MDT details
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Seller: Cobb Media LLC.
Rating:  7 reviews
Sales Rank: 5,384
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 384
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.5
ISBN: 1439107971
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9781439107973
ASIN: 1439107971
Publication Date: August 3, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
What if you learned that your fiancé was not who he claimed to be? Engaged to the charming and seductive Greg Anders, Sara Shaw is happily anticipating her wedding in Edilean, Virginia. The date has been set, the flowers ordered, even her heirloom dress is ready. But just three weeks before the wedding, Greg gets a telephone call during the night and leaves without explanation. Two days later, a man climbs up through a trapdoor in the floor of Sara’s apartment, claiming that he is the brother of her best friend and that he’s moving in. While Mike Newland is indeed telling the truth about his identity, his reason for being there reaches far deeper. He’s an undercover detective, and his assignment is to use Sara to track down a woman who is one of the most notorious criminals in the United States—and also happens to be the mother of the man Sara plans to marry. Mike thinks the job will be easy—if he can figure out how to make a “good” girl like Sara trust him, that is. But Mike has no idea what this mission has in store for him. He’s worked hard to keep private his connections to Edilean, which date back to his grandmother’s time there in 1941. But as Mike and Sara get to know each other, he can’t help but share secrets about himself that he’s told no one else. And in return, Sara opens up to Mike about things she could never reveal to Greg. As the pair work together to solve two mysteries, their growing love begins to heal each of them in ways they never could have imagined.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
 Fun but predictable romance/adventure. August 25, 2010
Valerie Matteson (Ann Arbor, Michigan)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I've read a lot of Jude Deveraux and loved Knight in Shining Armor but grew to hate the Forever and Always series. I've read Lavender Morning and enjoyed it although some of the plot was pretty much a pattern and the ending seemed rushed. I enjoyed this book a bit more although the heroine's personality did seem to be a bit all over the map.
Mike Newland works as a detective of a very special squad in Ft. Lauderdale. They along with the FBI, Secret Service and other police departments have been investigating and trying to arrest a woman named Mitzi Vandlo following her all over the country. She along with her adult son Stefan is wanted for fraud, financial crimes and violence. Someone has spotted Stefan living undercover in Edilean, Virginia and he is engaged to marry a hometown girl by the name of Sara Shaw.
The Captain wants Mike to go investigate, stop the marriage, protect Ms. Shaw and hopefully finally arrest Mitzi Vandlo. While Mike has never been to Edilean, his sister Tess lives there and is currently in Europe on her honeymoon. Mike lets Tess in on what's happening and gets her to extend her and Ramsey's honeymoon both to keep Tess safe and to give Mike and opening with Sara who happens to be Tess' best friend.
This story unfold in some rather obvious ways and few surprises. The interactions between Sara and Mike are good but Sara's inability to see her fiance Greg (aka Stefan) for what he is when her family, best friends and, in fact, the whole town don't like him seems beyond stubborn.
Entertaining to read but not one of her best.
Typical modern day Deveraux - not great, but not awful August 23, 2010
The Escape Artist (Southwest, US)
Scarlet Nights (really can't stand the story tie-in to the title) is a cookie-cutter Deveraux romantic suspense (seemed very close in storyline to Sweet Liar, High Tide, Secrets). If like me you're a long-time JD reader, the borrowing from other of her past storylines (speaking of which, what is with her obsession with heroes named Mike and shopping???) is very obvious and gets old quick. JD (or *cough* her ghost writer *cough*) almost seems out of touch with some of her scenes (really, what kind of guy goes on a CD shopping spree at Best Buy?). There were also a few times where I caught myself doing a doubletake after reading a few lines, but I finally just gave up trying to cross reference or figure out what exactly the author meant to write.
All that being said, Scarlet Nights is an okay installment of the Edilean trilogy. The main characters certainly aren't strongly written or memorable (Sara is annoying in her damsel in distress role, Mike is difficult to take in his super healthy, super cop, gym junkie role), but this entry updates readers on the other characters in modern day Edilean. I'm glad that Tess's comment about her grandmother being wronged (in Lavender Morning) was one of the main themes in this story, however I was NOT happy to read what exactly that 'wrong' was or that it was addressed so lightly because the old lady was a known liar and might have made it up! I also couldn't understand why Ariel's character was thrown in as the anti-Sara (seemed too much like the Luke vs. Ramsey tug of war also in Lavender Morning).
As I wrote in a previous review, this trilogy did not go the route I was expecting, but Scarlet Nights definitely fit with what I expected. If you are new to the series or unsure if you want to even bother reading the latest from JD, I'd definitely start with Days of Gold (the second installment, and imho the best of the series) and then read Lavender Morning and Scarlet Nights. Hate to admit it, but you may have to take notes with all the different family names and bloodlines Deveraux throws in there.
Oh, how I miss the simple days of the great Taggart/Montgomery novels...
(SPOILER)... Incidentally for those reviewers who commented about the way Greg was caught, Deveraux has used that same "corset ending" in a number of her other novels. As I said before, a cookie cutter JD story...
Not That Bad...But Not The Best August 17, 2010
L. Nguyen (Oklahoma)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Let me start out by saying that I've read every single one of Jude Deveraux's books since I first read a Knight in Shining Armor. I've enjoyed her books until I got to the most recent ones. To her credit, it is tough having to come up with new fresh ideas for a book. Ever since I last read the Forever series, her books seemed to have gone into another direction. Just a little different than what I'm used to from her. I still enjoy the way she writes, so I do give each one of her books a chance. I actually enjoyed Scarlet Nights more so than Days of Gold and Lavender Morning. I liked how she revisited characters from the first book in this series. In fact, it would have been better for me if she just left out Days of Gold or left it until the very end. Flowed better that way. I liked the characters a bit more in this book. Sure, you've got a gullible heroine and the hero may not fit the description of a 'hero' if you're comparing him to a Taggert or a Montgomery- but he has something of his own. I think what she was trying to go for was a more action hero type of character to go with a action type story. The bald head didn't really bother me. Actually, he wasn't really bald, per se, he was more shaven with a high hairline. If you read her website, she based the character of Mike on Jason Statham. I don't know what other women think- but I think he's a pretty hot in his movies. So, I really didn't have any trouble picturing Mike with him in mind. Yeah, he may not be the typical pretty boy, but I liked how different he was and not perfect- more rugged. Book was slightly slow in the beginning, picked up a little towards the middle and then kinda rushed the ending. I like endings that leave you with a sense of closure- this one kinda just ended. Things that I could have lived without- I think that she is trying to modernize her books more to fit what is hot in today's times. For instance, the action plot, the references to technology, texting, phones- but I kinda wish she would stick to how she wrote in the past. I think she did really well with her historicals and while she does a fair job with contemporary, I think she shines more with the classic. To me, these characters and this town seems to be more old-fashioned than modern...even though it was in modern times so for me it was kinda strange to have the modern references in a story that almost wants to stay old-fashioned. Almost seemed out of place to me. Plot seemed kinda unrealistic at times, but this is a romance and light reading. Good to read if you want to see what happens with the characters in Lavender Morning. If you're like me and already read the first two, you may as well read this one. But you may want to wait until paperback. Yes, this may not be up to the same standards as her earlier works, but it's not the worst that I've read by far.
 Very Disappointed August 16, 2010
Book Worm (Texas)
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I have to agree with the other negative reviews on most things. I don't find the balding hard to take; because Mike's perfect physique was described in such detail I pictured a buzz cut with a receding hairline like a lot of action heroes seem to have. My problem was with the same-o plot, different names. The worst to me was the ending, which I agree sounded rushed and I thought stretched things a lot. I don't want to do a spoiler, so I'll just say as I read the last chapter with disgust. I won't be advance ordering her hard-covers anymore.
The summer of lackluster novels continues. August 12, 2010
T. L. Haddix
9 out of 10 found this review helpful
I've read Jude Deveraux's work for years, but like many of my long-time favorite authors' works which have been released this summer, "Scarlet Nights" left me scratching my head wondering what went wrong? Warning - there will be some slight spoilers in this review.
Truly, the second half of the book wasn't horrible. The first half? I skimmed through it. I seem to be doing a lot of that lately. We are introduced to the heroine, who is introduced to us as being dull-witted, spineless and blindly determined to marry a man who is obviously a no-good son of a witch. He treats her horribly and she lets him, which for me is just unforgiveable in a heroine whom I am supposed to like. We are supposed to believe this woman honestly can't see why her friends and family don't like the guy she's engaged to? Really?
As another reviewer mentioned, the hero in this mess is bald. I don't have a thing against bald guys in the real world, but I want my fictional heroes to have a full head of hair. Add to that, the author's descriptions of the man just were not all that flattering. It was almost as though she were ticked at him, or didn't personally like this guy when she wrote about him. The fact that he disregards the report of abuse of a family member, even though it was years in the past, doesn't make him hero-worthy in my eyes. Especially since he is a LEO (law-enforcement officer). Neither does the fact that he has no compunction whatsoever seducing and having sex with women just to further his cover and investigation endear him to me. I know, I know - it probably happens in the real world, blah, blah, blah. When the hero rubs his past conquests, whether they are in the line of duty or not, in the heroine's face? Um, ew? If someone did that to me, I'd kick him to the curb so fast he wouldn't remember his own name. Besides, this is fiction. It's okay that he is flawed; he just isn't supposed to be THAT flawed.
The ending of this novel felt a little rushed to me, and I think it could have been tied up a little better. The story lost all credibility for me in the end, and left me feeling like the H/h would probably end up splitting up after a couple of kids came along.
One more thing that bothered me was the texting. Yes, 99% of the civilized world (and 80% of the UNcivilized world) do it these days. A couple of instances would have been okay, but there were points where Deveraux relied on texts for dialogue. Ugh.
All in all, another disappointing book that leaves me wondering what in the world publishers are thinking these days. On a positive note? There were no vampires, werewolves or zombies.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 7
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