Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Open Preview See a Problem? Details if other :. Thanks for telling us about the problem. Return to Book Page. Preview — The Invitation by Jude Deveraux. In the three novellas collected here, bestselling romancer Deveraux explores some of the limits of the genre she knows so well, indicating she may be as spunky as her heroines.
The first story, The Invitation, is set in Jackie O'Neill returns to her hometown of Chandler, Colo. Developing her air transport business can keep h In the three novellas collected here, bestselling romancer Deveraux explores some of the limits of the genre she knows so well, indicating she may be as spunky as her heroines. Developing her air transport business can keep her happy as a pilot, and her new partner, William Montgomery, promises to make very cozy company--until Jackie realizes he is the same little Billy she babysat for many years ago.
In the second story, Matchmakers, Kane Taggert, who reluctantly agrees to guide four New York City women on a Colorado trail ride, may be enchanted by Ruth Edwards, a calculatingly charming widow, if only he can make it through the two-week trip without throttling Ruth's friend, bestselling author Cale Anderson.
The last story, A Perfect Arrangement, finds Dorie Latham enlisting Cole Hunter, "an aging gunslinger with no visible means of support and the beginnings of a paunch," to play husband and help her elude her sister's matchmaking scheme. Get A Copy. Paperback , pages.
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Lists with This Book. Community Reviews. Showing Average rating 3. Rating details. More filters. Sort order. Mar 02, Aarann rated it liked it Shelves: loved-in-spite-of-the-book , male-lead-asshattery , too-short , irresponsible-sex , own-kindle. This rating and review only pertains to the short story contained in this collection, titled "The Matchmakers".
I know I've read the other two stories in the collection at some point, but all I remember is that the hero in the titular short story kind of creeped me out with his years-long obsession over the heroine and I remember thinking the third story was okay, but that's literally all I remember. I know I've read "The Matchmakers" a few times and I remembered loving it.
I recently read "Sweet This rating and review only pertains to the short story contained in this collection, titled "The Matchmakers". I recently read "Sweet Liar" which features Mike Taggart, who is Kane's identical twin brother , mostly because every time I'd read this story over the years, I'd see the references to Mike and his wife, Sam, and wonder what their story was. I wasn't impressed and during the reading kept wishing I was reading Kane's story instead and also that Kane's story was the longer story and Mike's was the short one.
Upon a re-read of "The Matchmakers", I was less than impressed. The story isn't complicated: Cale Anderson is a very successful writer who is pressured by an old college frenemy, Ruth, to join her on a company mandated cowboy trail ride were these ever really a thing?
Or do romance novels and movies just like us to think that companies were doing this in the 90s? I've never once heard of a real company forcing employees to do these team building exercises -- mostly because they still had to pay the employees while they were not actually doing work.
Upon showing up for the trail ride, Cale discovers Ruth is an out-and-out bitch I'm pretty sure she already knew this, but I'll forgive her for forgetting as I often forget the magnitude of other people's bitchy behavior until I'm confronted with it once again and quickly regrets her decision to come along. This regret is solidified when she meets the trail guide, Kane Taggart, who's pretty much an asshat to Cale, while he falls rather stupidly for the wiles of the animal-torturing Ruth.
Cale and Kane squabble and honestly, the stuff that I remembered finding funny before came off as really immature on the sides of both parties. At one point, Cale made a really un-funny "joke" comparing Kane to a horse's backside and he finds himself chasing her around the room trying to strangle her.
If you're going to have that much of a reaction to something, at least have the instigation be believable. This is actually the first romance novel I'd ever read at the time that took place from first-person POV for Cale's scenes and alternated to third-person POV during Kane's. I'm pretty picky about that technique I'm old-school; I tend to think an author needs to do first-person and stick with one character, or do third-person the whole way, but I am okay with authors alternating first- and third-person because I don't have a problem figuring out who I'm supposed to be reading about that way , but it works here because the technique allows a lot of Cale's personality to come through in a way it might not have had the story been told entirely in third-person.
Unfortunately, as entertaining as Cale is as a character and she really kind of is , the story was too short for me to figure out why she and Kane are in love with each other by the end of it. Seriously, there is one scene where they bond over Kane's twin boys and seriously Jude Deveraux, you and I need to sit down and have a serious chit-chat about how twin genetics work , then they have sex and there's this whole "inner goddess" thing during that scene that made me think that E.
James must have read this story at some point in her life, and Cale can tell the twins apart so Kane must be in love with her. It's very insta-love and it could have been done so much better. Despite my disappointment in the re-read, I do maintain my original insistence that this story should have been longer, but not for the same reason.
It's not that I was reluctant to leave the characters, like I thought before this re-read, but more that Kane and Cale could have been fleshed out so much better in a longer story, and maybe given a chance to actually fall for each other than some weird I-hate-you, she-can-tell-the-twins-apart, I-love-you-for-no-reason plot.
A lot of this is because the book was written in the early- to mids and that's just what Deveraux and other big "old-skool" romance authors wrote in that time period I had a similar problem with "Sweet Liar" , but I've read books by other authors written in that same time period that used the same trope much better. May 07, Sheila Samuelson rated it it was amazing Shelves: adult-books , romance-books. Rating: 5 Stars!!
Wish i could rate it 10 stars!!! Review: This was my first time reading a book by Jude so i was unsure if i'd like it out not but i loved it!! The 1st story was a little slow for me but glad it picked up by Chapter 5. This book contained 3 stories set in and s all 3 Historical Fictions about War, Love and Loss. I'll definately read more by Jude in the future!!
Apr 12, Lina rated it it was ok. I usually like Jude Deveraux's books,but those novellas These three novellas are so cute. Can't go wrong with them! Nice light reads. Just what I needed. Oct 01, Maria rated it really liked it Shelves: historical-romance. Three books in one. The Invitation: William Montgomery is an old soul even as a child. He loves Jackie who is ten years older. When Jackie's husband dies, William gets his chance. Although Jackie does not think of herself as middle-aged at 38, everyone else does, and sees year-old William as too young for her.
They know the truth. Jackie is a child compared to William. Entertaining in some ways but I was more interested in Jackie's friend Terri and what was going to happen to her.
Four stars. M Three books in one. Matchmaker: Kane's mother is worried that her son is still grieving for his wife and talks him into taking four New York City girls into the back country of Colorado. She has her eye on one of them in particular for Kane. She is very like is dead wife. She reckons without Cale Anderson, mystery writer and all-around smart mouth. Cale is a delight to any reader.
Everything she says is startling and guaranteed to catch the reader's interest. My only complaint is that it is by far too short. Five stars.
A Perfect Arrangement: Dorie needs a husband and attempts to buy one for a few weeks, just until her sister Rowena leaves the country again. Otherwise she will find herself arranged into a marriage she doesn't want. When she approaches Cole Hunter, he turns her down but later he is injured and needs the job. Dorie becomes looser and more approachable as the book progresses, and Cole is mostly angry all the time, since he can't explain his reaction to Dorie.
The ending is abrupt and leaves the most interesting parts of the story untold, their return to Lathem and how Cole handles his responsibilities there. Three stars. Jan 05, Sara Alkhudairi rated it it was ok. The first 2 stories, no. The thirds one was not bad, I mean it was for 15 sr. Sep 02, Shelbie Allred rated it it was ok Shelves: romance , gave-away. Not my favourite. I love Deveraux's books but these short stories just didn't allow her to carry you away the way she usually does.
My favourite was the last story "The Arrangement". It was quick but fun and I loved Dorie. The second story "Matchmakers" about Kane the brother of Mike from "Sweet Liar" so it was nice to finally read his story but I think it could have been a full book on it's own to do it right.
I consider it Not my favourite. I consider it a throw away and usually skip it when I re-read this book. Apr 03, Lori rated it liked it Shelves: fiction , romance.
These three novellas were a lot of fun to read. The Invitation was a bit longer and enjoyable read of an older woman and younger man.
Jackie was really struggling to change her thoughts about "little" Billy Montgomery. It was fun to watch her struggle with her belief about what love should be versus it's reality. The other two novellas were short and had fun but different characters in them. Apr 19, Kathy added it Shelves: historical-romance , romance , short-stories.
Montgomery to return to Chandler and fly freight Saturday comes, and Billy Montgomery shows up - the pesky kid now grown who used to follow her around Matchmakers - quick story of Kane Taggart - twin of Michael Kane sees the truck lights, thinks something bad has happened, and runs to meet the truck the rest are sleeping She makes the mistake of calling Michael by his name, cluing Kane into the fact she can tell them apart And The Perfect Arrangement finds Cole, an approaching middleaged gunslinger, tired of prostitutes and laisons with women who wouldn't be seen in public withhime and who sees himself as a peacemaker- using solid arguments to persuade people to do what needs to be done is confronted by plain looking, 30 year old, Dorie Latham who wants to hire him to pretend to be married to her for 2 weeks, while her sister is visiting Dorie had made a fiction of a widower in town that was interested, and when her sister announced she was coming decided she needed a romantic bad boy to get her sister off of her back Dories uses reverse psychology that she used on her father to entice the brother intent on killing Cole to believe there is hidden gold, and that she can't stand Cole so that he will place her on a horse with Cole they gointo a mining town and at the bar where the bad guys are stocking up, she had insisted on a dress she had been traveling in her nightgown that one of the gang gets from a prostitute Mar 10, Cindy rated it liked it Shelves: romance , short-story , historical-romance , contemporary-romance , western , american-historical.
Copyright This is a collection of 3 novellas set in different time periods. A frequent, favorite reread back in the day, it's been a long time since I've read it. Time changes what you think is a good read. Book 1 3 stars: is set in the underused time period of This is the longest story, but it could have been edited down IMO. In fact, she used to change his diapers when he was 2 because she was his babysitter!
William is a rich banker who seems oblivious to poverty. Unusual if you're living in the s, but there you go. We get a whole lot of "I'm too old for you. I changed your diapers. I remember you as a child, so I'm still going to treat you liked one. Eventually we get a HEA. Everyone gets a HEA! Leaps of logic - William is 2 different ages when meeting Jackie during the story. First he's 2, then 5. If he was 5, he was slow to potty train. Jackie own a refrigerator in Then it turns into an ice box.
Then a refrigerator again. A little editing goes a long way. Just saying This is Mike's twin brother Kane's story. JD's imagination works overtime in this one. She talks him into helping out on a dude camping trip. There are 4 women, but 2 of them are interesting. Until they're having hot random sex in the ghost town of Eternity. I really hated this story after reading it after all these years. Instalove at it's worst.
Kane is the biggest ass hole in romance noveldom. She's an animal abuser puts out her cigarette on her horse's neck!!!
Hates kids tells Kane to "Get those filthy beasts away from me". However, he continues to pursue like she was the most wonderful woman in the world. Cale would be better off alone. Book 3 5 stars! This story doesn't have a Montgomery or Taggart. This is JD at her wildly imaginative best!
This is the best story in the book IMO. Cole is a gunslinger who tries not to use his gun if possible. Dorie is a rich heiress looking for a temporary husband so her busybody sister will leave her alone. Aug 24, May Kathryn rated it really liked it Shelves: physically-owned , small-town-love , i-have-loved-you-all-these-years , age-gap , anthology , historicals , double-trouble. Initially, I thought this anthology is a double win because it features a Montgomery and Taggert novella, respectively.
I love William Montgomery! I love how he is depicted as an old soul and that at view spoiler [ tender age of 5, he knows he loves Jackie, his babysitter. The second novella, which feature Initially, I thought this anthology is a double win because it features a Montgomery and Taggert novella, respectively. The second novella, which featured a Taggert twin, was okay.
Sadly, it was quite forgettable because it was just too darn short and I think it would've been a good book had this been another Tagget novel if you know what I mean. Like the first novella, one of the reasons why this book is a 4-star read is because they are just too short. If you ask me, anything that features the Montgomerys and the Taggerts should be more than pages! Meanwhile, the final novella took me by surprise.
I stalled reading the last one because it is neither of the abovementioned clans of Deveraux-land, but when I finally sat down to read it, I couldn't put the book down anymore. Cole and Dorie became an instant favorite, thanks to their bantering! It started with Dorie proposing marriage to Cole Hunter, an infamous gunslinger, so that her sister Rowena won't end up persuading some random men using her "charms" to marrying her.
There is a surprise twist that happened while they are at it and well, that's when the hero falls in love with our heroine! I just love how she gradually grows on him. And while Dorie is described as someone who you wouldn't notice because of how she looks compared to her dashing sister , I just love it that Jude made her an unforgettable character by being smart, sensitive to other's feelings and observant.
I wished the last chapter told us how Cole brought back Latham to its former glory which I would like to think he did, with his former profession and all. All in all, this book is a triple win for me.
As always, it feels good to read another good 'ol classic Jude Deveraux novel, despite it being an anthology. Will definitely be looking forward to reading more of the Taggerts, Montgomerys, and others in the future!
Jan 18, Jo Reads Romance rated it really liked it Shelves: contemporary , historical. The reason for my hesitation was that of the three stories I found two to be very good but the third awful. Matchmakers was indeed fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed it and wished that it could have been longer. The characters were wonderfully depicted, especially Cale, as she was a down to earth, normal girl.
A true heroine. A Perfect Arrangement , the story of the aging gunslinger 2 great stories and a rotten apple 4 stars I couldn't decide whether to give this book three stars or four. A Perfect Arrangement , the story of the aging gunslinger, was also very good and it was nice to see another heroine who wasn't perfect but still endearing and courageous.
It was a good story to pass away a wet afternoon. I'm not a fan of 'older woman - younger man' at the best of times but I usually get over it as I'm drawn into the story. Explore Magazines. Editors' Picks All magazines. Explore Podcasts All podcasts. Difficulty Beginner Intermediate Advanced. Explore Documents. Jude Deveraux. Uploaded by Lavinia Ingrid. Document Information click to expand document information Description: Jude Deveraux.
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