Eternity

What is it with Jude Deveraux that she writes such funny, entertaining and enthralling romances? I love Eternity! Even though this isn't my favorite of Deveraux novels, I read this novel in one sitting and wish it had been longer. The year is 1865. Carrie Montgomery is the youngest of several children. The baby girl in the family with seven overprotective, overbearing brothers, she is catered to her every whim and gets everything her heart desires. And that is why she makes an abrupt decision the moment she sees the photograph of a handsome, albeit lonely-looking man with his two unkempt children seeking a wife with farming experience at the desk of one of the employees at Carrie's mail-order bride business. So she marries him by proxy and travels from Maine to the small town of Eternity, Colorado, to be with him. Joshua Greene expects an ugly horse of a woman who will cook, clean, farm and cater to his children. Instead, he gets beautiful, dainty Carrie, with her expensive luggage and tiny lapdog. He isn't pleased with what he gets, but his attraction for her is automatic, and he keeps his distance from his new wife while she stays with them until the next stagecoach to Maine comes back in a week. He fears that he and his children will become too attached to her and will suffer when she gets bored with them and want to go back home. So he is mean to her. He is also secretive and doesn't allow Carrie to learn about his past. What he doesn't realize is that there is more to Carrie than meets the eye. And also Carrie realizes that there is something fishy about the handsome, hardworking and moody Josh. There are various twists throughout the novel. I love how much depth these two characters have and how preconceived notions almost get in the way of their happiness. Josh has a kind of erronous, and sort of offensive, idea of what a woman is based on her looks, but that is understandable and kind of makes sense after I learned about his "dark secret." Deveraux leads the reader to believe that Carrie is a capricious airhead in the beginning, so it isn't just Josh's perception that is like that but the reader's as well, but as the story progresses, both the reader and Joshua realize that that isn't the case, that there is more to the petite heroine than being a spoiled heiress. And in turn there is more to Joshua than a struggling, incompetent farmer who cannot give his two children the life they deserve. I love Josh. He is tall, dark, sarcastic, brooding, vain, witty and gorgeous. He is now one of my favorite Deveraux heroes. His two children are adorable and wise beyond their years (though at times I felt that little girl Dallas was too articulate for a five-year-old). The characters are so well-woven, so wonderfully well developed that I couldn't help but smile when the novel ended. And the novel, like all Deveraux books I've read so far, is hilarious! I laughed from beginning to end. There is a reviewer here that did not get

This story starts with 19 year old Carrie Montgomery a pamperd princess in her own home. She's a beautiful girl who is the youngest and the only girl in her family of 6 older brothers who would die for her. During her summer Carrie and her friends get bored and decide to start a mail order bride business. One day Carrie walks in and finds one of her friends decides she is going to marry one of the men who sent his picture and asked for a hard working wife who could handle a farm. Carrie takes one look at the picture of Joshua Greene and falls in love with him and his two kids Tem and Dallas. She immediatly tells her friend to get lost becuase she is going to marry him. Carrie writes back to Joshua and makes up a horde of lies telling him how well she can cook and clean and work a farm. Joshua only wants whats best for his two kids, so he decides to send for her and marry her. He didn't even think it odd that Carry didn't want to have a wedding,she wanted to have a legal agreement marrige where you just sign the papers. Carrie knew her parents or her brothers for that matter would never let her get married to a man she's never met and that lives across the country. So she puts the legal aggrement into a stack of her father's papers and he doesn't even notice when he gives his consent. So she leaves and when she gets off the coach to the quaint little town Eternity with about 20 loads of her personal belongings she sees the handsomest man there. Instant sparks fly. They could barley keep their eyes off each other. When Carrie deducts that this irrisistable man is Mr. Johsua Greene she is delighted. When Josh finds out this petite, beautiful, pampered young lady is the wife he sent for, he's prepared to send her packing. Of course the coach won't leave again for another week. So in the meen time they are busy falling in love, she falls in love with the kids, and she fixes up their dirty old shack of a home, tragedy strikes, and Josh still won't admit his feelings to Carrie. This little heart throb of a book will delight you're soul and leave you panting for more.

This is in my top five favorite Jude Devereaux books. Smart, funny characters and a headstrong Montgomery liven up the story. But this time it's a Montgomery woman who goes after love and turns a frontier town on its ear. Wish she wrote more like this with a Montgomery woman as the protagonist.

Everytime I read one of Jude Deveraux's books, I think at the time that it's my favorite book, until I read another one of her books. So far my favorite Jude Deveraux book is Eternity, I love Carrie, and Josh's characters, and fell in love with Josh's two adorable kids, they are very smart for there age. Jude brings two people together, Carrie answering a letter for a wife to take car of his two kids, When Carrie read the letter she knew that Josh needed her and she was already falling for him and his kids without even meeting them. In order for them together, Josh has to open up to Carrie about his pass, that keeps haunting him, knowing that if he told her about his pass she would leave them and he knows that his kids need a mother. When Carrie finds out does she stay with Josh and forgot about all the lies he has told her? Eternity is just the right name for this book.Happy Reading Lisa

Do yourself a favor: ignore those cynics out there. About the other reviewer who said she didn't understand Josh's intentions for a mail order bride; Josh wanted his two children to have a mother and hot food in their stomachs. Obviously, Josh can't cook that well, messing up a simple dish such as eggs. This was a wonderful book, and I love what happened to Nora in the end. Josh was the perfect hero, who wasn't willing to let his rich bride buy his way out of his mess. He was also proud enough to stand up to 'Ring, who is the most formidable figure I've read in Deveraux's novels yet. Keep the good work coming, Ms. Deveraux!