Spreobrnjeno srce

Edilean #9

by Jude Deveraux

Eli in Chelsea sta najboljša prijatelja, česar nihče na šoli ne more razumeti. Eli, preklast očalar, je zaljubljen v računalnike in živi s svojo revno mamo. Chelsea izhaja iz nadvse bogate družine in velja za najlepše dekle na šoli. A oba sta drugačna, oba izstopata, druži pa ju tudi neustavljiva želja po spreminjanju sveta. In res, Elijevi dobrosrčni mami pomagata poiskati pravo ljubezen. A kaj se zgodi, ko ta nadobudna otroka, ki bi rada reševala svet in ljudi v njem, odrasteta?
Eli in Chelsea z leti izgubita stike. A ko Eli kupi hišo v Edileanu v Virginiji, domačem kraju svojega očeta, povabi Chelsea na obisk. Ta živi svoje življenje na in ob modnih brveh, prepričana, da otroško prijateljstvo ne more prerasti v nič več kot to, a se vseeno odzove vabilu — in je povsem nepripravljena na spremenjenega Elija …

Genres: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Contemporary, Fiction, Mystery, Adult, Family

304 pages, Hardcover

First published October 21, 2014

About the author

Jude Gilliam was born September 20, 1947 in Fairdale, Kentucky. She has a large extended family and is the elder sister of four brothers. She attended Murray State University and received a degree in Art. In 1967, Jude married and took her husband's surname of White, but four years later they divorced. For years, she worked as 5th-grade teacher.

She began writing in 1976, and published her first book, The Enchanted Land (1977) under the name Jude Deveraux. Following the publication of her first novel, she resigned her teaching position. Now, she is the author of 31 New York Times bestsellers.

Jude won readers' hearts with the epic Velvet series, which revolves around the lives of the Montgomery family's irresistible men. Jude's early books are set largely in 15th- and 16th-century England; in them her fierce, impassioned protagonists find themselves in the midst of blood feuds and wars. Her heroines are equally scrappy -- medieval Scarlett O'Haras who often have a low regard for the men who eventually win them over. They're fighters, certainly, but they're also beauties who are preoccupied with survival and family preservation.

Jude has also stepped outside her milieu, with mixed results. Her James River trilogy (River Lady, Lost Lady, and Counterfeit Lady) is set mostly in post-Revolution America; the popular, softer-edged Twin of Fire/Twin of Ice moves to 19th-century Colorado and introduces another hunky-man clan, the Taggerts.

Deveraux manages to evoke a strong and convincing atmosphere for each of her books, but her dialogue and characters are as familiar as a modern-day soap opera's. "Historicals seem to be all I'm capable of," Jude once said in an interview, referring to a now out-of-print attempt at contemporary fiction, 1982's Casa Grande. "I don't want to write family sagas or occult books, and I have no intention of again trying to ruin the contemporary market." Still, Jude did later attempt modern-day romances, such as the lighthearted High Tide (her first murder caper), the contemporary female friendship story The Summerhouse, and the time-traveling Knight in Shining Armor. In fact, with 2002's The Mulberry Tree, Deveraux seems to be getting more comfortable setting stories in the present, which is a good thing, since the fans she won with her historical books are eager to follow her into the future.

Jude married Claude White, who she later divorced in 1993. Around the same time she met Mohammed Montassir with whom she had a son, Sam Alexander Montassir, in 1997. On Oct. 6th, 2005, Sam died at the age of eight in a motorcycle accident.

Jude has lived in several countries and all over the United States. She currently lives in Charlotte, North Carolina and has an additional home in the medieval city of Badolato, Italy.

Reviews

[Christi Snow · Rating 3 out of 5]

My Review:
In theory this was a brilliant idea. 20 years ago, Jude Deveraux wrote a novella for an anthology that featured then 12 yo's Eli and Chelsea, best friends out to fix all the world's wrongs through Eli's brilliance and Chelsea's looks. That novella is the first part of this book and it's a fun story. After I read that first section (about 35-40% of this full length book) I was excited to see where Chelsea and Eli were as adults 20 years later. Unfortunately their adult portion of the story did not live up to expectations.

Chelsea doesn't want to see Eli again. She only does so to stop her parents from nagging her. Adult Chelsea has spent the last 20 years becoming all the things she hated as a 12 yo. She's shallow to the extreme and honestly isn't very likable as a character. And she knows that about herself. She doesn't want to answer to Eli about why she left without a single word to him ever again. She betrayed their friendship to become a party girl/model with hot boyfriends.

Eli is still brilliant and works for the government for chump change on things that matter and then designs video games on the side so he makes real money. He's spent the last 20 years in the gym so is now everything that Chelsea sees as her ideal guy...muscular, attractive, and extremely sexy.

And honestly those are the high points. 20 years later these two have NOTHING in common. Eli sees that Chelsea has mis-managed her life up to now which has just left her unhappy so he hatches a plan to "fix" her. Ugh. He's bossy and manipulative and I just truly didn't like how he saw her. Honestly if the two met today, they wouldn't even like one another. It's not a good match and that's why the book just didn't work for me. There was a lot of dialogue in the book too that just didn't work. I could see that it was supposed to be fast, witty repartee, but it came across wrong...and a lot of times it simply didn't make sense.

Once upon a time, Jude Deveraux was an auto-buy author for me. This book just left me feeling sad about that.

I received a complimentary copy of this book in return for an honest review.

[Jacqueline J · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate to give this one star but I really didn't like it. I am a big fan of stories that start when the couple are kids and then show them falling in love as grown ups. But this one just didn't work for me. First the part as children was oddly more about Eli's mother but not enough to really enjoy that story. Then when Eli and Chelsea meet 20 years later I didn't like either one of them. She was shallow and totally unsympathetic and he was oddly loserish. Their relationship just didn't convince me at all. And the sort of mystery they were working on was not compelling either and not really all that mysterious. Oh well, I'll just enjoy JD's old stuff.

[Nirit · Rating 3 out of 5]

ספר כייפי שזורם במהירות. העלילה עצמה די מטופשת, אבל זה די שכיח בספרים מהז'אנר הזה.
צ'לסי היפיפיה ואלי החנון היו חברים טובים בילדותם, וביחד פתרו תעלומות ועזרו לאנשים. כשהתבגרו אלי הפך לחתיך מסוקס וצ'לסי לדוגמנית יפיפיה שחיה חיים ריקנים. הם נפגשים, מסתייגים זה מזו, נמשכים זה לזו, שוב פותרים תעלומות, וכמובן מתאהבים (מקווה שלא עשיתי ספויילר...). לא משהו שלא קראתם בעבר בספרים דומים, ועדיין הספר היה כייפי לקריאה.

[Jessi · Rating 2 out of 5]

The best thing I can say about "Change of Heart" is that, between this book and "For All Time," I'm finally ready to give up Deveraux as a Must-Read. I will probably never be able to give her up fully (Sweet Liar alone keeps my hopes up) but the last few two and a half star books have gotten rounded up to three stars based on sentiment alone. This would have probably gotten one star if I didn't reserve that for DNFs.
I squeed and did a happy dance when I realized that Eli and Chelsea were getting a story. Children in a short story, the two drifted apart but are now ready to find each other and their own HEA.

Wow. Just. wow. I kept reading to see if Chelsea would really put up with all of Eli's shit. I was so hoping that she'd just pop him one.
I mean, Eli heads straight past Alpha and sails into Asshole. He sees Chelsea in a picture, decides she's not happy and that he's going to fix her life. She's too skinny, so he changes her restaurant order. She hates camping so he takes her into the woods (and then gets pissed off when she complains). He pours the guilt on her for their childhood friendship ending and her never noticing him as a male, when he never stepped up to show her how much he loved her. And then tells his teenage doppelganger Scully that he knows she would have just laughed at him. And she puts up with all of this shit.
I wasn't too impressed with Chelsea either. She complains that no one ever expected anything of her because she was so pretty. This is after Deveraux has clearly shown that her parents did expect more of her and then goes on to explain that Chelsea wasn't even the prettiest of her sisters.
Pilar- she doesn't want to work with Eli and doesn't really like him but then they're portrayed to be friends. She helps out disconnecting lights and stealing papers but then tells Chelsea that she's never given any responsibility.
And what school in this day and age would let unknown adults attend prom? I just... I can't even... My level of suspended disbelief was so beyond stretched at that point that I... argh.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a $2 deal on Amazon. Copyright 2014. 8 years have gone by & I didn't know JD wrote a romance for Chelsea & Eli! This is the first new book I've read of JDs in a looooong time.

Originally this was a short story "Change Of Heart" in the anthology "A Holiday Of Love". It's one of the better stories in that group. Written in the 90s, it was the story of how Chelsea & Eli got Eli's mom Miranda together with Frank Montgomery. I liked it a lot.

So, in this book the first 6 chapters is devoted to a rewrite of Change Of Heart. At first you think it's the same story, but it's been fleshed out & made more believable. I really liked it a lot more, though JD still thinks you can find strawberries on the side of the Rocky Mountains in October!
Tom Sellek is now a family man Miranda admires instead of Mel Gibson.

20 years go by & we find out Eli has been waiting that long to get back in touch with Chelsea.(!?) Due to a lot of miscommunication during their teenage years, they've lost touch with one another.
This part of the story is not that great actually. While Eli has been working for the government saving the world, Chelsea has been a model & sex, drugs & alcohol have been a part of her life. She's now clean, but still has lost focus with her life. They get back together & solve a mystery.

So, 4 stars for the first 6 chapters. 3 stars for the next 6 chapters. I'm glad I read it.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved Part One where Eli and Chelsea as twelve-year-olds try to find Eli's Mom a husband. My only complaint is that it was too short. Ms. Deveraux does children really well. I usually enjoy their characters more than the adults, possibly because quite often the adults act more like adolescents, although not in this case. The second part reveals Eli and Chelsea twenty years later. I have to admit I wondered how they would turn out while reading the first part but was almost sorry to get their grown-up versions in the second part of the book. After beginning poorly it shaped up well though. Unfortunately the ending was way out there and read more like a wishful thinking prom re-do that I could have done without. On the whole I enjoyed the book termendously and would re-read it in a heartbeat.

[Amaka Azie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ok read. This book was divided into 2 parts. In the first half, Eli worked with his best friend Chelsie as a matchmaker between his mum and a billionaire friend of his.
In the second part, 20 years later, Eli and Chelsie meet again. The first part of the book was more engaging and sweet. I struggled with the second part because Eli and Chelsie seemed like a mismatch and their chemistry seemed forced.
I used to love this author's books as a teenager, so I jumped when I spotted this on my e-book reader as a recommendation. It left me with a bit of a flat feeling. Not her best work in my opinion.

[Journeywoman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remembered the short story that begins this book from when I was younger. I loved it then. I only wish whoever the editor was that they had really reworked it because the mistakes were glaring.

The second half of this book was lovely and I liked seeing these kids grown up.

[Reni · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one just didn't work for me. I liked the idea of Eli and Chelsea but I felt there was no connection. Persevered until I finished but I was only half listening.

[Alishba Asif · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was in a mood of reminiscing and reread this book to freshen up my memory. I think it was better in my mind.
Still, no regrets.
Do read. If one wants a fun and unorthodox matchmaking.

[Victoria Arnold · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although incredibly corny, the plot was good especially the added mystery part in the end

[Evelyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

#9 and just as good as the other 8. Eli and Chelsea. Geek and Beauty Queen. Along with others in Edilean.

[starryari (arianna) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Frankly did not care about the annoying mother’s side romance and skipped a lot

[Betty · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elijah J. Harcourt, or Eli, is twelve years old; he has an IQ over two-hundred; is a computer genius; and is being wooed by Ivy League colleges. Eli is definitely a nerd and looks the part – thick glasses, not too tall, and scrawny. His very best and only friend is Chelsea Hamilton, also twelve, who will be cursed in life as being: “too tall, too thin, too smart, too rich.” Eli and Chelsea have been like siblings since the third grade. Eli’s mom calls them Robin and Marian Les Jeunes, and the young duo kept that name and helped people in need.

Eli realizes he cannot go off to college at this time because there is no one to take care of his mom, Miranda. Miranda’s heart is as soft as a marshmallow and if left to herself she would give away every possession she owns. Eli’s father, Leslie, deserted his wife and son to marry a younger woman. Leslie has convinced Miranda he cannot afford to pay child support, and even borrows money from her. Eli and Chelsea must find a suitable husband for Miranda so that Eli can pursue his educational ambitions. When Eli’s friend, billionaire Franklin Taggert, breaks his arm, he goes into seclusion at his rustic mountain cabin. Eli conspires with one of Franklin’s brothers that the man needs to hire a caregiver, and that Miranda, a nurse, would be perfect for the position. Needless to say, their plan works.

Twenty years later, Eli buys a house in Edilean, Virginia and invites Chelsea for a visit. Eli is a Taggert man now, and looks the part. Good looking, tall and muscular, and still has a thing for Chelsea. Chelsea is a famous model jetting around, and now at home visiting family. She does not want to see Eli, but her mother insists. After a rocky beginning, the friends eventually become as close as they once were, and ultimately much closer. They are still Robin and Marian, but no longer Les Junes.

Reading this book was so much fun, that this reviewer eschewed a night’s sleep – just could not put it down. Franklin and Miranda were introduced in a novella “A Holiday of Love,” and CHANGE OF HEART contains an expanded version of their romance, as well as the grown up story of Eli and Chelsea. Jude Deveraux weaves her tales with spun gold using magnificent characters, eccentric story lines, and scrumptiously entertaining love affairs. Ms. Deveraux is a genius at writing humor, sensuality, and family dynamics. CHANGE OF HEART is a very entertaining guilty pleasure.

Betty Cox, Staff Reviewer
ReaderToReader.com

[Reading · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a pleasant story. It's probably worth the $8 to buy it, but "Change of Heart" is not going to be one of those books that makes you say, "Wow, I'm so glad I read this!"

I think really that I'm bored with the locale from the book. I remember the time when Deveraux wrote books that I stayed up all night to read. "Change of Heart" is not one of those. I hate feeling this way because the book is pretty good; it's just not a great read.

[Raelene · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book in record time, once I started I couldn't put it down. The book has a part 1 and a part II. Two very interesting not your typical love stories. Cute twist how a genius son helps his mother fall in love so he can go away to college and not worry about her. Part two goes on with the life of the son. Great romance story but also intrigue, it will keep you hooked and wanting more.

[Lorraine · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Jude Deveraux book seemed redundant to me. I believe that it could have been shorter if the same information and character lines had not been continually repeated. Also, I believe that this is the first Deveraux book that I put down for a few days before I picked it up to continue reading it and ultimately, finished it. 3 1/2 stars

[Kathy · Rating 3 out of 5]

His and her homes in Denver, CO; Reclusive Cabin in Colorado; his home… diner outside of … nature/campsite… Edilean, Virginia;


Elijah (Eli) Harcourt aka Robin Hood: 200 IQ… planner… thinker…scrawny (until ‘adopted’ by Taggart family)…odd ball… interviewed by universities when 12… do-gooder… friend to Frank Taggert via letters, after meeting in Taggert’s office on school field trip; / as adult: hard body, jack of all trades, courtesy of his adopted Taggart family; US spy, military scientist specializing in AI, hard working (work a holic); lonely;

Chelsea Hamilton aka Marian: loved daughter of wealth; felt the oddball, especially after move when she was 12; easily bored; beautiful; befriends young Elijah, and together they conspire to do good; / as adult, a model, on the arm of wealthy, high profile men, drifting, lonely;

Jeff and Pilar: Eli’s assistant and secretary; they know Eli, they have enjoyed his successes… they are at a point that it is too much and they are ready for a change; Jeff is skinny, funny, organized, highly likable – resists Eli and family’s attempts to buff him up; Jeff connects with the local sheriff, and makes plan to live in Edilean… Pilar falls for the town mechanic…
Miranda Harcourt: Eli’s mom; nurse; loves her son a lot; easy touch; accepts ex-husband’s excuses, and allows him to get away with too much;

Franklin (Frank) Taggert: oldest of 5, and had hands on training in care of children; as adult, he is business focused, and closed off emotionally from family;

Grace and Amy: Grace has similarities to Miranda; she allows her dead husband’s partner to manipulate her, accepting his lies/stories about how her husband destroyed her life;


Story has 2 parts… apparently 1st part was a short story in an anthology many years ago…
Part 1:
Chelsea and Eli find each other in middle school, and they are the best of plans; besides knowing each other so well, they join forces to help others… primarily using business stationary they’ve stolen from various places (law offices, medical and dental offices, etc) - for example, they use law office stationary to a deadbeat dad to get him to buy his son new shoes; matchmake Miranda and Frank… with Frank’s younger brother’s help… Frank nursing his ego and broken arm in a secluded cabin… and Miranda gets a job offer to nurse him for 2 weeks; charming/hilarious repartee between two, as they negotiate the misunderstandings… is she a hooker? Is he egotistical jerk? Can she find her way off the mountain? A great 2 weeks… back to their very different lives… until, with Eli & Chelsea’s advice, he rides his white horse to her door step…
Part 2
20 years later… Eli is every man’s man… the Taggarts’ bestowed all their social/physical expertise on him… but he never forgot Chelsea, tracking her actions through the years; Chelsea, moved away, and when discovered at age 16, felt that she no longer had a place in Eli’s life, and stopped writing to him… 20 years she’s lived a vagabound, wealthy, non-focused life;

Eli decides it’s time (for both of them)… and invites Chelsea for a visit in Edilean;
Chelsea doesn’t want to hear his chastisement… and pretends that Eli must be his assistant Jeff (and that skinny Jeff is Eli)… and Eli allows her, figuring to be what she needs him to be… Eli had stronger hurt feelings then he realized, and when Jeff (as Eli) accuses Chelsea of deserting him so many years ago, Eli (as Jeff) punches him in the nose;
And Eli (channeling Jeff) gets a day with Chelsea being undemanding, and a bit of fun… and he knows he needs to move her from her current comfort zone, and takes her camping overnight – and provides photography equipment – hoping (and succeeding) in reaching her younger, ‘real’ self; the truth of who is who is admitted/accepted…
Trying to think of ways to keep her near, they stop at a diner on the way back to Edilean… and fall into a mystery… an wealthy man, disguised as a rumpled down-on-his luck man in a very old, rusty car (with expensive computer/suitcase in the trunk) meets a woman, Grace (in the diner… Eli and Chelsea eavesdrops (he drops his phone that is dialed into Chelsea’s phone) in her purse… and hear the man tell a sad story of a dying wife, a bankrupted business, and hints that her dead husband is the reason… Robin and Marian to the rescue… and as they work together (and try to protect each other), a calculating Eli gives her enough to draw her in…
They find that Grace has a 15 year old daughter, with a geeky best friend… and plans to go to the prom with the high school quarterback… Eli especially sees himself in this relationship, and Eli and Chelsea get to rewrite how their high school time should have gone… Eli teaches geeky boy how to dance, a beginning in weight lifting, ) and Chelsea gifts Amy with her dress for prom… they all work together to defeat the bad guy/liar, who ended up to have arranged for Grace’s husband’s death… and is trying to recover the real books…

Eli is cutting back, and living in Elilean… Chelsea and Pilar and ? are opening a detective agency… the sheriff and Jeff are getting married… and Chelsea and Eli live happily ever after…

[Anne Marie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This series is finally finished!! These last two books were not as good as the rest, and this last book had very little to do with the series at all. This book had two parts. Part one introduced us to Eli Harcourt and Chelsea Hamilton, twelve year old friends. It doesn't even matter that Eli is a Harcourt since his father only wants to win at everything and ask money from Eli's mother. Eli is a very smart boy who loves computers. Chelsea comes from a wealthy family. Eli and Chelsea have a "bad habit" of getting company letterhead and writing letters to people to get them to do things, resulting in helping people. Eli and Chelsea come up with a way to get Eli's mother Miranda hired as a nurse to help rich Frank Taggert who has broken his arm and is staying in a secluded cabin in the mountains. Eli wants to see his mother happy and remarried since his father was never good to her. When Frank meets Miranda, he thinks she is a joke, but soon realizes she is all he ever wanted in a woman. But their lives are so different could they ever work? After Miranda walks out on Frank, Eli goes to see Frank at his office. They actually have known each other for quite some time and have been writing letters back and forth. Eli gets Frank to ride to their house on a horse and there Frank and Miranda reunite.
Part two takes place twenty years later in Edilean, Virginia. Eli has been working for the government and creating computer games. Since his mother married into the Taggert family, the members have shown Eli how to work out in a gym and create a muscular body. Eli's assistant Jeff is a clone of Eli when he was a young nerd. Eli hasn't seen Chelsea in years, but has followed her life on the Internet. She was a model and traveled the world and had many boyfriends. Eli awaits meeting Chelsea again and is so nervous, for a while, Eli and Jeff exchange identities. But Chelsea knows who Eli is all along. They come across a shady looking man getting money from a woman, Grace. The money would have been used to buy Grace's daughter Abby a prom dress. The search is on for who Orin Peterson is, what is he looking for (turns out it's a rabbit's foot with a hidden flash drive), and was he the cause of Grace's husband committing suicide...or was it murder. Eli and Chelsea not only help get this guy arrested, but they also help Abby and her friend Scully have the best time at their prom. Of course Eli and Chelsea get together too, with Chelsea realizing she doesn't need to travel the world in order to have fun and find love.

[Drucilla · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is elevated from a 1 star rating to a 2 star rating solely on the basis of its first story. First off, this book is actually two short stories, the first of which was published over 20 years ago. It has the failing that a short story (or just an old school romance) has in that the two leads fall in love really quickly, literally love-at-first-sight in one case. All in all though, that first story is actually fun. The two child protagonists were entertaining (even though I thought Chelsea was a bit too cynical), the two lead protagonists did have nice chemistry, and the plot was filled with a few of my most loved tropes.

The second story, however, was terrible. I had to force myself to finish it. This story focuses on the love of the now grownup children in the first story. Chelsea is a melodramatic bitch and Eli doesn't come out smelling like roses either. He's very controlling and bound and determined to change Chelsea to be how he remembers her. The issues surrounding their relationship aren't really worked out in any meaningful way at the end when they decide to get married after only reuniting with each other for the first time in at least a decade. He also spends the majority of his time making her feel bad because she's pretty. Being beautiful makes you a shallow bitch, that's the moral here. The caper that they get into is actually interesting, but we don't get any resolution because the story ends before we learn what really happened. I feel bad for those who waited 20 years for the story of Chelsea and Eli. It's a disaster.


Side Note: It's obvious that Deveraux hasn't been to a prom in the last decade. There's no way Chelsea, Eli, Scully, and Eli's cousins would have been able to go. Tickets are sold weeks/months in advance and in my experience, never at the door. And as adults, Eli and Chelsea wouldn't have been allowed into a high school prom at all, let alone in the skin-showing dress Chelsea was wearing. As a matter of fact, Abby wouldn't have gotten away with a strapless gown either.

[Sandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's been a while since I have read a Jude Deveraux book, and I forgot how good they are. They're light they're humourous, they're just a good easy read! I have almost all of her early books - they are so good I love to re-read them (when they're not packed away in packing boxes!!) This book involves my favourite Deveraux family, the Taggerts. That's something I love about Jude Deveraux, she tends to involve her families from her other books - the Taggerts and the Montgomeries. I have to say that my very favourite Jude Deveraux book is The Princess - I stuck a picture in the front cover of David James Elliot as Harmon Rabb from JAG as he was exactly what I imagined JT Montgomery to look like :D My runners up favourite would have to be either The Raider or A Knight in Shining Armor. Looking forward to reading more of Jude's recent work - although the Nantucket Brides series are the only ones I haven't read!

[Liba · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many changes of heart here.
First, there are Frank Taggart and Miranda Harcourt, who dislike each other on sight, but fall in love and have several kids.
Then there are Miranda's ex-nerd son, Eli, and his childhood friend, model Chelsea.Eli plays a trick on her, pretending to be his own assistant.
Jeff. Eli's assistant, looks a lot like Eli as a youth. he is in love with Melissa, local policewoman.
Another assistant, Pilar, is interested in the sheriff's brother, Lanny (Lancelot).
And then there is Grace, whose husband Gilbert committed suicide, leaving her with a teenaged daughter, Abby. Orin, Gil's partner, uses Grace- lies to her about being poor and needing money for his sick wife...
Lot of eyes open in this book, part of which takes place in Denver and part in Virginia.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really found myself liking this book. It starts out with Eli and Chelsea age 12. Eli is extremely smart and Chelsea is extremely rich but they are best friends. They team up to help people which winds up with the two planning to help Eli's mom. The second part of the book is about the two who get separated as teenagers and live their own lives. After years of living apart and wondering what happened to each other Eli sends an invitation to Chelsea. When they get together the hear a sad story which reminds them of Eli's mom and together the both try to help. This was an easy, fun read and I enjoyed it a lot. It was a fast read and a page turner.

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

It’s been a long time since I read the other books in this series, so maybe during that time my tastes have changed, but it wasn’t as interesting as the others. It is a “typical cheesy” romance read, with an attempt at mystery thrown in. The ending was very anticlimactic and many scenes were just so cliche of romance type books, which is what this is. I think I’ve grown beyond this style since first reading Lavender Morning (the first book) over nine years ago. I hate to give a low review due to not being a genre that interests me, but it also didn’t require much to read through the book.

[Jenna Evans · Rating 1 out of 5]

The short story she wrote about Eli and Chelsea 25 years ago was extremely sweet and the changes that were made to that book in this new version are disappointing. In the relationship between Eli and Chelsea as adults, the storyline makes no sense. Her parents were extremely absentee parents and suddenly their helicopter parents now that she's an adult? Eli who was incredibly brilliant is now a buffoon, and those two kids that I really liked as they were in the first book are now just awkward together and I don't like either one of them as people.

[Shelli Mora · Rating 2 out of 5]

Though I enjoyed the first half of the book, I was very disappointed in the second half of the storyline. And the only reason for reading this book for me was to continue the Edilean story. I was eager to see which character would be highlighted next and what century the story would take place. But sadly, the characters I have grown to love were just a backdrop to this awkward, unfulfilling ending of a story.

[Dewi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tergoda membaca setelah baca ulang novella alias bagian pertama. Berawal dari kisah Eli yang berusaha mencarikan jodoh untuk ibunya. Dia dan Chelsea bersekongkol mempertemukan Miranda pada Frank Taggert.
Buku ini adalah lanjutan kisah Eli & Chelsea 20 tahun kemudian. (Dan beneran ditulis setelah lewat 20 tahun).
Eli & Chelsea yang dulu berumur 12 tahun sdh menjadi dua sosok dewasa. Rasanya bakal seru mengikuti perjalanan mereka. Ternyata cerita bagian kedua terlalu ajaib untuk diikuti.

[Sharon Macon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved part 1 and 2. It took me a little while to get into the story. Kept putting book down but when I finally got into it, it was great. Like the other review, Chelsea pretending not to know Eli was a little weird but you ended that pretense just at the right time. I started dating my husband in the 9th grade. We’ve been married 32 years, so I could totally relate to the bond between these two.

[Brennie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not nearly as bad as those other reviews suggested. However, if you don’t click with a character, what is an author to do? I was a little disappointed with the ending, I thought there was a better solution, but I’m not about to spoil this. This book is about Eli and Chelsea with a short detour to Eli’s mom. I thought the whole thing came together really nicely, so I don’t know what the other reviews are complaining about.

[Lyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Delightful Read

I’ve loved the first part of this book since….forever. I first read it in the Christmas collection it debuted in. It took a little patience to get into the second part because I was not liking the grownups as much as I did their younger versions. As the newer story progressed and they slipped back into their ‘real personas’ things got better. It’s an implausible plot line but a fun read. Glad to be back in the Devereaux ‘stable.’ Off to find another one!