Return to Summerhouse

Jude Deveraux

It's been a few months since Amy miscarried their baby girl. She pretends to be better, but isn't. Stephen, her husband, is sending her for a week's get away at a therapist's summerhouse in Maine. Amy doesn't want to talk to a therapist or go away. But Stephen insists she go while he takes their sons on their annual camping trip. She is given no choice.

When there, she meets her two housemates. Faith is a widow in her late 30's. Her husband died a year ago. At the funeral, she attacked her mother-in-law. She has been seeing Jeanne, the therapist who owns the summerhouse, since then. Zoe is in her mid-20's. She was in a car accident around 6 years earlier. She can't remember that happened before that but came out of her coma with her town hating her. She left town after an act of defiance. She has been meeting with Jeanne as well. Jeanne sent the two of them up to the summerhouse for the same week as Amy.

The three women are wary of each other. They each go their own way for a day or two. But Amy discovers the story of an English man in the 1700's who was murdered young. In the book, she finds a business card for Madame Zoya. Out of curiosity she visits Madame's home and meets Madame's sister.

Madame Zoya has a special gift - she can send someone back in time for three weeks to change their lives. Amy is happy with her life. Instead she requests to go back to the time the English lord was murdered. Faith and Zoe join her on a journey back in time almost 300 years earlier in England.

You never know how a change in the past can change the present. Amy, Faith,and Zoe learn by the end of their get away in Maine. They are stronger for it.

Return to Summerhouse is a follow up to Jude Deveraux's charming The Summerhouse. It takes the time travel to change their pasts in a different route than the first book. It's a different twist but still concludes charmingly. Deveraux makes the characters believable. The English living in the past is well described and feels real. Her attention to details like plants, household care,and even art of the time bring the book to life.

You don't need the first book to enjoy Return to Summerhouse. It doesn't yank you around and stays constant in enjoyable tone. If you like romantic toned (not a bodice ripper romance) novels, pick this up if you get the chance.

Notice:  Suggestive dialogue or situations