Holly

Jude Deveraux

Holly Latham is in love with old houses and architecture. Fortunately, she is an heiress so can indulge in her passion of restoring old homes to their original state and glory. She had traveled the world, but focuses most of her attention to homes in her own country. She is excited because she has convinced her parents to buy the old home where they stayed the summer she was 13. That was the year she fell in love with old homes - pre the American Civil War especially - and Lorrie, the neighbor boy who worked with her all summer to restore parts of his family plantation.

Before she gets to North Carolina and her new house, she stops in the Smokey Mountains for a meal before she oversees the emptying of their old house. She hears of some homes that pre-date the Revolutionary War. This she has to see. But while poking around alone, she breaks through an old floor and falls into a pit with concrete sides. The person who finds her is Nick Taggert, a local who is living in a barn beside a falling down house. Nick and Holly are immediately attracted to each other. But after two wild days, Holly returns to her real life.

In North Carolina she once again meets Lorrie and visits his old plantation home. Eleven years after their one summer they match up. Holly is thrilled when Lorrie seems to be attracted to her. But she hasn't counted on Nick. He follows her to her new home and her father hires him to be the gardner and chauffeur. Now Holly is caught between two men - the one she has loved since she was 13, has the perfect home, and in her social bracket, or the proud man of a lower economic class who sets her senses on fire.

Holly is straight romance with the obvious conclusion. Getting to that conclusion is fun. The main character isn't happy to realize she has more snobbery than expected, but she is also realistic. Nick is not the type of man who would want her money, and she doesn't think she could live within his income. The reader knows from the first page that Nick Taggert is wealthy himself, but Holly doesn't.

There are two antagonists in this book that could be chilling. Deveraux keeps the tone light, though, and gives some interesting twists to handle the antagonists. I liked the way there is friction but not outright violence. All in all, Holly is a satisfying romance with a bit of suspense thrown in.

Notice: Explicit sexual content