Classic Romance - Which One First? Jude Deveraux Edition

Classic Romance: Which One First?Jude Deveraux is one of the classic names in historical romance, and is one of the first authors I glommed when I discovered romance. I still re-read her books, but for someone who is curious about Deverax’s books, which one would you recommend first?

Knight In Shining Armor CoverKnight in Shining Armor is among her most-beloved titles, and one of the best time-travel romances I’ve ever read. I never understood why the heroine’s shopping spree only included formal clothing in that one scene (though I still think wool challis skirts are the HEIGHT of posh fashion because of that scene).

But then there’s also Wishes, where there’s almost two heroines – one, the cranky ass old lady who is sent back to earth to repent and learn from her life’s mistakes by helping a lonely woman find happiness in historical Chandler, Colorado. I love that one, too, especially the scene with the People magazines.

So many beloved romances people still talk about were written by Deveraux.

The thing is, once you learn her shtick (Marry the one who can tell the twins apart!) the reading can get monotonous. But holy smoke, do I still look back and sigh happily thinking about some of her books – and her novellas. There’s one in the anthology A Gift of Love, called “Just Curious,” where the hero tricks the heroine into spending a weekend with him by saying he needs a last minute bridesmaid and she fits the dress. I love that story. I think I’ve read it sixty times and I’m not even exaggerating.

What about you? Which is your favorite? Which Jude Deveraux book should a curious reader staring at a mountain of backlist start with, and why? Which one first?

Comments are Closed

  1. cbackson says:

    I think that it says something about my essential character that the mere fact that this person wrote a book called “The Taming” puts me off reading anything of hers.

    Unless, you know, it’s about horse-breaking?  Or circuses?

    (…aaaaaaaaaand then my captcha was “horse66”)

  2. Kiersten says:

    I agree for the historicals start with the Velvet series (even tho the men can be asshats) Highland Velvet, tho book 2 (as I remember; it’s been a while) is the best. And/or Knight in Shining Armour. Full Disclosure: I hate time-travel books. Time isn’t cyclical, so any book with it pisses me off with the premise alone, but KISH totally sucked me in and broke my heart anyways (and, much later, Outlander after years of resistance and avoidance). “Souls, not bodies.” Yeesh.

    But, overall, start with Sweet Liar. It was her first contemporary hardcover and the story and characters all delivery. Made be want to drink a boilermaker every day. Loved it.

    JD stopped being a must have a long time ago, but many of these old skool titles brought me great joy and good reading in their time. I still have the River series, the Velvet series, KISH, SL and many others in my keeper box.

  3. Melissa says:

    I absolutely love Knight in Shinging Armor. Although Rememberance is my favorite of her novels. No, it’s not a traditional format for a romance, but there’s something so satisfying about it. The story, especially the section in the middle ages, is rich in detail. I read it and I literally cannot put it down, no matter how many times I read it. There’s something about the intensity of the love between Tallis and Callie that just gets to me everytime.

  4. Meredith L. says:

    Knight in Shining Armour was the first historical romance I read, and because of it, historical is ALL I read of the romance genre. I liked the book a lot, even if I found the whole idea of “Oh, she magically has shampoo in her purse!” thing a little absurd. Honestly, who but a romance heroine carries around shampoo as a matter of course?

    But I can’t read JD anymore. I picked up the Velvet quartet out of order and made the mistake of saving Velvet Promise for last. HATED it. He RAPES her, but she enjoys it? And we’re supposed to root for him?

    I know dudes were cads back then and whatnot, but I cannot abide a book in which I’m supposed to root for the heroine to fall in love with a man who rapes her, period. JD is dead to me.

    For strong women and non-rapey – but still seriously flawed and heroic – heroes, the Melissa Mayhue Daughters of the Glen series is very good, if only quasi-historical. (I’m on the third of the series.) And Carrie Lofty’s Scoundrel’s Kiss is probably my all-time favorite because the heroine is not your typical innocent little virgin.

  5. Lucia says:

    I’ll always love THE DUCHESS, because the hero is really Sir Richard Francis Burton, who is one of my Victorian crushes. Also, loved the heroine. And when I first read it, many years ago, I remember thinking, “This is a little…wacky…but in a good way.”  I’ll have to re-read to see if I still think that.

  6. Liz Talley says:

    Ah, the ultimate in old school romance – Jude Devereaux!

    This woman kept me reading romance in my teens and I loved how those Montgomerys started way back in the Medievals, traversed the big pond, headed out West, had a ship yard in Maine, and I could go on and on.

    A Knight in Shining Armor is probably one of my favorite books or all time. Is it wonderfuly wrought, smart, edgy or funny? Not exactly. But it is the epitome of romance. I wanted to change my name to Dougless. I loaned it out excessively and so that meant I bought a LOT of copies. Probably paid for at least one pair of JD’s shoes all by my teenage lonesome.

    My fav’s – A Knight in Shining Armor, The Princess (loved J.T.) and the Velvet Promise.

    together29 – there are al least 29 together recommending AKISA, right?

  7. My two favorites would be THE HEIRESS and HIGHLAND VELVET, although I admit that I’ve probably only read about 10 of her books.  I did love WISHES at the time I read it, but I just reread it and found some bits annoyed me that I passed over the first time.  Still a good book, however.

  8. Emma Gedge says:

    I’m sure I’ve read the Velvets – or some of them anyway.  Am I right in remembering some girl-on-top-of-the-velvet-column action?  It’s hovering on the corner of my memory…

    I’ve no read her in ages, but I think I’d go for Velvet Whatever.

    walked27 – it’s been 27 years since I walked out of the library with a Jude deveraux.

  9. Jennifer H says:

    Sweet Liar was the first Jude Deveraux I ever read and will always be a favorite, but probably my favorite of her books is River Lady.

  10. kkw says:

    I was never nuts about Devereaux.  I read plenty of her books, though.  I never liked time travel romance, either, yet I still remember KISA, so it seems safe to say it’s among her more memorable, which is not a bad place to start.  I can’t say I’d recommend it, precisely, or her in general.  I like plenty of old romances, but we such have better choices now.

  11. Mary G says:

    Knight in Shining Armor is my all time fav hand down.

  12. Wahoo Suze says:

    I HATED A Knight in Shining Armor, and I think it started my disenchantment with Jude’s later books.  I found that her novels after that one began to lose their charm for me and today, I’ll pass right by a new title of hers.  Sad that.  🙁

    Ditto.

    My first Deveraux was The Black Lyon, which I loved passionately.  I loved the Velvets, and I seem to remember Sweetbriar was a favourite for a long time.  I know I read a bunch more of hers, but I kind of lost track eventually, and then she lost me with the execrable KISA.

  13. Mary Ann says:

    Sweet Liar.  Sigh.  I was a senior in HS when I read it and at the time I was in over my head in a deeply complex and precocious romantic entanglement, and decided that if anyone would understand my Bad Romance Plot Come To Life it would be JD.

    So I wrote her, and I told her the whole mess (along with my fangirl love for her books), and friends, she wrote me back.  She wrote me back a long, multiple-page, single-spaced, typewritten letter on thin, somehow hyperfeminine paper.  It was the first time I had ever had another woman treat me and approach my life as if I was a grown woman, and her advice was truly, truly good.  (if only I had followed it.  that is another story)

    Her words and that letter followed me for such a long time.  It seems amazing, now.  I mean, readers actually have a lot of access to their favorite novelists these days (that was 1993, SL had just been released in hardcover), via sites and twitter and events, but I still don’t think it’s often the case for a lot of time and effort (on both sides) to be given to an exchange.  She really reached out in a deeply generous and thoughtful way, as if she knew it would really matter.  And it did.

    I love that she still uses the same author photo she did, then, because it’s the picture I remember looking at, like her face had answers, when I wrote my letter. 

    I’m so glad some intern pulled my letter out of the fanmail slush that came to her publisher (and the voice and writing in her letter was exactly her, I didn’t say that).  When there was the thread on SBTB recently about what we’ve learned about love from romance novels, I actually thought about sharing this story (what I learned about love from a romance novelist), but didn’t and now a JD thread!

    She’ll always be wonderful to me, for what she wrote—to me (just to me).

  14. baji says:

    Loved “The Raider” – my favorite of all of the Montogomery stories (which I adored as well).

  15. Caroline H. says:

    Ok y’all. This is truly fate. I was just sitting here not ten minutes ago trying to decide which Devereaux to read first (well, reread…it’s been 12 years since I read them). Of course I came to this site first (which I only discovered about a month ago) and lo and behold, what is the second post I should come across!? I love this place.

  16. maryb says:

    Knight in Shining Armor.
    I’d love to recommend KISA, but the end tends to be a deal breaker (or a wall breaker, YMMV) for many a reader.

    My copy of Sweet Liar on the other hand, in hard cover mind,  has been read to shreds. I’m also the proud owner of a once-new-now-tattered copy in paper back. I really wanted a book about Raine Montgomery.

    Just Curious edged out all others, the first time I read it, as my favorite. Loved, loved, Loved, the heroine in this one. The graffiti had me loling.

    And finally, The Raider. It’s a cute romp and I liked Nick.

  17. Worthafortune says:

    I just reread the Heiress a few months ago. I loved that book. I remember being 11 years old and writing Carpe Diem on EVERYTHING because I thought it was such a kick ass motto. And to this day, I still cry reading it.

    Jude Deveraux “aged” much more gracefully than Julie Garwood.  Rereading Garwood is not nearly as fun as rereading Deveraux.

  18. Emily says:

    Jude Deveraux is one of those authors who my 23 year old self doesn’t want to reread and my 13 year old self gobbled up like a starving woman.  I reread the Velvet Series and because I specifically remembered the rape (not rapey, no confusion here) in the first one, I skipped it and went for the other three which are amazing for their time, but not as fave as they used to be.  I love, love, love Sweet Liar. I love the story, I love the background, I love everything about that book including the white lingerie!  I highly recommend.

  19. Ann G says:

    I hated A KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR, and I DO love time travels.  KISA just didn’t work.

  20. Estara says:

    Absolutely Sweet Liar! There’s the jazz age, there’s the mafia mystery shooting, there’s Ornette Coleman (I wonder if they got his permission to use him as a character) – there’s flapper gowns and a deeply depressed, psychologically abused woman who learns how to become herself with verve and esprit and basically show everyone, but especially the hero, how much power she has.

    I haven’t read JD after A Knight in Shining Armor, which I didn’t like at all, so this is my personal best and a book – with all the hundreds of romances I have read over the years – of which I still remember scenes and tropes without looking it up or even having re-read it recently.

  21. Jojo says:

    Nostalgia! I devoured Deveraux in middle school. I didn’t necessarily love them – indeed, there were many I really disliked, including Knight in Shining Armor – but the library had them in abundance and there was sex in, which is really all I was looking for at that age.

    There are really only two that I still have fondness for. The Conquest was, once upon a time, my favorite romance. Upon rereading now, I find it completely ridiculous, but the twelve-year-old in me still adores it. It wasn’t until years later that I discovered it was the sequel to The Taming, which I was excited to read and promptly disgusted by. And I unashamedly adore The Duchess. It’s not without frustration – I’m delighted by Claire throughout, but her behavior near the end really puts me off – but, oh, it’s lovely. One of my favorites.

  22. Theresa says:

    I was feeling isolated again when I saw that A Knight in Shining Armor and Wishes were listed as favorite Jude Deveraux books.  These were my least two favorite books by her. Probably because I don’t like magic elements in books that are not paranormals. 

    The Duchess and the Awakening are my two favorite books of hers.  California in the early 1900s is not a traditional setting for a romance novel and I loved it in the Awakening.

  23. Rachel says:

    Oh, wow. Wishes was my very first romance novel. I haven’t read one of hers in ages, but I’d suggest Sweet Liar or A Knight in Shining Armor for people who want to read her for the first time. I have a soft spot for Mountain Laurel, though, which I don’t think anyone else has mentioned.

  24. Michelle R says:

    Knight in Shining Armor—or the one where the hero’s name is Hank Montgomery and is a unionist. She’s being educated by (and is engaged to) a guy with some mommy issues, and so he makes sure she stays skinny and the exact opposite of his mother.

    I didn’t like Wishes, because JD wrote herself into a corner with the heroine wishing that she couldn’t inconvenience her family. She lost all her spirit. I did laugh over the scene in which the “fairy godmother” thinks the sexiest line in a romance novel is “we have to get you out of those wet clothes” and so a giant puddle appears.

    Remembrance was also another one where I felt she wrote herself into a corner. I liked it a lot, overall, but it was clear that she didn’t know how to solve the one storyline other than to make the hero not recognize her in order to, what, fool the curse?

  25. Debra says:

    JD was an author that my mom read and loved.  I snuck one of her books, which was Velvet Promise and I fell in love.  I read everything she had and then came her Forever series.  She wrote 3 books centered around Darcie and Adam and how he gets kidnapped and the next 2 books she spends trying to find him.  I will never ever forgive her for not finishing this series.  It has been YEARS since the last one came out, even more YEARS since she started the damn series.  I want her to finish this series, is that too much to ask since she is the one that sucked me into it?

  26. Sasha says:

    I’m about to go RELEASE THE KRAKEN on this thread, you guise.

    Jude Deveraux’s THE DUCHESS was the first romance novel I ever read. At nine years old, haha. Oh my god, it was amazing to me then. So so so very amazing. Last year, I found a new edition [pastel landscape cover, da-dum!] and read it again [after 12 years!]. Oh my god, it was so full of asshattery—the characters themselves, and the narrative they exist in. The hero, Trevelyan, has greatly influenced my reception of all subsequent TallDark&Broodies;, ugh. I can’t help but love it still. I also realized that I can still repeat passages by heart.

    http://silverfysh.wordpress.com/2010/11/09/letter-to-my-nine-year-old-self-on-the-occasion-of-my-reread-of-jude-deverauxs-the-duchess-twelve-years-later/

    _ _ _

    In the days of yore, [um, 2008], I wrote this in my angsty-teen journal, about A KNIGHT IN SHINING ARMOR:

    I hated it. Abso-fucking-lutely hated it. I hated the book because it is far too long and needlessly so. I hated the book because it was so unnecessarily convoluted. I’ve read time-traveling romances before (Karen Marie Moning and her yum yum Highlanders come to mind) but I’ve never criticized them on their implausibility. I hate this book because I wanted to whack Dougless repeatedly for her “alcoholic personality” and I hated this book because Nicholas isn’t exactly one of the most loveable heroes I’ve ever come across – he’s too medieval in a bland sort of way. I don’t like the novel, it isn’t at all romantic, what with all the focus on the mission of saving Nicholas’ family. And I really hate the ending. I mean, sure, don’t allow Nicholas to toss away his grand legacy by coming over to live in the twentieth century but hello. I don’t care for that “Let our souls find each other” bag of crap. So what if she meets a twentieth-century guise of Nicholas’ soul? Goddamnit, can you just imagine the emotional turmoil Dougless will have to go through? Jesus Christ on wheels – and Dougless: supposedly this book is how a woman learns to stand for herself, that people won’t walk all over her all the fucking time. But really, with all the sacrifices she made – no matter that she made them willingly, out of love – in the end, wasn’t she the one used? The she, precariously, set her own happiness and sanity on the line to save an earl long-dead, who cares if history thinks he just likes to rut women on tables?

    Christ, gah. And so what if the last statement is the point of the whole “romance”? Whatever. I abhorred this book, absolutely do not like it. God help me.

    SO MUCH BOILY RAGE IN ME THERE WAS.

  27. melusine says:

    I’ve read plenty of Deveraux, but just not a big fan.

    My favorites are her Taggert novellas. Loved loved loved Just Curious and Matchmakers. Change of Heart was enjoyable too.

    As for Sweet Liar: I’m very fond of the characters, but not of the book itself.

  28. Wynn says:

    Oh to be a teenager again! Ten years on, rereading romances I loved back in the day, my reaction is ‘OMG! What was the author thinking??!’ but the teenager in me just can’t resist those happy endings. I loved ‘Sweet Liar’ and the novella ‘Just Curious’ but I’m surprised no one mentioned ‘Eternity’ – it’s lighthearted and fun. I’d definitely recommend it for those new to JD.

Comments are closed.

By posting a comment, you consent to have your personally identifiable information collected and used in accordance with our privacy policy.

↑ Back to Top