Sweet Liar by Jude Deveraux

Today is E and my first wedding anniversary! In honor of this occasion, today’s Book of the Day is Sweet Liar by Jude Deveraux, possibly my favorite romance novel.

I first read Sweet Liar when I was in high school, during a period where my friends and I pretty much read nothing but romance novels. I had become quite a connoisseur. I could generally tell by reading the back cover whether or not I was going to like it. I was, in fact, looking for something in particular: I wanted to fall in love with the main characters.

If I didn’t love the main characters, there is no way I would even begin to believe that they would love each other. The quality of romance novel, then, came down to the depictions of the protagonists. Where or when the story was set, what the plot was—these were secondary considerations. If the relationship didn’t ring true, it was substandard in my eyes. You’d be surprised (OK, maybe not too surprised) at how few books reached reached an acceptable standard on my personal romance-o-meter.

Sweet Liar is one of the best. It features a perfect leading man in both the looks department (the beauty of reading, of course, is that I can picture him any way I want) and in personality, a smart and levelheaded heroine, and a plot that is loads of fun. The couple, Mike and Samantha, have to solve a mystery surrounding Samantha’s grandmother’s involvement in a 1928 gangster shootout. Mike was my guy. A handsome New Yorker, caring, gentle, funny—you name it. Everything I ever wanted in a guy (at the age of seventeen, I was already getting pretty picky).

In the last ten years, I’ve almost stopped reading romances, and the ones I have read have been a bit disappointing. I wonder if it’s because my romantic life has changed or if my literary standards have changed. At any rate, I’ve moved on to other types of literature, but I also think that I could read Sweet Liar again and still love it.

I’m sure everyone is dying to know: how does my E compare with the romance-novel hero? Well, our lives certainly aren’t nearly as exciting, but now that I think about it, E and Mike do share a lot of similar traits… I think I did pretty well. It helps to be picky.

Sweet Liar by Jude Deveraux

tags: romance novels book reviews wedding anniversary Jude Deveraux