Terri isn't your typical lake girl... in charge of the rental cabins at Lake Kissel...and the beach, and the events and the repairs...in short, she's her dad's right-hand woman. She's happy, she thinks, until her space is invaded by Nate Taggert, who is supposed to marry the town sweetheart and join a financial management firm. Before all that starts, he turns out to be just the help Terri needs at the lake. One could say he's indispensable! Solving the mystery of Terri’s life and the lake is only one of his tasks.

I received this book from NetGalley.

Blog: The Life & Times of a Book Addict.

Posted On: October 11, 2019.

Review:

Terri Rayburn has lived all of her life in the shadow of her mom’s supposed mistakes. Living in a small town everyone either knows your business or they attempt to find out your business. Terri has no desire to be the center of anymore town gossip so she stays at Lake Kissel and helps her dad run the resort there.
Life for the most part goes as expected for Terri until she comes home from a trip and finds Nate Taggert, a handsome, yet unexpected houseguest…

Despite their bumpy beginning, they come to a mutual arrangement and as time passes by at the lake, Terri and Nate develop an unexpected close friendship. The more time Nate spends at the lake, the more stories he hears about Terri and her mother. Nate being the curious sort decides to investigate the gossip and find out the truth behind it all.

Terri is easy to like. She’s resilient, smart, has a very thick skin, and is dedicated to her dad. She needs someone who is resourceful, independent, and warm. Enter Nate, her ideal man. The only problem with that is he’s already taken. Nate is engaged to the mayor’s daughter. Just when Terri thought the universe might be doing her a solid, reality tells her to think otherwise. Even though Nate is taken, could he still be the one for her? And what happens to their friendship when his fiancée comes back into town?

Nate is a people person. If someone spends 10 minutes in his company, they leave liking him. He’s smart, hardworking, and not afraid of a challenge. He’s had the opportunity to travel the world for work, but now that he is getting married, he’s planning on settling down in his fiancée’s hometown of Summer Hill. Even though future plans may be laid out for him, he isn’t completely sure of some things.

This was my first time reading a book by this author and I’m glad I decided to go for it. Met Her Match is a sweet and easy summertime romance to fall in love with. The author does a great job of writing a romance that held my interest from the very beginning and had unique and realistic characters that added to the overall story. If you enjoy small town romances, then definitely check out Met Her Match.


RATING: 3½-4 out of 5.

A wonderfully enchanting tale of love--gone wrong, all-consuming, unexpected, new and amazing.

Terry's grown up under the shadow of her mother who ran off in a storm one night when Terry was a young child. She stays as far from town as she can. This suits her just fine. Running the grounds of Lake Kissel and the properties, boats, docks and everything else.

Due to a 'miscommunication', Terry finds herself sharing her aunt's house with a gorgeous hunk for a couple of weeks. He is waiting on his fiance, who happens to be Terry's frenemy. How is Terry going to survive this catastrophe?

The story takes you on an adventure. There are ups and downs, twists and turns, memories of times past and glimpses of what could have been. One of my Jude Deveraux favorites. 5 stars

I can't say if I liked or disliked this book as I found it predictable right from the start. I also didn't like how Nate Taggert was engaged with another woman from the start of the book but seemed attracted to Terri. I also found the conversational dialogue at the start was a bit fast and a bit too much for me to grab a good hold on the story.
As I read along, I became a bit frustrated with the story and found myself losing interest along the way.

I believe the author is a great writer but this story just didn't quite do it for me. Too many characters within the story, too many unnecessary descriptions of events that had no real value to the story. Thanks for the chance to read this book.

Loved this book. Great characters, easy read, uplifting, funny, romantic and charming. A really nice story that is the perfect escapist read.

I think this is the first book I have read by Jude Deveraux. Glad I did. Good characters, good story, even a bit of mystery that wasn’t expected. Definitely an author to read in my future.

I quite liked this book for the overall feel of it, however I found the fact that Nate was engaged throughout a majority of the book a bit distasteful. Yes it was a good read otherwise and there was no actual cheating, unless you count the emotional in which case big style.
I really wanted the mystery element to come in sooner rather than thrown in at the beginning in the form of a sentence, then later at the end of the book just to wrap up the act that Nate and Terri can get together without the whole village hating on her so much.

Overall the writing was impeccable, but i found the situation not my favorite, even if everyone got what they wanted. The side characters were good and seeing their take was interesting too, Not a bad read, if you want easy reading for a summer.

What a great story! The characters and the mystery kept me reading late into the night/next morning.

Some of the townspeople of the small town of Summer Hill think highly of themselves and look down on the people that live by the lake. For most of her life, Terri Rayburn, has been subjected to a bad reputation that she did not deserve. Her hopes to travel the world, were squashed when her father needed her help to run the resort at the lake after his business partner's death. Her life has become a jack of all trades and she has no life of her own, until Nate Taggert ends up staying in her aunt's house with her, through the machinations of his uncle. Despite his engagement to the Stacy, daughter of the town's mayor, he and Terri quickly become so in sync with each other that most people at the lake think they are a couple. The more time he spends with Terri, he starts to question his relationship with Stacy, but Terri is terrified of more scandal. Having worked for the CIA, Nate puts his skills to work, to find out what happened to Terri's mother, and why Terri was blamed for actions, when she was the victim. The only con I had for this book, and it may be due to the fact that I read an ARC, was that the story just abruptly ended.

I read an ARC from NetGalley.com. This is my unbiased and voluntary review.

I do love a small town romance. But sometimes small towns can be so narrow minded. Summer Hill is definately one of those towns. Our heroine Terri has lived her life, never fitting in, constantly having people talking about her. So she keeps herself busy at Lake Kissel running the resort with her father.
Not really living but exsisting. Coming back from a busy working day she finds a handsome stranger in her house. She immediately thinks her father is trying to set her up. Nate is everything she wants in a man. Unfortunately his engaged to the daughter of the mayor. As they spend time together working at the resort. They have an easy rapport with each other. Both our hero and heroine are misunderstood by others. Along with the romance, we have the mystery of what happened to Terri's mother. Jude Deveraux neatly wraps that up by the end of the story. ARC requested from NetGalley this is my voluntary review.

The story takes off from the get go as Terri is greeted with sexy Nate Taggert on her return home from running errands. The handsome young man gets Terri's heart pumping rapidly but before she can even process her attraction she finds out that he's engaged tot he mayor's daughter with whom she's never really had a warm relationship.
While Nate's fiancée Stacy is away in Europe, Nate shares Terri's house on the lake and pretty soon inserts himself into life on the lake making himself indispensable. Of course given his fiancée's absence the attraction between the two of them grows as well.
Through this Nate comes to the realization that his uncle Kit had correctly intended to introduce Stacy to his cousin Rowan but Nate had gotten in the middle when Rowan just wasn't interested in being a target of his father's matchmaking. However breaking his engagement and having a relationship with Terri isn't easy given all the baggage in Terri's past. The end is a bit rushed as Nate and Rowan work to solve the mystery of Terri's mother's disappearance and clear the road blocks that stand in the way of a relationship between Nate and Terri.
All in all a great read that moves fast and keeps a reader engaged all the way through.

Terri Rayburn has always lived in her family’s native small town of Summer Hill, Virginia. Though her mother left when she was very young, she and her father have kept the family’s summer resort afloat, acting as managers, cleaners, handymen, and general Houdini problem solvers. Though Terri once had dreams of leaving Summer Hill for a different life with her high school sweetheart, she’s accepted now that her place is with her father. Unfortunately, though, living on the poorer side of a cozy (and rich) resort town has its drawbacks, and the drama surrounding Terri’s mother’s disappearance so many years ago hasn’t helped Terri make many friends. She’s content, sure, but isolated.

So when gorgeous Nate Taggart randomly shows up at her house one day, Terri suspects her father and his friends are trying to set her up—even though Nate is engaged to the mayor’s beautiful daughter. No matter, she reasons. She can be friends with Nate (who just so happens to be perfect for her, sigh) without crossing over into scandal territory and further tarnishing her family’s reputation. But the real question is, can Nate?

MY THOUGHTS
This is the first novel I’ve read by wildly popular Jude Deveraux, and a part of me does understand what all the hype is about. This is an easily-digestible novel. It goes fast, and it’s heavy on the playful will-they-won’t-they sexual tension. But it definitely has some drawbacks. Most notably, there is almost no build up in the story. The reader just jumps right in to the thick of it, with Terri and Nate meeting each other almost at the same time the reader meets them. Backstory isn’t provided until much later, and by then the book (and my attachment to it) had already suffered.

The other big negative is the ending. I don’t want to give too much away, but let’s just say that the story starts out all light and fluffy and ends with, yikes, a pretty significant crime. It comes out of nowhere and changes the entire tone of the book. It’s a surprising twist, sure, but it also felt careless and inconsistent with the rest of the book.

So this is one of those light reads that you take with you on a plane and then leave at your hotel for the next person. It’s absorbing, but also hastily thrown together and forgettable.

A quick light romantic summer story. A bit of mystery in a small town. I loved the characters, very interesting and well developed. I will be going back and reading Summer Hill #1. I do love a good Jude Deveraux novel! Thanks to Net Galley and the publisher for the opportunity to read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ms. Devereaux does not disappoint. I always enjoy reading books by her knowing what to expect. I had read The Girl from Summer Hill and I was happy to return to Summer Hill in Met Her Match. Terri - a local running a summer resort - finds herself attracted to Nate, an engaged man who happens to be just her type. Navigating among the local gossip, a reputation she cannot escape, and a scandalous past involving her mother, Terri has to decide between the path dictated for her or the path of her heart's desire. A fun, quick, light romantic read.

*I received an arc in exchange for an honest review.*.
I have always enjoyed this authors books so I was excited to read something new.
I tend to shy away from books where one person is already in a relationship. It can go wrong in so many ways. Often, the “other” person is made out to be horrible in some way. I have to say that this book does not do that.
These two are adorable from the start. I loved the friends to lovers angle. The little mystery helped to move the book along. I hope to read more books in this series.

Jude Deveraux has been one of my favorite authors for many years and I loved this book. I spent a great day on the beach reading this story. The characters are realistic, the setting is great, and the wit refreshing.
Many thanks to MIRA and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.

Loved it. The characters and situations are so real ,the interaction between them great and her stories make me smile.Big fan of Taggerts/Montgomerys.

This story is well written and easy to read. It kept my attention because there is a bit of mystery as the story is told has to how our to main charcters came to be who they are. Their meeting felt like a set up from the beginning and the reader is enticed into feeling they are indeed the perfect match. So it feels good to follow as they figure that out.
I have received a copy of this book from the publisher and am voluntarily reviewing it.

Oh the drama you get from a small town. There's nothing like the gossip mill and a town divided to weave a good story. Terri Rayburn runs the lake in the quaint Virginia town of Summer Hill. And she's loved by the lake resident, until she goes to town. She's been saddled with rumors her entire life, but she simply moves forward and works.
Nate Taggert has come to town to find his new beginnings. Recently engaged to the mayor's daughter he's spending some time at the lake. Nate and Terri hit it off and he begins to take on some of the load of keeping up with the happenings at the lake. And they are both fighting the attraction, for Terri the last thing she needs to do is fuel more rumors. But is Nate really destined to be with Stacy? Or has fate stepped in the fix things and uncover the past?

Met Her Match by Jude Deveraux is the 2nd book in the Summer Hill series, and my first book by this author. I loved this romance, I really connected with the two main characters, Terri and Nate. Nate is engaged to the Mayor daughter, so he's not available. The town of Summer Hill, Virginia is divided into
two parts, rich residents and the rest of the town. Once I started this book I could not stop reading it. I will definitely be reading more books by Ms. Deveraux. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a wonderful romance.

I reviewed a digital arc provided by NetGalley and the publisher. Thank you.

I loved Met Her Match by Jude Deveraux. It was an enjoyable read with humor and a touch of mystery. The characters are well developed and interesting. The banter between Terri Rayburn and Nate Taggert was fun and exciting, as you watch two people from different parts of same town interact. Terri is one of the Lake People and Nate is about to marry the daughter of the Mayor of Summer Hill, representing two groups that have different views on life.
In Met Her Match Jude Deveraux has once again given readers a story and characters we can identify with and create a connection with. As the story progresses the tensions grow and you become more attached, not wanting to stop until you reach the end.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a book with humor, romance and a touch of mystery.
Thank you #Netgalley and #Mira for approving my request for an advanced readers copy. All the opinions expressed in this review are solely my own.