I read this book years ago and I still have the hard back book. Rereading it these past few days, it was as good as I had remembered.

Nicole Courtalain was a French emigré when Bianca Maleson offered her a place to live as her maid in England. Bianca talked about the American man, Clayton Armstrong, who had proposed to her. But when a group of men attempted to kidnap Bianca, she claimed that Nicole was Bianca. Nicole found herself on a ship bound for America and was forced to participate i...

I read this book years ago and I still have the hard back book. Rereading it these past few days, it was as good as I had remembered.

Nicole Courtalain was a French emigré when Bianca Maleson offered her a place to live as her maid in England. Bianca talked about the American man, Clayton Armstrong, who had proposed to her. But when a group of men attempted to kidnap Bianca, she claimed that Nicole was Bianca. Nicole found herself on a ship bound for America and was forced to participate in a proxy marriage to Clayton. What would he do when he found himself married to the wrong woman?

Jude Deveraux always tells such a good story, with lots of twists and turns. The characters are well developed and you can feel their anguish or joy. The world building delivers an excellent description of how life in early Virginia may have been. But I do wonder if tobacco was grown differently then than it was in later years as there were no descriptions of the coverings over the young plants or the tobacco barns. Regardless, this was still a very enjoyable book.

My rating: 5 Stars!

Deveraux spins vivid tales but these early books end abruptly. It”s as if she”s met her word quota and just drops the story. Characters/families often show up in the next book in a series so the reader gets a little epilogue glimpse but I find it jarring. While this book shows in Kindle as book 3, it reads as if it should be book 1. Abrupt ending lowers the star score.

Deveraux spins vivid tales but these early books end abruptly. It”s as if she”s met her word quota and just drops the story. Characters/families often show up in the next book in a series so the reader gets a little epilogue glimpse but I find it jarring. While this book shows in Kindle as book 3, it reads as if it should be book 1. Abrupt ending lowers the star score.

If you are a fan of historical romance novels; Jude Deveraux is the Queen of novelists. I love this series starting with Sweetbriar, she follows family members of the original family and friends and how their families expand and grow. And while the men are all good looking, strong, and unfortunately they underestimated--the women in their lives. But to their surprise, the women have stood up for themselves and leave the nest and in some cases the women become self-sustaining and wealthy in th...

If you are a fan of historical romance novels; Jude Deveraux is the Queen of novelists. I love this series starting with Sweetbriar, she follows family members of the original family and friends and how their families expand and grow. And while the men are all good looking, strong, and unfortunately they underestimated--the women in their lives. But to their surprise, the women have stood up for themselves and leave the nest and in some cases the women become self-sustaining and wealthy in their own right...making the men court them on their own level.....as an admirable and competent lady who will not be easily "domesticated". It ranges from making the reader laugh at the situations the women trap the men into, and the next moment, you're scared to death as the plot blows up and backfires. Ultimately proving that women are not necessarily superior to men, but instead equal, shocking both of them, while the sparks begin to start a new kind of love based on respect. I love Countereit Lady, It stole my heart as surely as Nicole's heart was stolen by Clayton Armstrong. No matter how dire the situation may be, ultimately LOVE wins every time. I recommend all of Jude Deveraux's books, but the Counterfeit Lady series has been in my heart since I first read it over 30 years ago and now I am re-collecting the series electromically, try it -- it's like potato chips----you can't just read one!! Thank you Amazon for helping me to put my new electronic Jude Deveraux collection once again at my fingertips! God bless AMAZON.

My review is going to sound much like the other reviews, so I'll keep it brief.I've read nearly every book written by Jude Deveraux. Some of her novels are wonderful and beautifully written with deep, loveable characters. Others are just so-so, that linger too long on the annoying shallow characters and too many sex scenes. This is one of the so-so ones. The depiction of the south during the late 1700s is wonderful, richly written, and spell-binding. The characters are shallow, superficial, o...

My review is going to sound much like the other reviews, so I'll keep it brief.I've read nearly every book written by Jude Deveraux. Some of her novels are wonderful and beautifully written with deep, loveable characters. Others are just so-so, that linger too long on the annoying shallow characters and too many sex scenes. This is one of the so-so ones. The depiction of the south during the late 1700s is wonderful, richly written, and spell-binding. The characters are shallow, superficial, oftentimes extremely stupid, and just really annoying. I'm not going to tell anyone not to read it because if you are a true Jude Deveraux fan, you can't NOT read it. But, just keep all of this in mind when you do. By the end of the book I was rolling my eyes at the fact that someone else was plotting to hurt/ kidnap the main heroine for the THIRD time....really? It could really happen that many times to the same person in the span of 2 years?? It just got annoying. Just let the couple supposedly "in love" (although they spent much of their time having sex rather than getting to know each other), be together already! And yes, as almost all the other reviews mentioned, Jude definitely mentioned the fatness of the other main character WAY too many times; we got the picture that she was fat after the first time she mentioned it. So, if you are going to buy this book I would suggest not spending $7.50 for it on Amazon, go out and find it on EBay or a used bookstore, it's definitely not worth that much. And enjoy the description of the south and the clothing, that's pretty much all that's historically correct.

I love Jude Deveraux books I'm a very big fan of hers and I have not been disappointed in any of the books I have bought this is a series has three books when I finished the first book I immediately started on book two in the same with book three I could not put them down she is a fantastic writer I would highly recommend reading the series

I love Jude Deveraux books I'm a very big fan of hers and I have not been disappointed in any of the books I have bought this is a series has three books when I finished the first book I immediately started on book two in the same with book three I could not put them down she is a fantastic writer I would highly recommend reading the series