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Lucy Jorik's the daughter of a former U.S. President . . . Meg Koranda's the offspring of legends . . . One of them is about to marry Mr. Irresistible—Ted Beaudine—the favorite son of Wynette, Texas . . . The other is determined to save her friend from a mess of heartache.
Meg knows breaking up her best friend's wedding is the right thing to do, but no one else agrees. Faster than Lucy can say “I don't,” Meg's the most hated woman in town—and stuck there with a dead car, an empty wallet, and a very angry bridegroom. Broke, stranded, without her famous parents watching her back, Meg believes she can survive by her own wits. After all, what's the worst that can happen? She'll lose her heart to Mr. Irresistible? Not likely. Not likely at all.
A spoiled California girl becomes a pariah when she sabotages her best friend's wedding.
The mayor and premier citizen of Wynette, Texas, is about to marry the daughter of the nation's first woman president. Bride-to-be Lucy's pre-wedding jitters are exacerbated when her maid of honor, Meg, daughter of Hollywood A-listers, suggests that if the groom-to-be, Ted Beaudine, seems too perfect to be true, he probably is. When Lucy jilts Ted at the altar, the entire town of Wynette turns against Meg. Since her parents, exasperated with Meg's free-spending ways, have cut her off, she's so broke she can't pay her hotel bill. Hotel owner Birdie is one of a cadre of females who have it in for Meg either because they're allies of Ted's formidable mother Francesca, or because they want Ted for themselves, or both. Birdie forces Meg to work off her bill as an underpaid chambermaid. Stuck in Wynette until she can amass enough money to leave, Meg learns that Ted is not as crushed by Lucy's departure as he appears. In fact, his smoldering glances at Meg may hint at much more than anger. Once her indentured servitude at the hotel ends, Meg crashes at a deserted church and lands a job at the local country club. She caddies for Ted and his golf-star father, who are hoping to woo multi-millionaire plumbing magnate Spence to develop a new "environmentally green" golf course that will boost Wynette's sagging economy. Spence feigns enthusiasm, but his cooperation really depends on whether Meg becomes his mistress. She dodges Spence by telling him she's in love with Ted, which is a lie, until...it's not. Ted demonstrates conclusively that in addition to being impossibly handsome and buff, he's the perfect lover. Too perfect. Phillips' witty dialogue and supple prose are outgunned by an overabundance of characters (the acid-tongued whine-ettes who ostracize Meg are particularly hard to keep straight) and an overly complex plot.
A novel that's ponderous where it should be frothy.
From Eloisa James's "READING ROMANCE" column on The Barnes & Noble Review
When it comes to romance writers, lifetime membership in the Optimists' Club is practically a prerequisite. More than the writers of any other genre, we must keep the faith: that a thoughtful, sexy, and loving relationship is possible, long-term. But that doesn't mean that we're optimistic about so-called "perfect" matches or, for that matter, "perfect" people. Perfection is highly overrated when it comes to love, as these five romances demonstrate.
Susan Elizabeth Phillips's Call Me Irresistible opens with two flawless people on the verge of marriage…until the bride's best friend shows up. Meg is far from perfect: she never graduated from college, and doesn't have a job, a decent car, or a career. But when she says -- skeptically -- of the groom, Ted (a gorgeous millionaire with umpteen degrees), "He sounds like Jesus. Except rich and sexy," the bride realizes that she's not ready to marry a deity. This plot could easily turn dizzy and light, but instead the novel offers a fascinating picture of two people who have made a lot of mistakes. Meg truly has wasted her life, and Ted is so overwhelmed by his own reputation that he can't emotionally connect with anyone: beneath her banter and his aloof demeanor is a deep loneliness. Yet for all their antagonism (Ted blames Meg for his failed wedding), it turns out that they are at their best together. Meg learns to be responsible, and Ted finds his wild side. But Susan Elizabeth Phillips doesn't pull her punches: a man who is unavailable emotionally is not a good lover, no matter how many orgasms are exchanged -- and it takes Ted a long time to reform. In fact, in the last chapters, when it isn't clear whether Ted will be able to win Meg back, I defy you not to be turning the pages as fast as you possibly can read.
In Elizabeth Hoyt's Notorious Pleasures it's the heroine, rather than the hero, who seems to gaze down from an unapproachable height. Lady Hero Batten is the daughter of a duke: she's beautiful, tactful, intelligent, and witty. Even so, she is mortified when her fiancé's brother Griffin mocks her with the title Lady Perfect. Griffin Remmington, Lord Reading, is Hero's polar opposite. His reputation is even worse than Meg's in Call Me Irresistible: he has made himself notorious for drinking, carousing, and general worthlessness. In reality that façade hides an even more terrible truth about his activities, as Hero discovers. One of the wonderful things about this novel is that, like Phillips, Hoyt doesn't underestimate the challenges of falling in love with someone who has made dreadful decisions. But it's the downfall of Lady Perfect that gives the book its tantalizing, seductive pleasure: when Hero wonders whether "she could ever resurrect her perfect façade again," you'll be rooting for Griffin, sins and all. This is a novel that laughs in the face of anyone who believes that romances can't or don't depict the dark side of life -- while still standing up for the idea of real, long-term happiness.
Courtney Milan's Unveiled also contrasts a high-born heroine and a flawed hero, but here again, the stakes are much higher than mere reputation. Lady Anna Margaret Dalrymple is in a dreadful position. Her ancestral home, Parford Manor, now belongs to a vengeful distant cousin named Ash Turner; discovery of her father's bigamy has resulted in his children's disinheritance. Margaret promises herself that "she would be noble, even if she was no longer considered nobility." But perfection comes at a price. Since her horrible father is dying in the master bedroom, Margaret poses as a nurse in order to stay with him. And when she falls in love with Ash, Margaret finds herself torn between her role as a dutiful daughter and sister, and the man she loves. Only after she realizes that Ash would sacrifice everything to make her happy does Margaret understand love is the real yardstick by which we should measure loyalty.
Jill Shalvis's Animal Magnetism pits the perfectly sweet, charming Lilah Young against a weary, battle-worn ex-soldier named Brady Miller. He's spent the last few years in battle zones where "grime and suffering trumped hope and joy," whereas Lilah lives in a Disney-ish small town named Sunshine, where everyone loves her and she loves everyone -- including the baby animals she's surrounded by. In short, she's a princess, and he's a cynic. Her real perfection (from Brady's point-of-view) is that she accepts his wandering nature and offers red-hot sex with no strings attached. But, as he comes to understand, that may sound "perfect. Only it wasn't. Not even close." This is a wildly sexy, sweet story, as Lilah and Brady realize that falling in love with a flawed person can be a passionate affirmation of love's ability to bring people together.
My last romance poses a particularly modern conundrum: what if the person you fall in love with online, your Tweetheart, isn't really as unblemished as his electronic persona seems to be? Teresa Medeiros's Goodnight, Tweetheart moves between text and tweets to depict a love story between a struggling novelist, Abby Donovan, and an English professor on sabbatical, Mark Baynard. Their tweets are fascinating, as they joke about everything from Project Runway to Velveeta. It's impossible not to fall in love with someone as witty and sweet as Mark (he signs off as Goodnight Tweetheart), even though Abby does realize that he's using humor as a defense mechanism. Can someone so glowingly "perfect" ever live up to his Twitter feed? Of all the novels, this one falls most firmly into the "no one is perfect" camp. When Mark reveals a shocking truth about himself, Abby realizes that perfection is deeper than tweets: it's Mark's smile, the smile that says "I will always love you no matter what you've done and no matter what you'll ever do."
My latest romance, When Beauty Tamed the Beast, has just been published -- and as you can imagine, my hero is definitely less than perfect. I chose to rewrite this particular fairy tale because I think that a love story between all-too-human persons is far more interesting than that between "golden boys and girls," as Shakespeare had it. In fact, these novels are a splendid antidote to an overdose of sickly sweet Valentine's Day sentiments. Buy your beloved a card that insists he or she is the perfect match for you -- and then remind yourself that love trumps all those flaws the card pretends don't exist.
Susan Elizabeth Phillips soared onto the New York Times bestseller list with Dream a Little Dream. She's the only four-time recipient of the Romance Writers of America's prestigious Favorite Book of the Year Award. A resident of the Chicago suburbs, she is also a hiker, gardener, reader, wife, and mother of two grown sons.
Such sass is Phillips' calling card, and since her 1994 football romance It Had to Be You, she’s been stitching threads of humor into her romance novels.
"I'm not a particularly funny person in person. I can't tell jokes, but it just seems like it happened when I started to write," she told The Romance Reader in 1997. "It wasn't anything that was planned. I'm a very intuitive writer; I just sort of let the characters talk to me, and they started saying funny things, so I wrote them down."
A schoolteacher until her first son was born, Phillips began writing in the early 1980s with her best friend and neighbor. The two were both regular readers and decided to try their hand at a book of their own, plotting their story during nightly bike rides with their toddlers in tow. They got the name of a publisher at Dell who liked the book and published it under the pen name Justine Cole.
Her friend moved into a legal career, but Phillips continued writing and publishing, this time under her own name. She released what she calls her "big books," titles like Fancy Pants and Honey Moon featuring Hollywood starlets and jet-setting London socialites.
Her stories, she has said, moved outside of the mainstream after that. She gives her romantic characters emotional wounds and personal difficulties that often impede their inevitable happy endings. But without such obstacles, there would be no story.
"I've grown increasingly interested in writing about family dynamics and much less interested in sticking a psychopath with a gun in any of my books," she said in an interview with the web site iVillage. "Technically, I've simply learned how to capitalize on my own distinctive voice and how to be a better storyteller."
The healing process that the characters go through is what makes the novels work. "Creative plotting adds sparkle, and entertaining, well-drawn secondary characters round out the novel, but it is the growing, healing relationship between the protagonists and how they finally form a family that touches the heartstrings and makes this contemporary romance an unforgettable read," the Library Journal wrote in a review of Phillips' 2000 book First Lady.
The dialogue, she has said, is also important. The exchanges in romance novels are satisfying to women who love to communicate, she told USA Today. "Women really like to talk. That's one of our processes. We talk to gather information. Women love the connection that comes from conversation," she said. "My husband says we broadcast. He thinks through things before he talks, but he says women just kind of broadcast until they zero in on what they want to say."
Phillips has also disputed the notion that romance novels are nothing more than books about "throbbing thighs." They aren't about sex, she told the Chicago Tribune in 1992, but are instead complicated fictions about women taking charge of their lives and being the stories' heroes.
"The woman always wins the man," she said, "and he always gets tamed in the end."
Though two of her books -- It Had to Be You and This Heart of Mine -- have football plots, Phillips doesn't consider herself much of a sports fan. "In my mind, if you don't have to wear mascara to do it, it doesn't count as recreation," she told Book Page.
Her family helps her keep the details straight. Husband Bill was her technical adviser on describing Dallie Beaudine's golf game in Fancy Pants, and son Zach's interest in knives, guns, and dead insects surfaced in Teddy, the son of the novel's leading lady. He also wrote and recorded a companion CD to her title This Heart of Mine, which is available from her web site.
nampatel
Posted January 24, 2011
I love SEP. I think as a writer, she writes charming stories. I have read every single one of her books more than once. I love her series books and the way she brings back characters.
This one, however, felt like bits and pieces of the other books rolled into one. There was no freshness. The new characters (Ted and Meg) are actually burdened by the return of SO MANY of the old characters and never get a chance to fully stand out as their own. Ted is just like bits of Dallie, bits of Kenny, bits of Dex. You never get a sense of the gawky kid that he was one he first came on board in Fancy Pants or the awkward young man in Lady Be Good.
Meg is a little more unique but carries similar to the heroines in Ain't She Sweet and Kiss an Angel.
Also, the dialogue - SEP typically writes snappy, witty, funny. In Call Me Irresistible, that the funny feels forced. The Crazy Women of Wynett is not funny and gets beaten over the head. Their antics aren't funny and a lot of them become caricatures.
I only say this because SEP is an incredible writer and she typically writes great characters with a fresh plot (Match Me if You Can, What I Did For Love). This seems a little bit too much borrowed and not new.
Still, as an SEP loyalist, read it for the fun of it, but you won't get sucked in and emotionally walloped like you do with her other books. Looking forward to the next one where hopefully SEP goes back to a small cast of characters and not too many old ones.
I hate to think this, but it feels like the publisher wanted to get as many SEP characters in to this one in the hopes of getting readers to read the others. For example, in this book there are characters from Lady Be Good, Fancy Pants, and Glitter Baby. To the publishers, if you want new readers to read the back list, let the author write the excellent book she is capable of writing and readers will automatically check it out. There is nothing compelling in this book that would make new readers read this, where as they should. Fancy Pants and Lady Be Good are great, fun reads.
I still love SEP.
6 out of 7 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Susan Elizabeth Phillips (SEP) delivers again in Call Me Irresistible. Ted Beaudine (Fancy Pants, Lady Be Good) is marrying Lucy Jorik (First Lady)in Wynette, Texas. Ted is a former amateur golf champ,inventor and the Mayor of Wynette. Lucy is the adopted daughter of the former President of the US and her husband. Lucy's best friend Meg Koranda (Glitter Baby) comes to town to be in the wedding. She sees immediately that Lucy has doubts about marrying Ted and ends up helping Lucy bolt before the wedding. After the wedding, Meg becomes persona non grata in Wynette. Unfortunately, her parents have cut her off , she can't pay her room bill and she ends up working for the inn as a maid. Ted,who is revered in town,makes it his mission to make Meg as uncomfortable as possible with help from all of the townfolk. The path that they take from intense dislike to love involves golf, a renovated church, a stalker, an amorous plumbing king and his man hungry daughter, and several characters from earlier books. Like all SEP books there is a lot of humor mixed in with a sharp look at how Lucy and Ted need to become self aware to be happy with someone else.
One of my favorite sections was when Lucy was talking to Meg about how perfect he was and how it intimidated her:
"Out of nowhere, the church doors blew open. And there he stood silhouetted against the setting sun. Theodore Day Beaudine. Trumpets began to sound. Honest to God trumpets blowing a chorus of hallelujahs. "Jesus", she whispered. "I know, "Lucy whispered back. "Stuff like this happens to him all the time. He says it's accidental."
How can you read that and not know you are in for a great time?
6 out of 11 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.MrsBRV
Posted January 23, 2011
I enjoyed a lot of this. It had much of the charm and flawed heroine stuff that I like about SEP's other work, but this one was a little overburdened with references to characters in other books, the ending wrapped up too abruptly, and I didn't feel convinced of the hero's conversion. I think she could have done better.
The traditionally published authors will have to step up their game if they are going to demand $12.99 a book, when there are some great emerging authors who are selling for a quarter of that price.
4 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.joaneo
Posted February 2, 2011
Sorry but no ebook is worth $12.99 so I won't buy it. The publishers are playing ebook readers for suckers!
3 out of 13 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted January 21, 2011
I normally love SEP books- all except What I Did for Love and the book about Annabelle- which grew on me somewhat. However, as soon as I saw the characters in this book, I knew I would be disappointed. It felt forced putting the characters together- like she's just tying up loose ends and forcing the story. THere just wasn't a lot of emotion coming from the book or the characters. Meg is suddenly in love with TEd, and the reader doesn't even get Ted's perspective through 90 percent of the novel- he only reveals his emotions at the very end, which definitely takes away any impact there. Just disappointed overall.
3 out of 4 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.risuena
Posted August 18, 2011
This is my second Susan E. Phillips' book to date, and I can't find myself to like her writing. Match Me If You Can and this one build their romances on premises that I find troublesome. In this book, being a rebound girl and falling for your best friend's ex-finance just didn't do it for me. If you want such a complicated scenario, I suggest Something Borrowed by Emily Giffin (she can pull a sticky non-sympathetic situation around and make you question your view points and judgements and change your mind). Add into that the fact that he was a bit vindictive at first after the broken wedding did not make me like the guy. In both books I've read, the guys can seem quite abusive, yet they're described as being "perfect"; I'm sorry but that just doesn't make me want the main characters together. The storyline does get better after they hook up (you anticipate good changes for their relationship), but then it goes downhill when he confesses his feelings about Lucy. All I can think is both main characters are idiots. The guy should be more appreciative, and the girl should have higher expectations and standards. I also don't find the guy's sudden epiphany very convicing, more anti-climatic and lame. There are too many other characters as well, piquing interest in their stories, yet not well developed, causing more of a distraction for the reader from the main storyline. I will say it's a better read than Match Me If You Can, but overall, I think this author does not appeal to my heartstrings.
2 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Since leaving the professional links former PGA star Ted Beaudine has become mayor of Wynette, Texas. He and the daughter of a former president Lucy Jorik are engaged. However, Lucy's BFF Meg Koranda, in town for the wedding, realizes her buddy has humongous doubts. So with a little persuasion on Meg's part, Lucy breaks it off as she feels she deserves a passionate lover and not a guy always stoically putting.
Meg's parents have cut off her financial backing before her arrival in Texas. With Lucy running away, Meg is stranded in Wynette with no way to pay her bills. The townsfolk who worship Teddy loathe her as a Hollywood snob who interfered with the happiness of the popular local guy. They take it out on Meg who tries to make it while also helping a raging Ted find his heart.
This amusing romance stars two antagonists who were secondary characters in previous tales (see Fancy Pants and Glitter Baby). Although readers will need to accept the implausible nasty reaction by townsfolk who hold Meg culpable for Lucy leaving; as she is the runaway bride's best friend and her arrival led to doubts. She also remains stranded in Wynette as a handy target to revenge the hole in one in Ted's psyche. Fans will enjoy her learning that good intentions pave the road to hell in Wynette as she takes a beating but keeps on ticking until Ted and his supporters realize she should be his bride.
Harriet Klausner
2 out of 5 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted May 17, 2013
This book is boring and i suggest you not read it. Your mind might die
1 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted July 23, 2012
typical SEP novel. The fact that it keeps you interested. I read the other reviews that the plot is always similar, but to me it is the delivery of the same plot that keeps me reading.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted January 19, 2011
As I was reading I started to wonder if I had read the book before. It dawned on me that the humor and relationship between all of the characters, primary and secondary, was very similar to the author's book "Ain't She Sweet". I loved "Ain't she sweet" so this new story was enjoyable but it didn't feel fresh and new.
1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted May 23, 2013
Here we go again with harriet klausner and her cliff note book report. Dont bother buying the book. Harriet thinks you are too dumb to read. She will read it and tell you what it says. Bn, ban thus poster already! How many sales are you going to lose thanks to her??????
0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Anonymous
Posted May 23, 2013
Its not $12.99 its $2.99 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 22, 2013
Andrew
0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 21, 2013
Watermellon •_• ? is gooooooood 0's are even better
0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 22, 2013
Naw dawg. Its bad enough that our mom died but i swear andrew if your cheating on her i will come for you.
0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 22, 2013
I have a girl now
0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted May 21, 2013
Ty
0 out of 3 people found this review helpful.
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Posted September 5, 2012
Boring
0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted August 2, 2012
This boik represents a young girl who is very pour and homeless. But she is invited to be the bridesmaid at her friends wedding. Is there more to come? Find out in this book.
0 out of 2 people found this review helpful.
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Posted August 1, 2012
Susan Phillips is one of my favorites, in the hearts and flowers genre Phillips rocks it with characters you never forget. She incorporates past characters with all her series. This along with all her others is funny her characters quirky and they definately make you believe in HEA
0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Overview
Lucy Jorik's the daughter of a former U.S. President . . . Meg Koranda's the offspring of legends . . . One of them is about to marry Mr. Irresistible—Ted Beaudine—the favorite son of Wynette, Texas . . . The other is determined to save her friend from a mess of heartache.
Meg knows breaking up her best friend's wedding is the right thing to do, but no one else agrees. Faster than Lucy can say “I don't,” Meg's the most hated woman in town—and stuck there with a dead car, an ...