Match Me If You Can (Chicago Stars Series #6)

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Interviews & Essays

Overview

You met star quarterback Kevin Tucker in This Heart of Mine. Now get ready to meet his shark of an agent, Heath Champion, and Annabelle Granger, the girl least likely to succeed.

Annabelle's endured dead-end jobs, a broken engagement . . . even her hair's a mess! But that's going to change now that she's taken over her late grandmother's matchmaking business. All Annabelle has to do is land the Windy City's hottest bachelor as her client, and she'll be the most sought-after matchmaker in town.

Why does the wealthy, driven, and gorgeous sports agent Heath Champion need a matchmaker, especially a red-haired screw-up like Annabelle Granger? True, she's entertaining, and she does have a certain quirky appeal. But Heath is searching for the ultimate symbol of success — the perfect wife. And to make an extraordinary match, he needs an extraordinary matchmaker, right?

Soon everyone in Chicago has a stake in the outcome, and a very big question: When the determined matchmaker promised she'd do anything to keep her star client happy . . . did she mean anything? If Annabelle isn't careful, she just might find herself going heart-to-heart with the toughest negotiator in town.

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Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

The Barnes & Noble Review
Bestselling author Susan Elizabeth Phillips has a ball in this funny and irresistible sequel to This Heart of Mine. This one pits Heath Champion, Kevin Tucker's scary sports agent, against the adorable, somewhat disorganized matchmaker Annabelle Granger. Heath, nicknamed the Python, has finally gone into training for marriage, but finding the right poised, accomplished woman is tough on a high-powered schedule. He reaches out to the gold standard of matchmakers, Portia Powers, and, reluctantly, to a small-time operator, Annabelle. The greatest underachiever in her family, Annabelle has inherited her grandmother's old matchmaking firm, Marriages by Myrna, and is modernizing it under the a name, Perfect for You. She badly needs a big client like Heath. Annabelle's matchmaking and her encounters with her own family and the extended family of the Chicago Stars are a riot, as is the unlikely romance between the overcontrolling Portia Powers and former linebacker Bodie Gray. By the time Heath realizes his dream girl was the result of the wrong dreams, readers are cheering: We know who his dream girl really is. Ginger Curwen

Publishers Weekly

Phillips's latest captivating romance (Ain't She Sweet; Breathing Room) follows a pair of reluctant lovers from their combative first acquaintance to a happily ever after. Perpetually discombobulated but adorable Annabelle Granger inherits her grandmother's matchmaking business, renames it Perfect for You and targets Chicago's super-rich, super-aggressive sports agent Heath Champion, better known as the Python, as her first client. Intrigued by this spunky, determined upstart, Heath-who is dead set on finding the ultimate trophy wife by age 35-agrees to give Annabelle a chance despite his contract with Portia Powers of Power Match. Soon Annabelle is introducing him to the Windy City's most extraordinary women, none of whom seem to meet Heath's discriminating standards. Could it be because chemistry has sparked between the matchmaker and her client? From trading barbs the two progress to exchanging kisses-and more. But when Heath finally meets his should-be dream girl and Annabelle's business threatens to go bellyup, they each must face their deepest feelings and make some difficult decisions in the name of love. Phillips has once again created a delightful page-turner. Agent, Steven Axelrod. (Aug.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Annabelle Granger desperately needs an A-list client like sports agent Heath Champion to launch the matchmaking service she inherited from her grandmother. Luckily, she has an in with the Chicago Stars; unlucky for her, Heath already has a matchmaker. Annabelle doesn't let little details deter her. Phillips returns to her Chicago football world, bringing back Phoebe Calebow in all her sharp and brilliant glory. Male characters play more than a supporting role here, and reader Anna Fields has a naturally deep voice that is up to the task, making Heath appealing despite his workaholic, one-track mind. She is less successful with Annabelle, who sounds too old and self-assured for the part. However, the subplot with alternative matchmaker Portia Powers almost steals the show, and Fields couldn't be more effective showing the brittle exterior masking deep-seated fear and longing. Not as brilliant as It Had To Be You, the story is still funny and fast-paced and recommended for public libraries.-Jodi L. Israel, MLS, Jamaica Plain, MA Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

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Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780060734565
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date: 8/29/2006
Series: Chicago Stars Series , #6
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Pages: 416
Sales rank: 233,810
Product dimensions: 4.18 (w) x 6.75 (h) x 1.04 (d)

Meet the Author

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.

Biography

Susan Elizabeth Phillips believes if Jane Austen were writing today, novels like Pride and Prejudice would be sitting on the bookshelf alongside the love stories that she and her fellow romance novelists pen. "Oh, and one more thing," she said, wagging her finger at a Chicago Tribune reporter in 1999, "Elizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy should have kissed at the end of that story, and if I'd have written it, they would have -- and it would have been a good kiss, too."

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."

Good To Know

Phillips wanted to publish her first novel under the pseudonym Chastity Savage, but her best friend and co-author nixed the idea.

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.

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1. Also Known As:
  
  Justine Cole
2. Hometown:
  
  Chicago, Illinois
1. Education:
  
  B.F.A., Ohio University
2. Website:
  
  http://www.susanephillips.com

Read an Excerpt

Match Me If You Can

Chapter One

If Annabelle hadn't found a body lying under "Sherman," she wouldn't have been late for her appointment with the Python. But dirty bare feet stuck out from beneath her nana's ancient Crown Victoria. One extremely cautious glance under the car revealed they were attached to a homeless man known only as Mouse, who was famous in her Wicker Park neighborhood for his lack of personal hygiene and fondness for cheap wine. An empty screw-top bottle lay near his chest, which rose and fell with the sounds of his wet snorts. It testified to the importance of her appointment with the Python that she momentarily considered trying to maneuver the car around the body. But her alley parking space was too tight.

She'd allowed plenty of time to get dressed and make the trip downtown for her 11 a.m. appointment. Unfortunately, obstacles kept creeping up, beginning with Mr. Bronicki, who'd caught her at the front door and refused to leave until he'd had his say. Still, this wasn't an emergency yet. All she had to do was get Mouse out from under Sherman.

She gingerly prodded his ankle with her foot, noting as she did that the emergency mixture of Hershey's chocolate syrup and Elmer's glue she'd applied to a scuff mark on the heel of her favorite pair of strappy sandals hadn't entirely camouflaged the damage. "Mouse?"

He didn't stir.

She prodded him more vigorously. "Mouse, wake up. You have to come out of there."

Nothing. Which made it time to revert to more drastic measures.With a grimace, she bent over, gingerly picked up one filthy ankle, and gave it a shake. "Come on,Mouse.Wake up!"

Nada. If itweren't for his slurpy snorts, he might have been dead.

She shook him more vigorously. "This happens to be the most important day of my professional life, and I could use a little cooperation here."

Mouse wasn't interested in cooperation.

She needed more leverage. Gritting her teeth, she carefully slid up the skirt of the buttercup yellow raw silk suit she'd bought yesterday for 60 percent off at a Field's Day sale and crouched by the bumper. "If you don't get out from under there, I'm calling the police."

Mouse snorted.

She dug her heels into the ground and yanked on both filthy ankles. The morning sun beat down on her head. Mouse rolled over just far enough to wedge his shoulder under the chassis. She yanked again. Beneath her jacket, the white sleeveless shell she'd chosen to complement Nana's pearl teardrop earrings had begun to stick to her skin. She tried not to think about what was happening to her hair. This hadn't been the best time to run out of styling gel, and she prayed the ancient can of industrial-strength Aqua Net she'd found under the bathroom sink would tame the bedlam of her red curls, always the curse of her existence but especially so during a humid Chicago summer.

If she didn't get Mouse out in the next five minutes, she was in serious trouble. She made her way around to the driver's-side door. Her knees cracked as she crouched down again and peered into his slack-jawed face. "Mouse, you have to wake up! You can't stay here."

One grimy eyelid flicked open then slid shut again.

"Look at me." She poked his chest. "If you come out from under there, I'll give you five dollars."

His mouth moved and a guttural rumble oozed out, along with a string of saliva. "G'way."

The smell made her eyes water. "Why did you have to pick today to pass out under my car? And why my car? Why not Mr. Bronicki's car?" Mr. Bronicki lived across the alley and spent his retirement coming up with new ways to make Annabelle crazy.

Time was running out, and she was starting to panic. "Do you want to have sex? Because if you come out, we could maybe talk about it."

More drool and another putrid snort. This was hopeless. She jumped up and dashed toward the house.

Ten minutes later, she managed to lure him out with an open can of beer. Not her best moment.

By the time she'd maneuvered Sherman from the alley to the street, she had only twenty-one minutes left to navigate the traffic into the Loop and find a place to park. Dirt streaked her legs, her shirt was crumpled, and she'd broken a fingernail when she'd opened the beer can. The extra five pounds that had accumulated on her small-boned frame since Nana's death no longer seemed like such a big problem.

10:39.

She couldn't risk the construction gridlock on the Kennedy Expressway, so she cut over to Division. In the rearview mirror, another curl sprang free of her hair spray, and perspiration glistened on her forehead. She detoured down Halsted to avoid more road repair. As she maneuvered Sherman's tanklike bulk through the traffic, she scrubbed at her dirty legs with the damp paper towel she'd snatched up in the kitchen. Why couldn't Nana have driven a nice little Honda Civic instead of this bilious green gas-guzzling monster? At five feet three inches, Annabelle had to sit on a cushion to see over the steering wheel. Nana hadn't bothered with a cushion, but then she'd hardly ever driven. After a dozen years of use, Sherman's speedometer didn't quite register thirty-nine thousand miles.

A cab cut her off. She laid on the horn, and a trickle of perspiration slid between her breasts. She glanced at her watch. 10:50. She tried to remember if she'd put on deodorant after her shower. Of course she had. She always put on deodorant. She lifted her arm to make sure, but just as she took a sniff, she hit a pothole and her mouth bumped against the buttercup yellow lapel, leaving behind a smudge of tawny lipstick . . .

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Interviews & Essays

Heart to Heart Interview with Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Heart to Heart: In Match Me if You Can, Annabelle Granger is trying to build a contemporary matchmaking service on the bones of her grandmother's old matchmaking firm. What a wonderful premise! What kind of research did you do in this field before writing the book, and did any of it surprise you? We notice that Annabelle doesn't think much of the Internet dating services.

Susan Elizabeth Phillips: Personally, I think some of the online services can be good tools for meeting people, but that's just me, the clueless author, and I'm smart enough not to mention this to Annabelle, who believes in the personal touch. (Sometimes way too personal, in my opinion.) As I talked to matchmakers while I was researching the book, I was most surprised by how guarded they were, very concerned about projecting a professional image and making sure no one confused them with an escort service. Talking to them was almost as bad trying to pry information out of the Secret Service while I was researching First Lady.

HtoH: Is this the last book in your Chicago Stars series? Or can we expect a sequel of some kind, even if it features a member of a rival team?

SEP: A rival team? You think I'd write about a rival team? This interview is over! (All right, I've done some deep breathing, and I'm going to assume you didn't intentionally set out to insult my team loyalty.…) This Heart of Mine, as my readers know, was supposed to be the last of the Chicago Stars books, but then Annabelle and her matchmaking business came along. She needed a client who was hardheaded, fiercely competitive, sexy, and difficult, which always makes me start thinking about football. And, since Jerry Maguire is one of my favorite movies, Heath Champion, Kevin Tucker's shark of an agent, was born.

HtoH: What are the special challenges and pleasures of writing a series of connected novels, with some of the characters who have starred in other books making cameo apearances in others?

SEP: Just like my readers, I love catching up with old friends, but since I never planned to write a series, I didn't keep a detailed chronology as I was going along. This means I'm constantly going on my web site bulletin board (www.susanelizabethphillips.com) and asking my readers about a former character's hair color, jersey number, or one of a thousand other details I've forgotten and am too lazy to look up. My research methods are mildly embarrassing, but effective.

HtoH: How did your writing career begin? Did any particular authors influence you?

SEP: It's a fairly long story, which I've posted on my web site, but here's the mini version. I began writing a historical romance with a friend when my children were small. We were doing it just for fun and couldn't have been more shocked when the first publisher we sent the manuscript to bought it.

I suppose I was most influenced by The Boxcar Children. I was seven years old when I opened those magical pages for the first time and discovered the power of reading. Life has never been the same since.

HtoH: What 's coming up next?

SEP: I just knew you were going to ask that, and I'm mortified to confess it's another Chicago Stars book. This really is the last one! And it's not my fault. A character wandered into Match Me if You Can who knocked my socks off, and I couldn't resist finding out more about him. I have a feeling that everyone who reads Match Me will be able to pick him out. Hubba hubba.

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Match Me If You Can (Chicago Stars Series #6)

Overview

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Available on NOOK devices and apps Nook Devices NOOK HD/HD+ Tablet NOOK NOOK Color NOOK Tablet Tablet/Phone NOOK for Windows 8 Tablet NOOK for iOS NOOK for Android NOOK Kids for iPad PC/Mac NOOK for Windows 8 NOOK Study NOOK for Web

All Available Formats & Editions

Customers Who Bought This Also Bought

More About This Book

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Editorial Reviews

From Barnes & Noble

Publishers Weekly

Library Journal

Product Details

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Good To Know

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Interviews & Essays

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Cute! Fun!

A joy to treasure.

Love it, Love it, and Love it!!!

Why I'm an addict

fine animated contemporary romance

I loved this book!!! The characters were very likable, and some

Great

This was the very first Susan Elizabeth Phillips romance I ever

A must on the summer read list!

One of my favorites from this author!

Great story and characters

I loved this book!

Make sure you have time to read this in one sitting!

It was okay!

Awesome - hilarious witty banter

Highly recommended

Laugh out loud Romantic

Loved it

Match Made in Heaven

Another great SEP book!

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