Glitter Baby and More by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Recently Susan Elizabeth Phillips reissued a novel first published in 1983 called Glitter Baby. It was then followed by her newest release What I did for Love, that coincidently takes place in the same hollywood environment and in which the couple from Glitter Baby makes a cameo appearance.

Glitter Baby (B-)
The book started out very slow with a retelling of Fleur's life and it was a bit disturbing. I had read reviews on this portion of the book and was expecting a really bad taste in my mouth when reading about the pedophile that was Fleur’s father (and step father) but I was surprised to find Phillips wrote it edging on impropriety (edging REALLY closely in some places) but not crossing the line. I will also note at this point that the book although re-issued was not re-written so it is a bit dated in descriptions and the sorts.

After the first portion of the book the story picks up and in a way takes off. The battle between Fleur and her step father, her dysfunctional and, at times, demented mother, her feelings of being too little in her big body, leads to a great story of a woman who fought hard to rise above her past and conquer her future.

Fleur was always led by someone in one way or the other, first by her mother whom she would never want to disappoint and then her father who had never given her the time of day. When she finally sheds herself from her past she emerges as a strong, smart and beautiful woman who is willing to do what it takes to dig her own niche in the world. She becomes a success and in a way that is her own revenge. I didn’t really think of this book as a romance. It was more of a ‘growing’ book.


What I did for Love (B-)
This one takes place in the same ‘Hollywood’ world as Glitter Baby and even had a cameo appearance from Fleur and Jake but the story itself revolves around Georgie …

She was a child actress in a sitcom but lost herself as an adult in roles that mean very little to her. Her father has geared her career into corner where she has been typecast into the funny girl.

Bram was Georgie’s co-star and love interest on the sitcom but his destructive attitude earned him a bad rap that later destroyed his career. He is looking for a way back into respected society but a night in Vegas threatens to kill what has yet to be revived.

Georgie wakes up married to the same man that stomped on her tender young heart as a girl. She also cannot afford a scandal and convinces Bram to stay married for a while as to not add fuel to the paparazzi frenzy that has been hounding her since her husband left her for his most recent co-star.

I actually loved Bram. He was very secretive but I had him pegged from the get go. I had never read a character that entrenched on not falling in love as Bram. He just didn’t see it coming and although his ‘aha’ moment was a bit choppy I really loved seeing him get hit over the head with it. What I did find a bit weak was the final acceptance of Bram by Georgie. If she was so dead set against him the acceptance was just too easy. I also did not really feel much for Georgie throughout the book. I never really connected with her. I did like the secondary characters (like with most SEP books), they just really added juice to this one. Chaz, the homeless girl Bram picked up and employed as his cook, Ernie, Georgie’s overweight personal assistant, Peter, Georgie’s father who never knew how to be a father after his wife passed away and Laura, Georgie’s ineffective agent.

Although What I did for Love had the characters from Glitter Baby they are completely unrelated and can be read separately. Which did I like better? Honestly, both stood on thier own merit and I found them very different. Although Glitter Baby was dated it had a more darker undertone than the newest book but we are looking at 26 years of growth in writting style so I would expect it to be different. The newest book is more of what we expect of SEP now (multiple couples finding love, strong focus on each side of the main couple and thier dysfunctional lives, etc.) and yet we don't see much of the humor and wittiness in these characters as we have seen in Phillips more recent work .

I think both were well worth picking up.

Format: Audiobook

Lady Be Good by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

I read this one as part of many of the challenges I entered this year. It is the sequel to Phillips earlier title Fancy Pants. I did not read the first book but I've heard I really didn't miss much and even after reading this one, I honestly don’t have the inclination to pick up the first in the series. In other words this one does a great job as a stand alone title.

Lady Emma Wells-Finch is visiting the Lone Star state at the suggestion of her friend to finish some research on a paper she is publishing. She also has the intention of losing her reputation as a goody two shoes. Her pristine reputation has led her to be engaged to a pompous windbag in order to save her treasured boarding school (dysfunctional childhood and all that). She is picked up at the airport by a very handsome man who, she believes, her friend has contracted to be her driver / guide while in Texas.

Kenny Traveler would like to stay VERY far away from scandal. The suspended golf mega star agrees to cart Lady Emma around in hopes that the golf commissioner’s wife will put in a good word for him and have his suspension lifted so he can play in the Masters.

The problem is that Lady Emma is quite determined to do something a bit outrageous in the most public place so that news of the scandal reaches British soil and her fiance can be sufficiently offended to break off the engagement but not too outraged that he will close down the school. Difficult edge to walk on and Kenny is not helping her at all!!

I found the book quite humorous and at times I was wondering why Emma was doing this. I just had a problem following her whole reasoning. In the end it was good enough to get the B because it kept me engaged until the final confrontation and I love when a bad boy gets put in his place. You have to love Kenny and how he tries to avoid the temptation that is Emma.

Grade: B

Natural Born Charmer by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Another installment to the Chicago Stars series. We met Dean Robillard in Match me if You Can and at that time he charmed the socks off of us. Now he returns with his own story which unfortunately was a bit of a miss with me.

Dean is recovering from shoulder surgery but feels himself slipping into a bit of a rut since he always felt invincible, and with the injury to his shoulder he now has to face a vulnerability he has worked hard to avoid. On his way to his new farmhouse in Tennessee he encounters a woman dressed in a Beaver outfit and his life turns upside down.

Blue Bailey has had a horrible few weeks when she gets into Dean's car. She left her life in Seattle to come assist her distraught boyfriend, Monty, only to find that he has run off with a 19 year old just days before she arrives. Her mother, who is a humanitarian, has emptied her bank account to help some girls in a third world country and after Monty steals her last dollar, she gets kicked out of her new apartment. With no place to go, hanging on to Dean sounds better every minute.

As with all SEP books there is a secondary romance which is between Dean's parents April and Jack. There is alot of baggage that needs to be cleared between Dean and his parents and that needs to be done before he can bring himself to fully give his heart to Blue.

Blue is also a bit damaged, and has her own abandonment issues. She has learned to stay away from caring for anyone since they always leave. Now, Dean asks for a commitment that she cannot give, or can she?

Honestly, I really enjoyed the story until the very end when you would have expected some growth from these characters but the truth is that they had stayed static until the last few pages.
the banter between them was priceless, though!

I loved April, Dean's mother, but Jack, his father, did nothing for me. The scenes where Dean finally made peace with his parents were well done and were very believable, as well as poignant, but when it can for the same reconciliation with the woman he had fallen in love with... I felt there could have been more. The secondary characters in the town of Garrison as well as Riley, Dean's half sister gave this book the push that it needed for me to keep it a B.

Grade: B-