Heaven, Texas

Another SEP book. And I love it! I read it with such an eagerness and high expectation. It did not disappoint me. SEP tends to go overboard sometimes in describing her primary characters, but that me keep entertained until the very last page.

It's one of the Chicago Stars series, so I know it won't disappoint me. Just like Nobody's Baby But Mine, this book got me smiling at the ridiculousness of the characters.

I'm pretty new to the romance novel game, and I'm having fun finding out what's out there. I picked this book up after reading an NPR article on romance novels; the author suggested books by Susan Elizabeth Phillips, so I chose this one randomly from the public library's selection. What I loved: this book made me laugh out loud all throughout. I loved that Gracie at times had the outward demeanor of a woman in a nursing home but was in no way a ‘prude.' Gracie and Bobby Tom's courtship was sweet at times. I loved many of the characters of the town itself.

There was a lot that intrigued me, mainly the fine line between fear and excitement and the ideas of power and control that were expressed through the men in the book. I wasn't entirely comfortable with the relationship between Suzy Denton and Way Sawyer. In the end, they were two consenting adults, but before that there was a lot of coercion and fear involved that I wasn't comfortable with. I was also intrigued by Bobby Tom's tendency to exert power and control over Gracie using sex; it seemed there were a few scenes where Bobby Tom initiated sex to shut Gracie up or demonstrate his power and control after she had “taken” it from him. Again, at the end of the day, they were two consenting adults, and it's great if that's your jam, but there were a few moments that gave me pause.

(Review originally posted here at The Book Barbies.)

There seems to be a lot of love for this book floating about, and if you feel that way, I advise you to put on your big girl pants or skip my comments. I usually really like SEP, but I didn't get the appeal of this book at all. The heroine, Gracie, was spineless and “homely” (which she handily mentions 473,892 times, just in case you somehow miss it). She was self-deprecating like whoa and not in a humorous way. And then we have the hero, Bobby Tom. The guy was a sexist pig, and his behavior was too much for me to forgive, even if there had been a strong redemption element. But there wasn't even that. But he had a good side seemed to somehow be a good enough excuse for it. Guess what? Pedophiles and serial killers have good sides, too. THAT MEANS NOTHING. The side story was enjoyable in theory, but it took up too much of the book and got boring. The book did have some redeeming qualities, such as a fairly interesting main storyline and the fact that all the 90s references were totally cracking me up. As a whole, though, I was not impressed.