Book 43 What I Did for Love



What I Did for Love by Susan Elizabeth Phillips fulfilled the “Book with the Word Love in the Title” category of the PopSugar 2019 Reading Challenge. As a romance author and reader, I had so many choices for this one. I wish I’d chosen better.
Okay, that was mean. I usually love SEP’s books and read them in a day or two. She’s always one of my go-to authors for a light, funny, great novel. What I Did for Love is not one of her best.
The premise threw me off. The book is set in Hollywood, all the drama and tabloids. SEP highlights all the fake behavior, schmoozing, and cut-throat antics. Not my favorite topics but she does it well without overstating for making the reader feel stupid. Her world-building is amazing and the reader never questions the universe. But the story was an “enemies to lovers” tale and I just couldn’t swallow some of it.
A few things took the story from a five star to four. One was the hero. The others were deep point of view and missed cues.
Spoilers ahead!
The hero, Bramwell Shepard, never clicked with me. Perhaps because the book focused on the heroine Georgie York’s point of view. She described, at length, the antics Bram got up to on the set of the sitcom they were in together. Throughout the book, we discover tiny ways that negate Georgie’s dated perspective on the man. But I never believed she thought he was a good guy. I didn’t feel it. He lied to her over the entire book. I hate that. A LOT. If someone can’t be honest, then how can you ever trust them? Trust was never established. Without trust, there is no love.
Second, Georgie’s ambition. More spoilers here. At first, Georgie wants the choice role in the new and predicted blockbuster movie Bram is producing. She bends over backward to prep. Then she walks away. I’d be okay with that if we had some very deep point of view on her decision. The author held back and let us find out when Bram did. I would rather have heard Georgie’s epiphany that she wanted her life to go in another direction. I needed her feels, her voice, her everything.
Last, there were a few missed conflict cues. I guess I have a problem with not enough conflict in books. I think it comes from my eclectic background. If you’ve read the blog, you can see my taste in reading varies widely. Urban fantasy tops my favorite books along with horror. Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files have ruined me for conflict in any other book. Harry always gets in the best messes.
Though I liked the book, I didn’t love it.
     I give What I Did for Love by Susan Elizabeth Phillips Four Movie Scripts.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Book 46 The Kiss Quotient

Image
The Kiss Quotient by Helen Hoang fulfilled the “Debut Book” category of the PopSugar 2019 Reading Challenge. Ms. Hoang's book debut to great acclaim in 2018. It is a steamy romance with a happy ending. The book is perfect. I’ve studied romance writing for about ten years. The natural arc of a romance has been tattooed on my brain by many workshops, professional books, and colleagues. If you read Romancing the Beats by Gwen Hayes, it sounds so easy, so formulaic. But trust me, a good romance has that arc well buried under layers of great story, interesting characters, and conflict. Ms. Hoang perfected the model on her first go. The story depicts a wealthy Asian woman with autism. She wants to find a soul mate or at least a date and settle down, fulfilling the expectations of her parents. Her intellectual mind says “hire an escort and practice” to get versed in sex and relationships. Thank goodness she finds the right guy on the first try. The Kiss Quotient
Read more

Book 49 Lost in Austen

Image
Lost in Austen: Create Your Own Jane Austen Adventure by Emily Campbell Webster fulfilled the “ Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Book ” category of the PopSugar 2019 Reading Challenge. As a child of the 80s, I read Choose-Your-Own-Adventure stories voraciously. In fact, I can remember with the first five writing all the page numbers and rereading until I hit every page. I’m not obsessive. Why do you ask? When I saw the category, I was thrilled. Tons of the new versions have come out in the last thirty years. (Man, I ’m old.) I recently found The Oregon Trail Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books. There are two old obsessions rolled into one, right there. I joked that every ending but one had to be “Your party dies of dysentery.” But for this super serious blog, I wanted a grown-up novel. But not too adult that it wasn ’t super fun. Because I’m six. I was thrilled to see the huge list of books in this genre for adults. In fact, I found one very adult story the other day. Choose-Your
Read more

Extra Book 2: Escape from Mr. Lemoncello’s Library

Image
The puzzle book was another category I doubled up on. Escape from Mr. Lemoncello ’s Library by Chris Grabenstein fulfilled the category “Book revolving around a puzzle or game” in the PopSugar 2019 Reading Challenge. I read the book for the challenge not realizing I had already fulfilled the category with The Lying Game . I went with Ruth Ware’s book instead of this one because it was a kid’s book. I have a great affinity for children ’s stories. Some of the greatest stories ever written were intended for children. But I didn’t want to bog the blog down with too many choices in the children’s lit category. The blog is for adults and how many adults still read kid’s books? I know you’re out there but not the majority. The story was perfect, an escape room in a novel. My family has become obsessed with escape rooms. I ’ve always loved a good puzzle. Many of the computer games I enjoy are puzzle-oriented. And this book hit all my favorite things. The tale begins with thre
Read more