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Thursday, February 24, 2011

What I Did for Love - Susan Elizabeth Philips





Title: What I Did for Love

Author: Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Publisher: January 24th 2009 by William Morrow (first published 2009)

ISBN: 0061351504 (ISBN13: 9780061351501)

Copyright: 2009

Pages: 401

Quick Review: 3 stars (out of 5)

Why I Read It: I had read her before and wanted to read another.

Where I Obtained the book: The local library.

Synopsis: How did this happen? Georgie York, once the costar of America's favorite television sitcom, has been publicly abandoned by her famous husband, her film career has tanked, her father is driving her crazy, and her public image as a spunky heroine is taking a serious beating.

What should a down-on-her-luck actress do? Not go to Vegas . . . not run into her detestable former costar, dreamboat-from-hell Bramwell Shepard . . . and not get caught up in an ugly incident that leads to a calamitous elopement. Before she knows it, Georgie has a fake marriage, a fake husband, and maybe (or not) a fake sex life.

It's a paparazzi free-for-all, and Georgie's nonsupporting cast doesn't help. There's Bram's punk-nightmare housekeeper, Georgie's own pushy parent, a suck-up agent, an icy studio head with a private agenda, and her ex-husband's new wife, who can't get enough of doing good deeds and saving the world—the bitch. As for Georgie's leading man, Bram's giving the performance of his life, but he's never cared about anyone except himself, and it's not exactly clear why.

Two enemies find themselves working without a script in a town where the spotlight shines bright . . . and where the strongest emotions can wear startling disguises.

Review: Spoiler Alert* Cute, sweet and a bit silly at times. This is what a romance novel is supposed to be like. Fun, goofy interaction between the characters and then a happy ending. I'm a sucker for this type of book, with all the crap in the world this is a fun escape.

This author seems to have a great hold on the romantic comedy, this and the other book of hers I’ve read would make great movies. The love/hate relationship between the main characters was cute and sweet. *Sex alert, the hero refuses to be married(even if pretend) and not enjoy the perks.

Author Biography:

I STARTED TO WRITE completely by accident. I taught high school until our oldest son was born, then quit to stay home. In 1976, my husband’s job took us from Ohio to central New Jersey. My best friend Claire lived two doors down the street. Both of us were big readers, reading everything from literary fiction to the newly popular historical romance novels. We loved talking about the books—what we liked, what we didn’t. One day, just for fun, we decided to try to write a book together. For three weeks as we rode our bikes in the evening, with my toddler in the baby seat behind me, we plotted our story. Then we sat down with a yellow pad and began to write.

FOUR HOURS LATER we’d come up with exactly three sentences. We had no idea how to write a book together, but we were getting a good idea how not to do it. Over the course of the next few months, we worked out a system. We’d get together to plot a scene, frequently role-playing dialogue. Claire would take copious notes, carry them to her typewriter, and come up with a rough draft, which she’d give to me. Sometimes I’d just change a sentence here or there. Other times, I’d throw out all of her hard work and start over again. Somehow our friendship survived.

IDIOTS’ LUCK. With only half the manuscript completed, we got the phone number of an editor at Dell Publishing. Sweating bullets, we called her. She was a very nice woman, asked us some questions about our book, and then agreed to see it, even though it wasn’t finished. Unfortunately, she also wanted to see a synopsis. Synopsis? We barely knew what was going to happen in the next chapter, let alone the end of the book. Knees trembling, we ran to the typewriter and came up with something, then spent the next few weeks typing a fresh copy of our manuscript to mail off.

THREE WEEKS LATER the telephone rang. It was the editor. “I’m calling from Dell Publishing. We’ve read your manuscript. We like it. And Dell is prepared to make you an offer.”

JUST LIKE THAT...WE’RE PUBLISHED! I never tell this story at writers’ luncheons for fear I’ll have to duck flying French rolls thrown by an angry audience. It sounds so easy, but the market was red hot then, and publishers were hungry for books. Unfortunately, it’s not so easy now. It took us another year to finish the book, which was published in 1983 as THE COPELAND BRIDE, under the pseudonym Justine Cole. (I wanted to use Chastity Savage, but Claire wouldn’t let me.) The book is now out of print, which is probably a good thing because it’s not at all politically correct and I’d get deluged with angry letters if it were ever re-issued. Still, I’m incredibly proud of it. Considering the fact that neither Claire nor I had ever written so much as a short story, we did a pretty good job, despite a couple of rapes here and there.

Other Reviews:

Dear Author

Curled Up

Romance Novel

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