I am on a Susan Elizabeth Phillips binge. The last three books I read to completion have been by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I think I am now firmly apart of the SEP fan base
Call Me Irresistible is about a young woman, Meg Koranda,
who convinces her best friend, Lucy Jorik, to ditch the perfect man, Ted
Beaudine at the alter. Lucy complies, and Meg is left ditched without money in
the small town of Wynette Texas and forced to work her as a maid to cover a hotel
bill she was unable to pay. The town hates her for the canceled wedding, but he
manages to move from humiliating situation to humiliating situation with enough
grace to earn the respect of the small town.
There were a few other subplots that kept the book moving
forward. The town was in need a large construction project, a new golf course,
and Ted had to court a business man to convince him to build there. The
business man was a older rich man who took an interest in Meg because of her
famous parents. The business mans daughter took an interest in Ted. There were
some awkward dinner dates with the four of them of which Ted and Meg had to
string them along both professionally and personally while Ted and Meg were
falling in love. The business man really creeped out Meg for obvious reasons,
and Ted ending up having to beat him up in a scene that acted as the climax of
the book.
{spoiler}
In the end, Ted falls in love with Meg after a period of
casual rebound lovemaking, and they decide to marry. There was a pronounced
declaration of love first, of course.
Meg Koranda was the daughter of Jake Koranda and Fleur
Savagar from another SEP book, Glitter baby, which I found interesting.
Apparently a few of the other side characters had other SEP novels of their
own, and were given weight like I should have recognized them.
There were a few parts of the book that really bewildered
me. I knew when I picked up the book that Meg and Ted would end up together,
but it didn’t play out like for the first 150 pages of the book. I was actually
looking forward to seeing how the author was going to pull that out because
they were almost mortal enemies through the first act. The answer was
unconvincing. They ended up their casual lovemaking arrangement after an
accidental kiss that neither character could explain. Its almost like they knew
that they had to fall in love, and they decided to start falling in love just
because that’s the thing that comes next. It wasn’t natural, and the romance
didn’t have any context to it. Ted was awful to her, and Meg was acidic in
response. He wasn’t awful in an aloof bad boy way either. He was contradictory
and mean spirited.
Another part that lost me was Lucy’s blessing. Right before
Meg and Ted hooked up, Meg called Lucy to ask for her permission first. Lucy
was forthcoming and in approval. Sure, the book would have been a lot more
interesting if Lucy said no, but the plot was already too convoluted and too
absent of Lucy to add that dimension to her character.
The whole “Win a Date with Ted” thing I found completely
extra and unnecessary. It didn’t add any
scenes in the book, nothing to their journey, and acted as a false climax to an
already eventful plot line. Sure it added tension, but all it did was put the
tension in the wrong place. You expected Meg and Ted to have a fantastic
reunion in San Francisco and fall in love again, and when it doesn’t end up
that way, their love story loses all steam. I mean, the “Win a Date with Ted”
contest was hinted at throughout almost the entire book. It was foreshadowed
like crazy. Then it fell flat. When they actually meet up again in New York
City 20-30 pages later, it feels like too little too late. I know SEP is trying to avoid rom-com cliques
but c’mon. If she was going to go that route, she should have taken a red pen
through the entire story line.
The plot with Haley breaking into her house and terrorizing
her house could have been edited out as well.
The last and most troubling aspect of the book was the
conflict in Meg and Teds relationship. Meg found him too robotic, too
practical. Her chief complaint was that his lovemaking was too analytical. He
was a systematic lover and she found him to be not compulsive enough. She
wanted him to be lost in the lovemaking, drunk with her sex. In the end, the
lovemaking that satisfied her seemed a little rape-y. I found the narrative of
the book didn’t articulate this frustration well, and in the end, sounded
immature. She sounded like someone who had the perfect relationship but had to
find something to gripe about because, well, she gripes about everything.
Despite my minor complaints, I really enjoyed the book. I
love reading about gallent acts of social valor, rough men sticking up for
their women, and fabulous country clubs to boot. Sure, the book could
streamlined the plot a little, but the reading experience was worth it. Only in
books like these can such lazy layabouts land such perfect men.
