Lucy Jorik, eldest child of the former President of the United States, is minutes away from being married to the most perfect man, Ted Beaudine, in WyLucy Jorik, eldest child of the former President of the United States, is minutes away from being married to the most perfect man, Ted Beaudine, in Wynette, Texas, when she realises that she can't do it. With the press clustered around the church, Lucy switches her wedding dress for a choir robe and slips out the back. But she has nowhere to go, no money or ID; she just doesn't feel up to facing her family, Ted's family, the press, everyone's disappointment and the endless questions. She's not quite ready to face up to herself, either. Just who is Lucy Jorik, anyway? What does she want out of life? At thirty-one, the questions finally come and refuse to leave.
Hiding in a side alley, Lucy is found by an attractive, wild-looking man on a motorbike who, in minimal speak, offers her a ride. She recognises him from the rehearsal dinner the night before but doesn't know him. Impulsively, with no better options, she takes it and hops on, Lucy imagining herself to be a tough biker girl called Viper - someone totally at odds with her own pearl-wearing, ultra-responsible self.
The biker guy turns out to be a disgusting man called Panda, who grudgingly accepts her offer of a thousand dollars plus expenses to take Lucy with him when he expected her to return to Wynette and her bridegroom. As she slowly catches signs of hidden layers to Panda, she realises that all is not what it seems and he's not the man he's pretending to be. The more pressing concern for Lucy, though, is what to do with her life now. She needs time and space away from her family and responsibilities to figure that out, and Panda inadvertently offers the solution.
This is the companion novel to , which tells the story of what happened with Ted and Lucy's best friend, Meg, back in Wynette Texas during Lucy's disappearance. You can read either one first but Meg's story gives more context to Lucy's, so I recommend reading them in order. I read them back-to-back, and can't help comparing them. They're quite different in tone. Meg's story is as humorous as she is, full of witty banter, funny scenes and irony. Lucy's is a bit more conventional, like she is, and more serious, as Panda is. As such, it's not really as much fun as Call Me Irresistible, and while the plot wasn't predictable at the time I was reading it, overall it was more formulaic for a romance (or chick-lit) novel.
I liked Lucy a lot, but I never quite clicked with her. She had this lovely, calm, polite, elegant side to her that suited her position as well-known and even influential daughter to the president, but while trying to find herself, and possibly thanks to Panda, she also develops this sarcastic, stubborn, argumentative side to her that I'm not totally convinced meshed. She annoyed me more than Meg ever did, and I didn't always understand the way her mind worked. Or didn't, as the case may be. It was too much of a romance structured around misunderstandings and lack of communication, which is quite common in romance, but it's not a structure that I like much. It tends to frustrate me, piss me off even.
Part of the blame lies with Panda, too. He was a much more conventional romance hero, being surly, taciturn, brooding, aggressive, macho. His character is saved by his love of opera and his honest liking for talking to Lucy - it's just that he hides these things, not wanting anyone to know what he's going through (I wasn't aware there was a stigma attached to PTSD), and using it as an excuse to keep people away. Both him and Lucy have a lot of growing up to do, and they do it noisily and even sometimes nastily. Their bickering was sometimes fun but mostly draining.
There are side plots here too, involving a young woman called Bree West and another involving the "Evil Queen", fitness instructor on a popular reality TV show called Fat Island where she yells at and belittles the contestants until they cry. I didn't want to give away much of the plot for this because it takes some interesting turns and I enjoyed not knowing where it was going next.
There were scenes in this book that I loved, scenes that made me want to cry, and scenes that made me smile - not to mention it contains BEEKEEPING! I love bees, honey and everything related to them, so this was a bonus for me. The atmosphere perfectly matches the island setting, and I enjoy how Phillips takes the time to really explore the characters, their lives and dreams and insecurities, as well as the setting. Too often romance novels are light on details; this was meatier and gave me plenty to chew on. The romance side of it, though, wasn't as satisfying - which is why I'm calling this chick-lit too, even though it has a romance structure. Phillips put plenty of time and effort into building chemistry between Lucy and Panda, but it didn't quite hit the mark for me. They just spent so much time antagonising each other without showing enough connection in quieter moments, that for as much as I believed in their feelings for each other, I didn't feel it, which is what I'm always after in a romance novel. I want to feel what the characters feel.
Regardless, I still really enjoyed this novel and it was well suited to Lucy's character, as opposed to Meg's. It's highly entertaining and much more realistic than I normally expect from the romance genre. It might be more serious overall, but it contains enough humour and silliness to balance out the heavier moments. Now that I'm no longer a Susan Eizabeth Phillips virgin, so to speak, I'll definitely be picking up more of her books to read.
My thanks to the publisher for a copy of this book via TLC Book Tours....more
Loading...
