Lady Be Good

Susan Elizabeth Phillips is one of my favorite romance authors. This is mainly because of my appreciation of her grasp of the English language...but she has other good points as well. I especially like that there are often nursing mothers and attachment parents in her stories, and sometimes they even go to La Leche League. She has mentioned the Sooners before, and several of her stories take place in Texas. And I just have fun reading her books.

They are a little cheesy at times, but that's to be expected. It is, after all, classic romance.

So this one I just finished reading, Lady Be Good, is typical Phillips fare, but it's also not necessarily my favorite. This is a stand-alone novel, but I have to say, I really enjoyed the series of books she wrote about football players on the fictional Chicago Stars team...which is weird, since we all know how enthralling I think football is. But a lot of her non-football team books, like this one, are just less fun.

Don't get me wrong. This one was somewhat fun. But it was about a proper British lady and a lazy Texan golfer. I don't know. Just a bit boring. I mean, football is bad enough, but golf?

Plus, she brought back two characters from another of her books that wasn't my favorite (Fancy Pants). I just didn't like that one because there was too much unnecessary sadness, and I didn't like this one because it didn't seem quite real enough.

Now there I go saying I didn't like it. That's not really true. It's just not as good as it could have been...not as good as Natural Born Charmer, for instance.

So, for the curious, here is my list of "good" Phillips books, which just happens to match the list of "Chicago Stars" Phillips books:

It Had to Be You
Heaven, Texas
Nobody's Baby But Mine
Dream a Little Dream
This Heart of Mine
Match Me if You Can
Natural Born Charmer

and the non-Stars books that I've read include:

Breathing Room
Ain't She Sweet
Fancy Pants
Lady Be Good
Honey Moon

So the first list has three-dimensional characters, interesting plots, happy endings, and general reader satisfaction. The second list, to me, are okay, but lackluster.

But hey, at least she comes up with good titles. =)