Runaway Bride!

The Great Escape - Susan Elizabeth Phillips (William Morrow, 2012)

Instead of a fake marriage, we have a wedding that aborts just before takeoff. And if this sounds familiar, it may be in part because it's the other half of Phillips' last novel. There, the runaway bride's best friend finds herself stranded with the just-too-perfect groom. Here, we ditch Texas for the Great Lakes, where the bride ends up after a stint on the back of a motorcycle. (This, btw, is not the first time this scenario has played out in a Phillips' novel.)

Did we mention the bride is the daughter of the former president, and thus this non-wedding is a huge scandal?

Lucy didn't get to sow any wild oats during her teen years. So she's going to do that now. With a reluctant biker named Panda, and some hair dye, and fake tattoos, and whatever else it takes. The love story plays out more or less the way you'd expect. But the B and C plots are delightful. Lucy picks up some girlfriends along the way, and an orphaned boy, and there are some nice lessons learned about resilience, vulnerability, and the ways in which communities can provide for one another. Pretty charming.

(Why did I never set up an "absurd but adorable marriage plot" tag for my blog?)

In the Mood for Love

The Bachelor - Carly Phillips (Warner Books, 2002)

First Lady - Susan Elizabeth Phillips (Avon Books, 2000)

No one has to pretend to be married! No fake marriages! Well, except in the latter, the widowed FLOTUS does pretend to be pregnant, and is at least once introduced as the wife of the guy to whom she's hitched her runaway self. And in the former, a fake illness forces our hero to find a lady to wed. In a hurry. Luckily his old high school crush is back in town too.

I should stop. Talking about romances makes me ironic. Because there's no way to admit you read and enjoy them without telling everyone that you are a hopeless romantic. Rolling your eyes dramatically at least shows you know they are foolish.

But who am I kidding, really? Would I keep reading them if I found them so moronic? (Well, maybe...) I am a sucker for them. I love the dramatic arc. Damsel is in distress, finds herself latched to vaguely abhorrent but totally sexy man, and as she falls for him, discovers all this strength within herself. I know there is plenty that is escapist and dangerous about this fantasies, but they really could be a lot worse. There are many worse things than believing that you can grow into your own best self and find true love. Right???

Isn't it romantic?

Call Me Irresistible - Susan Elizabeth Phillips (HarperCollins, 2011)

It was my grandmother that introduced me to Phillips. I was visiting and helping box up books to donate to the library (yay Grandma!) when I came across Match Me If You Can. Which I snapped up and read over the next 20 or so hours. I was smitten.

Anyway, one thing I like quite about about Phillips (although I guess this is common among romance novelists?) is the way the books inhabit the same world and include the same characters. For example, in this latest, the two leads are children of couples from her early books, and another former youngster makes a major appearance, and is set to star in an upcoming novel.

Meg shows up in small-town Texas just in time to break up her best friend's wedding to Mr. Perfect. Because she knows he's just not perfect for her friend. Then is stranded there. And she just keeps running into him, and from there romance ensues. The description of Ted's charmed life is hilarious. And while we eventually get his POV, it doesn't come until very late in the novel, so he remains as much a cipher to us as to Meg.

It's a formula, sure, but it works, and I really do find Phillips' books more charming than probably any other romance novelist out there.