Rating: 
Summary: No one does it better than SEP
Review: Oh Susan, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU. I have been patiently waiting for your next book to come out and it was well worth the wait. Your fans will not be able to wait for the paperback edition of this one - and they will definitely find purchasing the hardcover edition worth every penny. I am so glad you returned to previous favorite characters - Phoebe and Dan Calebow and gave us this romance of Phoebe's sister Molly. No other author has me laughing out loud. The softball game was a riot! Without a doubt - if I had a talent as a writer, I would wish my books to be as fun as yours. Susan, you make it hard to wait for the next one.
Rating:
Summary: SEP Scores Another Romance Touchdown!
Review: This is the latest in Phillips' football series and she racks up yet another A in it. You can't go wrong with this series which starts with "It Had To Be You." The main characters in this novel are star quarterback Kevin Tucker, who we met fully in "Nobody's Baby But Mine," when he was hot on the trail of Cal Bonner's job as star quarterback and Molly Sommerville, who we met in "It Had To Be You," as the kid sister of Phoebe Sommerville, who inherited the Chicago Stars football team. These books can be read out of order but you may maximize your pleasure by getting all of them and starting out in order. Once you read the first, you will read every other one in the series straight through until you are done anyway. I hate football but these books don't require football fandom. You don't spend any time "out on the field" in this book and very little time in the others as well. Think of football as solely setting and backdrop for these terrific books. Most of the action in this one takes place at the summer camp which Kevin inherited from his now dead adopted parents. His real mother also decides to stay at the camp with him which produces an interesting secondary romance with an artist she has long admired.
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: The worst thing about reading an SEP novel is that eventually the story ends. Really, it's the saddest thing and I am always left wanting to know more. But SEP outdid herself with "This Heart of Mine." She really stretched her creative juices by creating a parallel dialogue between Daphne and Benny and their little friends. Although Molly and Kevin aren't my favourite characters, this story was really sweet. And it reintroduced Phoebe and Dan to readers! I heartily recommend "THOM" to readers, you will not be disappointed!
Rating:
Summary: WOW!
Review: I am admittedly a big fan of the great SEP. I was anxiously awaiting this book. It lived up to all of the hype plus. I laughed a little and I cryed a little. What more can you ask of a book? Not much, I say. But we got more. We got to catch up with Dan and Pheobe and the gang. The Daphne and Benny scenes just added to the fun. My favorite SEP book used to be Kiss an Angel, until This Heart of Mine was finished at 3:30 am this morning. Ok, I wasn't exactly a fireball at work today, but it was totally worth the lost sleep.
Rating:
Summary: Everything I'd hoped it would be....
Review: Molly from IT HAD TO BE YOU and Kevin from NOBODY'S BABY -- what a winning combination! I just loved Molly's intelligence, insecurity and sturdy sense of honor, loved Kevin's heart of gold (buried deep within his guy-ness) and loved watching the two of them stranded, working through their issues and driving each other crazy with humor and heart. Do yourself a favor and kick back with this book!
Rating: 
Summary: Very Good-- But Not Quite Great
Review: I've read every Susan Elizabeth Phillips book I could get my hands on since I stumbled upon Nobody's Baby But Mine a few years ago. They've all been extremely entertaining reads: witty, clever, romantic, and sexy. This book is certainly no exception! It does, however, have a couple of short falls. First, there were a couple of elements of both Molly and Kevin's personalities that are pretty central to the plot that I didn't feel were fully developed. (Why's Kevin been so restless? What set off Molly's latest "incident"? etc.) Also, since this book is a continuation of the Chicago Stars series, I really expected the characters from the previous novels to play a larger role here. (I don't think they should have dominated the story, but an *appearance* would have been nice!) So what are my recommendations for this novel? I enjoyed it, and I am glad that I bought the hardback edition. It's a definitely a "keeper" book for me! If you're new to Ms. Phillips' work, you may want to hold out for the paperback and check out her previous works in the meantime.
Rating:
Summary: An incredible story about an unlikely pair
Review: Former football heiress Molly Sommerville has been known for leading an exemplary existence. From childhood to adulthood, she has always behaved properly, excelled academically, and found the perfect career which allows her to express her creative abilities through a series of written and illustrated children's books that draw upon some of her own experiences, including her insane and longstanding crush on star quarterback Kevin Tucker. But for all her attempts to be a model of propriety, every once in a while she feels compelled to succumb to the bug of restlessness that bites her. And as history has a way of showing, restlessness and disaster go hand-in-hand when it comes to Molly. In an odd twist of fate, Chicago Stars quarterback Kevin Tucker, is also feeling an odd itch of restlessness. Unlike Molly, who attempts to repress her crazy impulses, Kevin feeds them by taking up dangerous hobbies like ski diving. His reckless pursuits have come to the attention of the Stars' management who are furious with him for his needless self-endangerment. Frustrated by their restrictions and fines, not to mention his own inability to understand his perpetual need for excitement, he nearly kills Molly in the Stars' parking lot. Ironically enough, this sets off a chain of events that have this unlikely, and deceptively, mismatched pair headed down the same road, initially from opposite directions. Susan Elizabeth Phillips will delight her audience with the long-awaited story of Molly and Kevin. In their story, Phillips draws upon a deep and effective well of humor and poignancy that will entertain and move you, respectively. Molly Sommerville is a wonderful heroine whose need to forfeit her large inheritance to discover her own self-worth only hints at her spunkiness and begins to tap the fearless woman she could be. Kevin Tucker, an amazingly contradictory character, helps Molly to uncover her true self with the help of the Wind Lake bed and breakfast, an inheritance he deeply resents. Despite his "Iron Man" ways, Kevin is an incredibly sensitive hero whose need to do what is right is deeply ingrained. He fights hard to preserve his indifference while his heart longs for a connection. In this sense, both he and Molly come to understand the uncanny similarities between them. At the bed and breakfast, Kevin and Molly will slowly overcome their hostility, see beyond their stereotypes of each other, be subjected to the advice of a young, lovesick couple, and form an abiding connection with an aging Hollywood actress who is full of self-doubt. Molly will win you over with her smart mouth and her whimsical characters of Nightingale Woods. Kevin will charm you with his wonderful heart and tremendous sense of devotion while he tries to get his priorities straight. I hope you'll pick up this book and fall in love with Molly and Kevin as they develop a strong friendship that transitions into love.
Rating:
Summary: This Heart of Mine is aflutter!
Review: Susan Elizabeth Phillips' first hardcover release, This Heart of Mine, is well-worth the price of a hardcover. For those of you who are fans of It Had To Be You, and Nobody's Baby But Mine, you are in for a real treat. This is the story of Kevin Tucker, star quarterback for the Chicago Stars, and Molly Sommerville, sister of the Stars' owner Phoebe Sommerville Calebow from It Had To Be You. Molly has had a crush from afar on Kevin Tucker ever since he joined the Stars. The problem is he doesn't know she exists. When she manages to wangle her way into his life in a big way, Molly learns that a one-sided attraction is not what she wants. She wants A Great Love Story like her sister Phoebe and Dan Calebow had. Kevin has his own problems to work out about his childhood and career. He is a genuinely nice guy, but seems incapable and unwilling to give Molly the love and devotion she's learned she needs and deserves. When the two of them find themselves together running a summer camp, the attraction rekindles, smolders, then ignites. Both discover that love and laughter can help heal many of life's bruises, both little and big. This Heart of Mine made me laugh out loud-- the softball scene was hilarious-- and cry out loud too-- I won't give away any of the plot's secrets. But do yourself a favor-- read this book!!
Rating:
Summary: Back to her form
Review: After a disappointing outing last time around (First Lady), Susan Elizabth Philips returns to the form her fans know and love with This Heart of Mine. The follow up to It Had To Be You, This Heart of Mine centers around Molly Somerville, sister to Chicago Stars owner Phoebe Calebow. After a difficult childhood and an adolescence of simultaneous overachievement and rebellion, Molly has grown into an 27-year old child-adult- writing children's books, giving away her inheritance, living for slumber parties with her nieces and nephews- complete with a teenage-like crush on Stars' quarterback Kevin Tucker, who does not even know she exists. Kevin too has had a difficult childhood and is now restless, yearning after a fulfillment he cannot explain. When fate conspires to throw Kevin and Molly together at the Calebow's summer house, their lives become entwined in a dramatic and devastating way. Beginning with a less-than-romantic interlude, one that leads to a hasty wedding and tragic miscarriage, Molly and Kevin's road to happiness is anything but smooth. When Molly falls into a depression following the miscarriage, Kevin reluctantly takes her to a summer retreat he has inherited. He plans to sell it (too many bad memories), but as the two of them come together and heal together and begin to fall in love, plans suddenly have a way of changing- for the better. There is even a phenomenal secondary love story that intertwines with Molly's and Kevin's in a delighful way (a la that of Dexter and Torie in Lady Be Good) and a cast of secondary characters that are both fresh and recognizable. Along with the great plot, there is a dash of that trademark SEP humor and some wonderfully romantic, and sizzling encounters! I found this book not quite as much "fun" as Nobody's Baby, It Had to be You or Lady Be Good, but perhaps that is because these characters had more heartache and tragedy to overcome. I bought the hardcover, which I never do for romance novels, and do not regret it. This is rich, well-developed, romantic and poignantly funny story that SEP fans will love. New fans should pick up It Had to Be You first, because you will get some useful background into the characters, but that is not necessary to enjoy, love and cherish this great book. When's the next one due out??????
Rating:
Summary: So glad she's back
Review: Susan Elizabeth Phillips has returned in all her wonderful glory. After her somewhat disappointing last novel (First Lady), one of my favorite authors has turned in another great story with all her trademark humor, warmth and sexual intensity. Lead characters Mollie and Kevin, returning from earlier appearances in It Had To Be You and Nobody's Baby But Mine, are delightful in their own story (with the bonus of a cute romance between the characters from author Molly's books and a really hot secondary romance between another couple--whew!). I loved this book, and my only regret is that I couldn't stop reading until it was finished (Ms. Phillips please write faster). I have no problem urging you to buy this book, especially if you also felt something was missing from the last book. You won't want to wait for this one to come out in paperback.
|
