Susan Elizabeth Phillips is apparently planning on giving away several advance-reader copies of her upcoming book Call Me Irresistible over the next few months, so if you're a fan of hers you might want to start monitoring her Contest Page.

Actually, you might want to start monitoring her contest page even if you aren't a fan. That woman is generous with her contests: this month's offering includes both a signed ARC copy of Call me Irresistible and a $50 gift certificate to the winner's bookstore of choice.

Labels: contests, Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Wordcandy staff member Megan was sick yesterday, so in honor of her (hopefully brisk) recovery, we're doing a post about her favorite romance novelist, Susan Elizabeth Phillips.

Ms. Phillips has TWO books coming out in January: a paperback reissue of her long-out-of-print first contemporary romance Glitter Baby, and a hardcover called What I Do For Love. And while I am, at best, a lukewarm Susan Elizabeth Phillips fan (some of her sex scenes are downright creepy), the summary of What I Do For Love appeals to me... although it might be referencing the whole Angelina Jolie/Brad Pitt/Jennifer Aniston thing—the heroine, an actress, gets dumped by her movie star husband, who leaves her for an "international do-gooder". If that's the case, count me out.

Anyway, Ms. Phillip's website is offering a sneak peek of Glitter Baby, and an audio file of the author reading aloud from the beginning of What I Did For Love. Enjoy, Meggie!

Labels: Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Upcoming Books

I went to pick up Natural Born Charmer by Susan Elizabeth Phillips this week and boy, was I wrong about the background color on this cover art! On my computer screen it's this really warm salmon/coral-y color. In reality it is a 90s day-glow orange that totally overwhelms the teal dress. It looks bad. Really bad. I can only hope that they fix this by the time the paperback version comes out....

Labels: Book Cover, Susan Elizabeth Phillips

I know that a lot of my posts tend to be about cover art that I hate. It's not that I don't find covers that I like, it's that when I see covers that are unbelievably bad or embarrassing I feel like they have to be shared. (Eloisa James and Karen Hawkins alone produce enough crap to keep me busy.) But today I'd like to point out Susan Elizabeth Phillips and Jennifer Crusie's newest covers--some of our other authors could learn a lot from them.

Labels: Book Cover, Susan Elizabeth Phillips

According to my mother, who saw it on the news, today is supposed to be the gloomiest day of the year. The weather tends to be bad, Christmas bills are due, and most people have broken their New Year's resolutions. (It's also the day after my birthday, so I choose to believe that the world is just recovering from the massive celebrations they held in my honor the day before.) Anyway, if you're feeling particularly ghastly today, here are the Wordcandy staff's picks for best comfort reading:

Meg's pick:


Nathan's pick:


And mine (which is, of course, the best):

Labels: Bone, Comic, Stella Gibbons, Susan Elizabeth Phillips

I finally got around to reading Match Me if You Can, by Susan Elizabeth Phillips (it took a while, but midterms have put a major crimp on my reading time). This book reminded me of why I love Ms. Phillips's books--I enjoy the main storylines, but what really makes the books for me are the secondary characters. They're like the icing on the cake... really amazing icing, the kind that's so good that you don't care if it adds 1200 calories.

I have mentioned my extreme love for Nobody's Baby But Mine more than once. My favorite character in the book is the grandmother. She is an absolute riot, and (along with the Lucky Charms incident) is a big part of why I re-read the book every few months. The same goes for Match Me if You Can--there's a little cellphone-stealing three-year-old girl who gets all the best lines. Every time she was in a scene I knew I would end up laughing out loud.

If I'm lucky, Ms. Phillips might write a book for each of these characters. I would love to see how our cellphone-stealer grows up.

Labels: Susan Elizabeth Phillips

No, this post is not another Laurell K. Hamilton bashing post (although after her last book it really should be--it sucked, Laurell!). Today we are talking about those books that you love in spite of themselves--books that, though you might not be inclined to admit it, are total comfort reading.

My personal guilty pleasure is the book Nobody's Baby But Mine by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I know the plot of this book is bad... really bad. Dr. Jane Darlington, a genius physicist, realizes on her 34th birthday that she desperately wants a child. Sperm banks are not an option because they tend to be stocked with smart sperm, which would result in a freakishly smart child. She just can't do that to her unborn baby (she was tormented by her own abnormal intelligence as a child) so she decides to find a stupid man to be her 'donor'. Where better for her to look but to Chicago Stars quarterback Cal Bonner? Then there's this plan that involves her posing as a high class prostitute and tampering with a condom to get her baby. (Super classy!) But then, of course, we get to the forced marriage, hillbilly grandmother, Lucky Charms tampering, shotguns and so, so much more.

So I know that this plot is absurd, leaning more toward "Who would ever admit to reading this, let along liking it?", but I don't care--it's absolutely hilarious. It is the one book on my shelf that I routinely read at least once a year and still enjoy.

Now that I have admitted my personal guilty pleasure, I would love to hear about yours. Come on, I know you all have one!

Labels: Susan Elizabeth Phillips