Glitter Baby by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Glitter Baby by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
(BCC)

Fleur Savagar is the most beautiful woman in the world...to everyone but herself. With her oversized hands and paddle boat feet, her streaky blond hair and funny green eyes, she lives a life filled with secrets that began before she was born. That was when her bewitching mother left home to find James Dean and met Errol Flynn instead. Now Fleur has to grow up quickly, and life won't make that easy.

Jake Koranda is both New York's most brilliant playwright and Hollywood's hottest actor. Difficult, talented, and tormented, he has no patience for international glamour girls, not even ones with beautiful bodies and smart-aleck mouths. But there's more to the Glitter Baby than shine, and Fleur's tougher than Hake expects. Even with the odds stacked against her, she's fiercely determined to discover the woman she's destined to be.

And ugly duckling who can't believe she's turned into a swan...A tough-guy movie star with a haunted past...In a land of broken dreams, can two unlikely lovers trust their hearts?

I'm a late SEP bloomer. I didn't start reading her until, oh, about three years ago? Four maybe. Anyway, whenever Aint She Sweet was released for the first time, that's when I started reading her. I fell in love. I loved Sugar Baby. I hated Winnie. I loved the fact that the book created such strong emotions in me. I was hooked on SEP. I immediately went to the library and read all the books by her they had. I pretty much loved just about every book by her since.

I have to say though, that I was less than impressed with GB. I know it's a re-issue with changes. I have not read the original so I can't tell you what any of those changes were. What I do know, is that I expected more of a Romance than what I felt this one was. I expected this to be mainly about GB and Jake, but it was a whole lot of back story of Glitter Baby's mother and her story. Granted, we needed all of that information for the whole convoluted plot to make sense, but still, I just did not feel this one.

It took me days to read this book. I mean, days. Usually I have an SEP read within hours, but I was reading GB for what seemed like forever. I just wanted it to end, but found myself unwilling to give up the reading simply because it was an SEP.

One of the main things that lead to my distaste for this one is the BCC. I haven't had a good ole BCC hate fest in a while, so let me just revel in the fact that I finally have one. As I said, I expected more of a Romance because of that, and the fact that SEP wrote the book. Granted, one of the things I love about SEP is her ability to blend Women's Fiction with Romance so seemlessly that the end result is an amazing read. There was just too much in this for me. Too much drama. Too much story. Ya know?

Anyway, I have SEP's What I Did For Love in my to read stack right now. I have much higher hopes for that one. I'm still a huge fan, so I won't let my distate of this one stop me from enjoying it!

Take Care