Review: What I Did for Love

Title: What I Did for Love (Wynette, Texas #5)
Author: Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Publisher: William Morrow
Pages: 401
How I Got This Book: Own
Rating: 3 Stars

Goodreads Summary: How did this happen? Georgie York, once the costar of America's favorite television sitcom, has been publicly abandoned by her famous husband, her film career has tanked, her father is driving her crazy, and her public image as a spunky heroine is taking a serious beating.

What should a down-on-her-luck actress do? Not go to Vegas . . . not run into her detestable former costar, dreamboat-from-hell Bramwell Shepard . . . and not get caught up in an ugly incident that leads to a calamitous elopement. Before she knows it, Georgie has a fake marriage, a fake husband, and maybe (or not) a fake sex life.

It's a paparazzi free-for-all, and Georgie's nonsupporting cast doesn't help. There's Bram's punk-nightmare housekeeper, Georgie's own pushy parent, a suck-up agent, an icy studio head with a private agenda, and her ex-husband's new wife, who can't get enough of doing good deeds and saving the world—the bitch. As for Georgie's leading man, Bram's giving the performance of his life, but he's never cared about anyone except himself, and it's not exactly clear why.

Two enemies find themselves working without a script in a town where the spotlight shines bright . . . and where the strongest emotions can wear startling disguises.

My Thoughts: Sometimes I need a romance fix. Usually, I turn to past favorites that I've read about a dozen times. I very rarely start a new romance novel, mainly because they just don't hold that much appeal to me anymore. My old favorites more than satisfy me when I'm in the mood for an adult romance. However, I always make an exception for Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I fell in love with her Chicago Stars series years ago and she's remained one of my favorite authors ever since.

One of the more interesting aspects of this novel was the similarities between the storyline and the Jennifer Aniston/Brad Pitt/Angelina Jolie love triangle. Georgie became famous for being in one of America's favorite sitcoms and quickly became America's Sweetheart, moving on to mediocre romantic comedies (Aniston). Georgie is trying to get over her awful, very public divorce with her much more famous movie star husband Lance (Pitt) who left her for a do-gooder exotic actress (Jolie) who he fell in love with while filming a movie with her. Georgie's first plan was to serial date a bunch of cute men to show she was having fun and wasn't destroyed by her divorce, but things go sour on her trip to Vegas and she ends up married to her former costar, Bram, an egotistical selfish jerk that Georgie despises.

I always liked the romantic stories when the couple gets married first (due to some kind of calamity or necessity) and then procede to fall in love. Or, at least, they supposedly fall in love after they're already married but, in actuality, the couple had loved each other all along and their confessions at the end are the most romantic scenes ever. This book doesn't follow that scheme and Georgie and Bram do, in fact, hate each other in the beginning and then suddenly find themselves falling for one another after a couple of months.

I think that is why I gave this book a 3 star rating instead of my usual 5 stars for SEP books. Their love for each other just seemed to come out of nowhere. I couldn't even understand why Georgie fell for Bram, who was only out for his own gain until the very end. I suppose I could believe that their love for one another was sincere, but it wasn't as endearing and heartstopping like it usually is in the romance novels I read. I thought the climactic scene when they both confess their love for each fell flat. It lacked spark.

Not even the side characters interested me that much. I thought Georgie's father's love story was way too rushed for me to care about it (especially since nothing started happening until over halfway through the book), and though I thought Chaz was a really interesting character I couldn't get on board with her and Adam as a couple. They make better friends, and not even close friends at that seeing as how Chaz only ever seemed to talk to Adam when she was calling him fat and lazy.

**********************

From what I said in the beginning of my review, you know that you can expect some more reviews of adult romances in the future. Here is my list of favorites that I will definitely be rereading again someday soon:

Heaven, Texas (Chicago Stars #2) by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
Nobody's Baby But Mine (Chicago Stars #3) by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
This Heart of Mine (Chicago Stars #5) by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
The Rana Look by Sandra Brown
Tiger Prince by Sandra Brown
Thursday's Child by Sandra Brown
Love's Encore by Sandra Brown
Riley in the Morning by Sandra Brown
Birthright by Nora Roberts
Tears of the Moon (Gallaghers of Ardmore #2) by Nora Roberts
Dance Upon the Air (Three Sisters Island #1) by Nora Roberts
Irish Hearts by Nora Roberts
Time and Again by Nora Roberts
Holding the Dream (Dream #2) by Nora Roberts
Forsaking All Others by Lavyrle Spencer

And that's just part of the list.Can you see why I don't feel the need to read any recently published romance novels? : )