In this sequel to “Call Me Irresistible,” we discover what happened to Lucy after running away from her wedding to Ted. I had a lot of fun with Ted and Meg, and was looking forward to following Lucy’s adventure.
Lucy and Ted weren’t right for one another. That was well established in the prequel, and I continued to understand it in this novel. Lucy felt pressured into the match as she tried to live up to high expectation she had dealt with her entire life. I even though I understood why she got on the back of Panda’s motorcycle and went on a joyride with him for a while. I wasn’t sure why she stayed with him for the next two weeks, and then, when he ditched her at the airport, I REALLY didn’t understand why she looked him up, went to his home, and discovering he wasn’t it, broke in and started living there.
There was a lot to like about this book. Ultimately, I did buy into the comparability of the two main characters, but I didn’t buy into the early chemistry or the reasons that they even spent time together. There were a couple of secondary stories, one of which I found compelling — the Jillian Michaels type woman, host of a sensationalist weight loss program, hiring Panda to help her lose weight was really very well done. Best part of the book, IMO.
I liked that the characters had issues, and had to deal with them. (Both primary and secondary.) But in the end, I did not enjoy the reading of this story nearly as much as I enjoyed “Call Me Irresistible.” That one was fun, sassy, and the chemistry was there from the start. This one was more sober, serious, and I had trouble buying into the chemistry at first. Two different approaches by the same author — which I can respect. Some will like the first approach more, some the second. I tend to read romance for entertainment value more than anything else, so while I appreciated what she did in this book, I liked the other one better.
Whichever way you prefer it, serious or sassy, Susan Elizabeth Phillips is a talented romance writer, and I recommend many of her books, including this one.
Rating: 3/5
Title: The Great Escape
Author: Susan Elizabeth Phillips
ISBN: 0062106100
Published July 10, 2012