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LisaA
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 95
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 Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 12:29 pm Post subject: |
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| Tee wrote: | | LindaB wrote: | | If that has happened again--new leading lady, same type of mean town--I think I'll have to give CMI a pass. |
If you have access to a library and they have the book available for reserving, you may want to try it for yourself, LindaB. Just because it didn't apparently work for a few of us, doesn't necessarily mean that it wouldn't suit you. If you enjoy SEP's writing, then give it a go. However, if you have to purchase the book (it's a hard cover presently), I would say don't and wait for the paperback.
Actually, the scenario wasn't the only thing that irritated me. The main characters just wouldn't stick (except in my craw  ). I found myself not caring about them--what they did or how they resolved anything. Lucy, from First Lady (one of my very favorites of SEP), was pulled into this one and I felt SEP didn't need to do that. I like to think of First Lady as a book totally independent from all this football theme that she's so crazy about, but now there's a link (ugh). |
SLIGHT SPOILERS FOR CMI and FIRST LADY:
Tee: Lucy from First Lady definitely did serve a purpose. A long time ago, SEP had mentioned that the only person who was good enough for "her" Ted was Lucy. So when she started writing Ted's book, of course Lucy was the heroine. But as she wrote, she found that they were not a match! Ted was 'perfect'! Lucy changed from the sassy, 14-year old rebel girl who did whatever needed to protect herself and her baby sister Button in First Lady into a 'perfect' first daughter. SEP found that Ted & Lucy together....was BORING!!! So, good bye Lucy, hello Meg, "Ms Screw-up". When SEP announced on her website message board that Lucy was no longer Ted's HEA, her fans were in a bit of an uproar! But she asked them to trust her, that Meg was a better match for Ted. And after having read & enjoyed CMI, I very much agree.
SEP pulled the segments that she initially wrote with Lucy from CMI, and has since started writing Lucy's book, which will start with her aborted wedding to Ted. And I for one am very curious to find out what happens to her after she takes off from the church on the back of a motorcycle  |
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Tee
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 4053
Location: Detroit Metro
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| Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 1:33 pm Post subject: |
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| LisaA wrote: | | Tee: Lucy from First Lady definitely did serve a purpose. A long time ago, SEP had mentioned that the only person who was good enough for "her" Ted was Lucy. |
I don't follow SEP on her website nor in interviews. She's a good enough author that I read her on that alone. However, when I really look back on her books that are favorites of mine, there really aren't that many. One thing about SEP is her great writing style, humor and dialogue. But when she creates characters with whom I have a difficult time relating, none of those wonderful attributes of hers can pull a book through for me. Quite frankly, I don't remember Ted from previous books and I'm thinking it's one of those I never finished or didn't like and was forgotten as quickly as it was finished. The football series is getting old for me, but there have been some really good ones sprinkled among them.
Saying she was saving Lucy from First Lady for Ted means absolutely nothing to me. It doesn't take away from the fact that First Lady was a book all to its own. She never mentioned the pairing in the story (I think that's what you're saying), so it's not really a part of it. At least I don't remember anything like that.
Thanks, Lisa, for this extra information, though. I will try Lucy's book, but for heaven's sake, I hope she keeps the "team" out of it. Maybe too much to ask. |
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Linda in sw va
Joined: 27 Mar 2007
Posts: 4708
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| Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 2:21 pm Post subject: |
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| LindaB wrote: | [Teddy was a key figure as a little boy in Fancy Pants-- with the mother struggling against the whole world type, and the unknown dad who is mean to him once he finally knows about and meets him--until almost the very end of the book.
Then Ted shows up a second time for a couple of guest appearances in Lady Be Good
The Ted of those two books is sweet and ernest as a little boy and kind/funny/charming as a young man, so a lot of folks have been anxious for the rest of his story for a long time. It's sad to hear about the role he has been cast into in CMI as the obstinate man for what sounds more like Meg's story.
Correct me anyone if you think my take on any of this is wrong. |
Ok, I don't even remember him, still on the fence on this one. Thanks for the info. 
Linda
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LisaA
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 95
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| Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 2:28 pm Post subject: |
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| Tee wrote: | | LisaA wrote: | | Tee: Lucy from First Lady definitely did serve a purpose. A long time ago, SEP had mentioned that the only person who was good enough for "her" Ted was Lucy. |
I don't follow SEP on her website nor in interviews. She's a good enough author that I read her on that alone. However, when I really look back on her books that are favorites of mine, there really aren't that many. One thing about SEP is her great writing style, humor and dialogue. But when she creates characters with whom I have a difficult time relating, none of those wonderful attributes of hers can pull a book through for me. Quite frankly, I don't remember Ted from previous books and I'm thinking it's one of those I never finished or didn't like and was forgotten as quickly as it was finished. The football series is getting old for me, but there have been some really good ones sprinkled among them.
Saying she was saving Lucy from First Lady for Ted means absolutely nothing to me. It doesn't take away from the fact that First Lady was a book all to its own. She never mentioned the pairing in the story (I think that's what you're saying), so it's not really a part of it. At least I don't remember anything like that.
Thanks, Lisa, for this extra information, though. I will try Lucy's book, but for heaven's sake, I hope she keeps the "team" out of it. Maybe too much to ask. |
Tee, I don't think she was "saving" Lucy for Ted, or that she wrote one book with the intention of pairing them as hero/heroine (I don't remember which book came first). I think that it was one of those things....fans are thinking about past characters and who might be a good match for each other and clamoring for more of their story . And for SEP, she loved both characters, both were kids when she wrote them and so yeah, probably thought that they would be good together. Until she started really thinking of them as a couple and actually started writing.
I highly doubt that Lucy will be paired up with any of SEP's football players! |
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PWNN
Joined: 11 Apr 2010
Posts: 819
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| Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 4:33 pm Post subject: |
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Fancy Pants with young Ted was written about a decade before First Lady. And we see Ted as a young adult in Lady Be Good also before before First Lady. Neither is a football book, both feature golf pros and British heroines. As for Lucy's book she might just have a football connection in there after all or be tied to a character derived from another previous stand alone work.
I'd actually like to have seen two perfect people together who both realized they'd like each other a lot more if both were less perfect and they were both tired of being perfect. I think that dynamic would have been more interesting than yet another semi ditzy, under achieving, hapless heroine hooking up with a successful overachieving man. Meg annoyed me when she showed up as an adult in What I Did for Love and I wasn't looking forward to her book but it's Teddy so I'll eventually read it.
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chiricahuagal
Joined: 07 May 2008
Posts: 210
Location: Houston
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| Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 8:25 pm Post subject: |
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I loved this book! I'm a big SEP fan, and have all of them on audio, which is also how I read this one. I felt like all the characters fit in the story perfectly - it's not uncommon for SEP to bring in characters from earlier books. In this story, it seemed to me that she explained situations well enough from earlier books. But maybe I can't tell since I know all the earlier books.
One thing that sometimes grates on me - not from this book - is stories of wonderful, nurturing small towns (think Virgin River*) where all the citizens pull together. This is a lot more fictional than Wynette, I can tell you from growing up in a small town!! SEP creates quirky, funny oddball characters that I personally think add to the fun of the storyline.
Different strokes indeed. The story is meant to be humorous - my first time around SEP's Chicago Stars series, I too had issues with some of the scenarios like Kevin Tucker/Molly. Now that I've listened to them numerous times, I just go with the flow. And do I relate to these characters? No! I'm nothing like any of them! I can still find them amusing and endearing and entertaining! Would I pretend to be a high class hooker in order to get a Dumb Jock to impregnate me? Am I the daughter of an NFL football team owner? Will my rich father arrange a marriage for me to a circus manager so he can be related to royalty? Uh, no. I can still read the stories and laugh like a hyena though!
*By the way, I loved Virgin River, and many of the other books in that series. I'm just saying that loving, nurturing, serious-minded small towns populated by single, gorgeous former Marines are at least as fictional as oddball quirky small towns who gang up on newcomers (which is closer to the truth in my opinion!!).
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MinP
Joined: 22 Jan 2011
Posts: 3
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| Posted: Sat Jan 22, 2011 11:27 pm Post subject: |
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| PWNN wrote: |
I'd actually like to have seen two perfect people together who both realized they'd like each other a lot more if both were less perfect and they were both tired of being perfect. I think that dynamic would have been more interesting than yet another semi ditzy, under achieving, hapless heroine hooking up with a successful overachieving man. Meg annoyed me when she showed up as an adult in What I Did for Love and I wasn't looking forward to her book but it's Teddy so I'll eventually read it. |
I SOOOOO agree with you. When SEP announced that she realised why ted and lucy were not right for each other because they were both soo perfect and boring together.. this is what i thought.. and what i dont understand is that Lucy WANTS to be perfect because of her past.. but you remember first lady... i would hardly call that lucy boring for ted or perfect or anythign... how much spunk that girl had in first lady...
and i would hardly call the ted in CMI a perfect guy... i was so disappointed in him..
and had it been ted and lucy... why couldnt they have dealt with the what is lacking in their relationship after marriage.. maybe leading to a brief separation abd both realising what they didnt give to their marriage.. that would haev been better than a story which is same as sooo many old SEP books..
i felt like i was reading parts of lady be good (with ted letting the whole town walk over him like kenny), heaven texas (liek bobby tom who was NEVER rude to anyone before he finally lost it with gracie which PROVED he loved her), kiss an angel (meg learning to stan d on her feet, climax of CMI with all laughter of meg lost was very similar to daisy), Aint she sweet (all the town harrassing meg and the part scene) and sooo many other scenes.. there was such a sense of deja vu reading this book....
Ted and lucy would have been a better challenge.. she would have to create a different kind of story to make a romance between those 2 kind of characters work.. but she settled to 2 such characters where she wrote the smae story all over again..
actually i liked meg better than i liked ted in the book... althought i cant say they feature in my favourite of all SEP characters.. I had liked ted before so i am even more saddened to see him drop in my list..
but i felt like ted and meg hooked up because they were hero/heroine.. she couldnt convince me why ted/meg suited better than ted/lucy..
and once she had decided lucy was not the rigth girl for him.. i dotn know why lucy had to be there in the story at al.. she could have easily repalced that girl with some xyz best friend of meg he was going to marry and for whom he didnt give a damn..
it was worse to see him not give a damn for a girl (lucy) we love so much... it doesnt speak well of him that a girl he had decided to marry has disappeared and not returned to her parents.. and he is not worried at al.
this guy who thinks every damn person in wynnette is his responsibility.. are we supposed to think that him not caring what happened to lucy proves he doesnt love her.. ya he doesnt love her romantically.. but what abt caring as a person??? didnt he ever care???
so finally when he speaks abt how he loved lucy and she broke his heart i was not convinced.. bcos his actions never showed that he cared even a little... i never felt like this was the ted i read in lady be good or fancy pants.. |
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LindaB
Joined: 31 Jan 2010
Posts: 159
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| Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2011 6:44 am Post subject: |
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| PWNN wrote: | | ... I think that dynamic would have been more interesting than yet another semi ditzy, under achieving, hapless heroine hooking up with a successful overachieving man. |
Well said. You could also add "another Phillips book with a celebrity of some sort (sports, movies, talk shows, Presidents, mayors, etc.)." There are a couple books without "famous" attached to the storyline somehow, but few.
| chiricahuagal wrote: | | ...I'm just saying that loving, nurturing, serious-minded small towns populated by single, gorgeous former Marines are at least as fictional as oddball quirky small towns who gang up on newcomers (which is closer to the truth in my opinion!!). |
I agree for the most part. Any extreme portrayal--all sun and light vs all mean-spirited and spiteful--doesn't work for me, in a person or a town. As for excessive mean-spirited stuff, if I want a dose of that I can always read the news or watch a political show for free. |
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chiricahuagal
Joined: 07 May 2008
Posts: 210
Location: Houston
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| Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2011 10:28 am Post subject: |
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| LindaB wrote: |
As for excessive mean-spirited stuff... |
See, this is where the "different strokes" kicks in. I didn't see it as "excessive mean-spirited stuff" - I saw it as funny, in the same vein as most of SEP's writing. I thought it fit right in with trumpets blaring when Ted entered the church and stray beams of sunlight hitting him in just the right angle - really, I laughed out loud at all of that! I didn't take any of it seriously, something I realized when I re-read the Chicago Stars in order and re-read those plots that made me squirm the first time.
I just went with it - Ted's need to be challenged with something and someone who didn't see him as a saint, Meg's need to get a kick in the pants to grow up, and Lucy's need to break out and be true to herself (which I feel sure I'll see in Lucy's book).
But that's just me. Makes life interesting!
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Melinda |
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Tee
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 4053
Location: Detroit Metro
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| Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2011 10:34 am Post subject: |
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| chiricahuagal wrote: | | ...and Lucy's need to break out and be true to herself (which I feel sure I'll see in Lucy's book). |
Still wish that SEP would detach herself from her ongoing series with the football team when she writes Lucy's story. Unfortunately, I can see that this won't happen, considering she already created a connection between them in this book.
I think I would enjoy much more Lucy's story being an offshoot of First Lady and that's it--no team in that one. Not my call, though, and not my story. Just saying. |
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chiricahuagal
Joined: 07 May 2008
Posts: 210
Location: Houston
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| Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2011 11:26 am Post subject: |
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| Tee wrote: |
Still wish that SEP would detach herself from her ongoing series with the football team when she writes Lucy's story. Unfortunately, I can see that this won't happen, considering she already created a connection between them in this book.
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Football team? In Call Me Irresistible? Where? Who? I didn't hear any mention of any of the Chicago Stars series characters in it. Did I miss something?
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Melinda |
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Tee
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 4053
Location: Detroit Metro
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| Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2011 11:34 am Post subject: |
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| chiricahuagal wrote: | | Football team? In Call Me Irresistible? Where? Who? I didn't hear any mention of any of the Chicago Stars series characters in it. Did I miss something? |
Oh, sorry, I've got football series on my mind with SEP. The connection with the other series, then. Whatever. I told you I have a hard time keeping all these previous characters straight.  Maybe she'll create a connection with them somehow in Lucy's story. Who knows? My wish is the same, though. Keep it separate from any of them. Won't happen, but there it is. |
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bijoux
Joined: 30 Jan 2009
Posts: 379
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| Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2011 12:56 pm Post subject: |
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I don't get any sense that there will be any cross over with another series in Lucy's book. Why should there be? All we know about the guy is that he's a biker friend of Ted's. He may just as well be an engineer.
I liked this book, really, I did. But I don't think it in any way, shape or form could be described as Ted's books. Quite clearly, it's Meg's. And it works really well as such. It's not because of Ted's actions either. Oh, he's bitchy for a good chunk of it but I thought it was funny. It's because we never get to really spend time with him. The private talk with Kenny is seen through Meg's eyes and we only get into his head once Meg leaves Wynette.
And I have to say, SEP mentioned she couldn't write Ted before because she saw too much of her own sons in him. Judging by the sex scenes, which didn't really go into detail as they usually do, I feel like there's still a case of left over hesitation. |
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Tee
Joined: 22 Mar 2007
Posts: 4053
Location: Detroit Metro
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| Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2011 1:39 pm Post subject: |
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| bijoux wrote: | | I don't get any sense that there will be any cross over with another series in Lucy's book. Why should there be? |
I was being a little smart-alecky here when I said that about interconnecting series, but not meaning anything by it all. I was smiling as I wrote it, but apparently the smile didn't show through the words and message. Guess I should have inundated my post with smiley faces. |
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Diana
Joined: 23 Mar 2007
Posts: 1044
Location: Washington DC
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| Posted: Sun Jan 23, 2011 9:39 pm Post subject: |
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I liked it. It's classic SEP and you can't fault SEP for doing what she does best. (I'm still wondering who wrote What I Did for Love, though.)
Since I've read most of her books numerous times, I noticed lots of things that are familiar, common themes. Did anyone else recognize a scenario right out of Kiss an Angel?
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