Lady Be Good » (~)

Called the crown jewel of romantic comedy writers by Book Page, Susan Elizabeth Phillips has become famous for her sparkling plots, colorful secondary characters, and protagonists obstacle-ridden paths to true love in books like This Heart of Mine and First Lady.

She's wickedly funny and passionately romantic, and now Susan Elizabeth Phillips has a new contemporary romance, called Lady Be Good. This is the tale of Lady Emma Wells-Finch, who has been as prim and proper as British headmistresses come, and Kenny Traveler, a modern-day cowboy who plays sports rather than riding the range. They run headlong into each other -- Lady Emma's out to get wild, and Kenny has to straighten up -- and together they make sparks.

Publishers Weekly

Flying from England to Texas, Lady Emma Wells-Finch meets world-famous pro golfer Kenny Traveler. She assumes that he's a gigolo and decides that he's just the man to relieve her of her virginity in order to get the stuffy, oafish Duke of Beddington out of her hair. Kenny's need to avoid scandal to save his career conflicts with Emma's need to invent scandal to free her from her English admirer. The results are hilarious. In a secondary plot line that mirrors Lady Emma's predicament with the duke, Kenny's seemingly flighty sister, Torrie--as beautiful as Kenny is handsome--is being forced by her father to marry geek Dexter O'Conner. Dexter and Lady Emma have their work cut out for them, for Kenny and Torrie's respective childhoods have left them scarred and incapable of adult relationships. Some outstanding secondary characters join this foursome, including those from Phillips's earlier Fancy Pants. Her Texas settings and sportsmen as heroes continue to shine, and her playful homage to the peculiarities of wealthy Texas women and small towns is dead-on. Phillips's newest is well written, funny, sexy and altogether satisfying. (Feb.)