The thing that I enjoy about a Susan Elizabeth Phillips book (She Who Got Me Into The Romance Novel) is that when you pick one of them up you know you're going to get a very full story. It will be fun, sweet, romantic, and you will laugh plenty, but at its heart it will be a very rich story with characters that she has no problem putting through the ringer. I like that, because while she isn't afraid to raise the stakes, she will deliver on all the parts you were nervous over, and you'll find yourself with a thoughtful, lovely ending that will be the perfect cap to whatever rollercoaster she put you on.

The other reason her books are my absolute guilty pleasure is that she writes stories that connect into an even bigger picture. She creates the memorable town of Wynette, Texas in this one, and it's one she'll visit again in Lady Be Good and her release next year. You'll see characters from several other of her novels come into play here, and I'm a sucker for that. Some of her novels (Fancy Pants and Glitter Baby) are books that span years of a couple's life and their trials to be together, and you can't help but connect to them after such an arduous journey, and luckily enough with SEP's books we get to see them again and again. We get to see their children grow up and fall in love too. That's nothing to shake a stick at.

Forewarning, this is a novel from the 80s and there are aspects of it that feel dated to a more modern reader, but these characters are sort of timeless in their own ways. This is a novel of losing it all to start again. It's about the American spirit. It's about love between the most unlikely of pairings. Francesca Day isn't entirely easy to like at first, which is part of her charm and the journey she takes on. This girl goes from one life to the exact opposite, and she pulls herself out of what seems insurmountable by her own sweat. Her transformation is a hell of a ride, and from the moment she found herself pregnant on a dusty Texas road I knew this was a woman whose story I could fall in love with. Do aspects of it get very 80s romance? Very big squee moments that are predictable? Yes. But this, like I said, is a full story that spans ten years and these are people you can't help but care about. Dallie Beaudine is a man ignoring his demons by not giving his all. Because if you don't try hard then no one can guess that you ever cared to begin with. These characters will charm you with their Texas brass and their haunted pasts and their loyalty to one another.

This one takes a minute to get into, but once you do, if you give yourself over to it, it's an enjoyable read. Not my favorite by SEP, but it's classically hers and I love her for it.