(2) Glitter Baby by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

I have a confession. I like trashy romance novels. I have stacks & stacks of trashy romance novels that I am saving for my retirement. Or so I say.

Almost everyone I "know" in the book lover world has a "comfort" author. Much like comfort food, a comfort Author is someone that you read to feel good or feel better. An author that you read whatever they write, no matter what they write. Their books may not be on your "Favorite Books Ever" list, but you will read every book they ever write. For some it is Danielle Steele, for others it is James Patterson. For me it is Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I have read every book she has ever written. I have kept every book she has ever written. And she is one of the few authors that I have re-read over & over & over.
Why do I love her books so much? Well, I think it is because of the emotions she evokes with her written word. Her heroines are always strong women. Women who encounter a crisis & survive. They always have to work through their crisis & find a solution to the problem. And usually the process involves a man. But regardless what the crisis is or who the man is, they are stronger, better women at the end of the story.
Glitter Baby is no difference. The heroine is a young woman named Fleur. Fleur's problem is her parents. In one way or another her mother & her father make her life a living hell. Once her father discovered he wasn't Fleur's father, he banished her to a convent to grow up. And when she grew into a stunningly beautiful woman, both of her parents wanted her around. Her manipulative mother was trying to live vicariously through her beauty & talent. And her "father" had a much more sinister reason for wanting her around.
Cue the handsome man.
Fleur falls in love with Jake Koranda while working together on a movie. But can Fleur survive her parents deceptions & live happily ever after?
Glitter Baby is a reprint of SEP's very first novel. It has been out of print for quite sometime & was the only book of hers that I had not read. It was re released in anticipation for her new book What I Did For Love due out at the end of the month. Because Glitter Baby was written in the early 80's there may be references to people or places that will be lost on anyone much younger than me. But it really doesn't matter because the love story is timeless.
Great, great trashy romance novel. But on a "trashy" scale of 1-10, I give it a 3. There are only a few sex scenes, but the ones there are smoking hot. So just enough to be shelved in the romance section, but nowhere close to being considered "erotica". Check it out for a great "fluff" read. -- But first, tell me who is YOUR "comfort author"?