I listened to Fancy Pants as an unabridged audio. I didn't take notes so what follows next is what remains rattling around in my head.I've always enjoy Susan Elizabeth Phillips work. She usually creates fun characters and has a knack for snappy dialogue that hooks me right away. Fancy Pants is one of her earlier efforts written back in the 80's, and it suffers from many of the excesses of its time. It's more of a saga, which brings me back to the glitzy days when I thought Danielle Steele and Jackie Collins wrote books that were pure awesome. That was back before I realized I preferred a little more substance with my glitz.
This one starts out with more glitz than substance but it does eventually get better. Here's a typical early exchange between the glamorous beauty and her playboy paramour with whom she's been playing hard to get: "You're not woman enough to handle a man like me." Her witty, whispered response that gets him all hot and bothered is, "You're not rich enough for me." Oh please. Color me unimpressed with the two of them but I plundered on anyway certain it had to get better and because I was trapped in my car with nothing better to do.
I'm glad stuck with it but honestly if it had been a paperback I would've put it down early on. After wading through an infinity of insipid back story the story starts to find its focus. The back story reminded me very much of a Danielle Steel novel but it did serve the purpose of explaining why the heroine of the book was such a self-centered, helpless brat (sorry but its true).
When gorgeous socialite Francesca loses everything she's forced into lowering herself by accepting an acting job which she believes will be glamorous and make her into an instant star. Things don't exactly go her way and she finds herself on the street in a stained gown and at her lowest point . This is when golf pro Dally takes pity on her and picks her up. Imagine the luck, right? Dally is the first man prettier than Francesca and she's instantly smitten. They fight like children, Dally totes her around and foots the bill until he tires of her and she's then left to her own devices again. This is the point, probably somewhere halfway through the book, where she finally grows up and becomes a real person instead of the annoying spoiled whiner who only wants a man to save her. I have to credit the author here because she did an amazing job of turning a thoroughly unlikable character into a admirable person.
I can't say this was my favorite book by Susan Elizabeth Phillips because it was too damn long and I wasn't thrilled by half of it. Still, I'm glad I stuck it through because I loved watching Francesca's transformation.
