Call Me Irresistible by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

 Call Me Irresistible is an “irresistible” rollicking new tale by Susan Elizabeth Phillips. Meg Koranda has lived a rootless, privileged existence as the daughter of two famous Hollywood personalities. She arrives in Wynette, Texas for her best friend Lucy’s wedding only to discover that Lucy is about to make the biggest mistake of her life.

Lucy’s fiancé, Ted Beaudine is the perfect man or “Mr. Irresistible.” Not only is he rich, handsome, and sexy, but he is also a genius inventor and the mayor of Wynette. He also has the strange habit of having halos appear around his head or choirs singing when he appears. The problem for Lucy is that he is too perfect. Everyone in town seems to think that Ted is settling with her, although she is the daughter of the former president of the United States. With the media, family, and entire town at hand, Lucy is hiding panic under her calm exterior.

Meg is the only person who recognizes the problem and talks with Lucy about it. After Lucy flees her wedding, the town turns their hatred on Meg for ruining Ted’s happiness. Unluckily for Meg, she can’t leave Wynette as her family has cut her off. She discovers her credit cards no longer work and is out of cash, so she digs deep within herself and finds a way to survive. Unfortunately, the mayor of Wynette is still a bit bitter about his wedding being cancelled and his perfect exterior cracks when it comes to Meg.

I really enjoyed Call Me Irresistible. At first, I wasn’t sure as I thought Ted was rather a bland, Ken doll type hero. Slowly, but surely, just as Meg is able to crack his perfect exterior, Phillips reveals more and more about Ted and builds him into a flawed, but compelling character. I thought it was masterfully done.

I enjoyed the town of Wynette and the colorful characters that inhabited it. I would like to read more about them, and I can. As I got to the end of the book, I learned from the great author notes and a handy diagram that I can learn more about all of the characters. Many of the characters that appear in Call Me Irresistible have appeared in previous Susan Elizabeth Phillips novels. I had read Fancy Pants previously, but none of the other books. Call Me Irresistible is a great stand-alone novel, but it is nice that you can learn more about the intriguing characters by reading some of the other novels. I think they are going on my “to read” list. I’m also excited that Lucy will get her own novel as Susan Elizabeth Phillips is currently writing it. I want to know what happened to Lucy!

Besides a great plot and irresistible characters, Call Me Irresistible drew me in with a few different other points. I enjoyed that Ted is an inventor and that a lady who is after him, Sunny, is a mechanical engineer. It is hard to find engineers in books, TV, or film and I’m always excited to see them somewhere. Sadly, Sunny is a villain, but I’ll take a female engineer shout-out when I can!

I also loved that Meg and Ted love environmental science and sustainable developments. They talk about how to be energy efficient, recycling, etc. throughout the novel. My degrees are in environmental engineering so I loved it!

Also being a resident of Wisconsin, I loved the discussion of Herb Kohler. He was mentioned for being a plumbing king that owns some great golf resorts, and one of the characters seems to be modeled after him.

Overall, Call Me Irresistible is an appealing novel with all of the elements I enjoy in a good book; compelling main characters, great plot, character growth, and colorful secondary characters. Throw in environmental issues and a female mechanical engineer and you have me hooked! I can’t wait to read the follow-up book about Lucy.

I read Call Me Irresistible as part of the TLC Book Tour.

Book Source: Review copy from HarperCollins Publishers. Thank-you!