The Great Escape by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
William Morrow
July 2012
Format: Hardcover, 384 pages
First line: Lucy couldn’t breathe.
From the inside cover: “Where do you run to when your life has fallen apart?”
Lucy
Jorik is a champ at never embarrassing the family she adores–not
surprising since her mother is one of the most famous women in the
world. But now Lucy has done just that. And on her wedding day, no less,
to the most perfect man she’s ever known.
Instead of saying “I
do” to Mr. Irresistible, Lucy flees the church in an ill-fitting blue
choir robe and hitches a ride on the back of a beat-up motorcycle
plastered with offensive bumper stickers. She’s flying into the unknown
with a rough-looking, bad-tempered stranger who couldn’t be more foreign
to her privileged existence.
While the world searches for her,
Lucy must search for herself, and she quickly realizes that her
customary good manners are no defense against a man who’s raised
rudeness to an art form. Lucy needs to toughen up–and fast.
Her
great escape takes her to his rambling beach house on a Great Lakes
island. Here, she hopes to find a new direction . . . and unlock the
secrets of this man who knows so much about her but reveals nothing
about himself. As the hot summer days unfold amid scented breezes and
sudden storms, she’ll also encounter a beautiful, troubled beekeeper; a
frightened young boy; a modern-day evil queen; and a passion that could
change her life forever.
In this dazzling follow-up to her New
York Times bestseller Call Me Irresistible, Susan Elizabeth Phillips
tells the funny, touching, enchanting story of a young woman searching
for her destiny . . . and of a damaged man who doesn’t believe in second
chances.
My thoughts: Finally we get Lucy’s story about what she did upon leaving her fiance at the alter – Ted’s story was told in Call Me Irresistible – and while this the next book in the series, the two books are actually taking place simultaneously. Deciding that she cannot go through with the wedding, Lucy runs out the back of the church and comes across a man on a motorcycle who offers her a ride. And so begins Lucy’s great escape.
Panda,
the biker, is everything Ted, her ex-fiance is not, and this is just what Lucy
needs to help her to discover herself, and become the person she has
always wanted to be – care free, impulsive and sometimes careless. She’s
tired of being the perfect girl, and this man, Panda, might just be
the ticket. But Panda is a damaged man, and he’s not ready for love. Can they figure out their past and find a way to be together?
As is usually the case, there
are a couple of secondary romances in the story as well, one involving an evil
diet queen, and the other a woman struggling to cope with a disastrous
marriage, a failed past affair, and an orphan boy who is now in her
care. While I enjoyed these other stories, I did find myself anxiously wanting to get back to Lucy and Panda.
I love reading SEP – her writing is always funny and crisp, her characters are well-developed and usually one or two really show some spunk! The interactions between Lucy and Panda are downright hilarious at times. I wonder if there will be more books in this series and if so, who the next might feature? I certainly hope this wasn’t the last we’ve seen of these characters!
(I borrowed this book from the library.)
Books in the Wynette, Texas series (from FictFact):
- Fancy Pants 5. Glitter Baby
- Lady Be Good 6. What I Did for Love
- First Lady 7. The Great Escape
- Call Me Irresistible
