Fancy Pants

by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Book Overview

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• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0671747150
• Release Date: June 1991
• Publisher: Pocket Books
• Length: 512 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.8" x 1.0" x 4.2"

Customer Reviews

Wonderful, powerful story. Loved it.

It has flawed characters, who eventually change and improve themselves, in different ways and with very different motives. I love this author. I loved this book. Although not mandatory, I recommend reading this book before reading Lady Be Good, because of the sequence of characters. This author also delights me with wit and humor. I laughed out loud more with Lady Be Good than I did with this book, but I consider them both great. Sexual content: mild. Genre: contemporary romance. OTHER BOOKS: For a list of my reviews of other Susan Elizabeth Phillips books, see my 5 star review of "Glitter Baby" posted 1/15/09.

Not your normal romance, but still delivers the goods

Huge SEP fan here. I found Fancy Pants to be out of the norm of the regular "boy meets girl" romance formula, but loved it anyway. I liked the fact that both Francesca and Dallie were not very likeable characters in the beginning, and though most characters grow and change, no two characters needed to more than these two. I liked that details of their lives (like Danny's death) popped up throughout the story, surprising us. The only thing that seemed a bit "much" was the large amount of time spent on some secondary characters (did Naomi, Chloe, Black Jack and Miranda need so much time in the story?) I did almost wish Francesca had bumped into Nicky, or someone from her old life at the end so they could have seen how much she had changed.In any case, this was a bit different, but the payoff at the end was great (as usual).

Not enough good things I could say about this book

Susan Elizabeth Phillips is one of my favorite authors, and this was the first book I read by her so it remains my favorite. More often than not, I find romance novels boring, unbelievable, silly and completely by the numbers. It would do SEP's novels an injustice to simply refer to them as romance novels. Her stories are fun, intelligent, unpredictable and bittersweet. She can have you laughing out loud on one page and on the next have you in tears. She creates these wonderful, fascinating, complex, and FLAWED characters...as opposed to the simplistic, boring, goody-goody perfection of most romantic leads. And perhaps no characters in all of her novels are so flawed as Francie and Dallie. Francie is a silly, spoiled little girl whom you can't help but feel sorry for when she's left on her own with no idea how to take care of herself. Dallie appears to be stronger and more put together than Francie but hides a world of self-loathing and pain; it eventually becomes apparent that he is in fact the weaker one. It is a delight watching these two grow up into strong individuals of worth and merit. Some readers didn't like or see the need for the telling of Dallie and Holly's romance but I loved it. It was great insight into the character of Dallie and it moved me to tears. Unlike in most romance novels, in SEP's books you can actually understand what the characters see in each other and why they need the other so. Also, one thing I hate in most romances is when the leads fall in love (or at least all-consuming lust) with each other within days of meeting; SEP never tries to pull this and I appreciate it so much. Her books are more realistic but still light and warm enough to be considered fairy tales. I really wish there were more romantic novels like this.

Fantastic!!!

Even though I thought this was slow off the starting block, it turned out to be a fantastic read, re-read & re-read as well as listening to the book on tape. These individuals seemed like real people-not characters in a book and I could identify with them. I loved Dallie & Francie and their son Teddy and their relationships with each other. I loved the secondary characters too. I really liked Holly Grace & Gerry's story. I pick up this book about once a month and read it just because it is such a "feel good" story.

People just discovering Phillips--find this one and read it!

I rarely enjoy older romance novels, written in the 70s and 80s, for one reason or another--mainly, the heros are often abusive, the heroines, wimps. I enjoy Ms Phillip's writing so much though that I decided to give this book, one of her earlier works, a chance. The first quarter, though entertaining, didn't have me overly impressed. The two main characters were not endearing in the least and yet, I found myself feeling sympathetic towards these two imperfect, and seemingly incompatible, people (the magic of Ms Phillip's writing!). But suddenly, near the end of the first half of the book, something completely unexpected happens (find out for yourselves) and you find yourselves caught in the book's grip but good. Reader's only familiar with Ms Phillip's more recent works (Texas Heaven, Dream a Little Dream, etc) may at first find themselves a little unsettled by this different side to Ms Phillip's style of writing. The characters are more complex with sharper edges (ie not-so-lovable characteristics) and yet, you can't help but be drawn into this powerful, inspirational(that's right!) novel. I know I'm being vague but I don't want to ruin a single amazing moment of this book for anyone who listens to me and reads it (please!).