I still remember discovering Susan Elizabeth Phillips – which happened to me, oddly enough, through an English bookstore in Florence, Italy. This was years ago. It was early evening and hot as the blazes (that was before my husband and I succumbed to installing air conditioning in his mother’s Italian apartment). So I was lying on a hot couch, drinking a gin-and-tonic, and reading SEP. And laughing. I laughed so hard that I fell off the couch and my husband accused me of drinking too much, thereby instigating a marital quarrel…
He was so wrong! I was drunk on one-liners and It Had to Be You. It’s still my sentimental favorite, but I have to say that plot-wise, Nobody’s Baby but Mine is the best. The heroine is a genius physics professor, Dr. Jane Darlington, who desperately wants a baby – but she absolutely does not want that baby to end up a genius like herself (as she spent her childhood and adolescence left out of children’s games and viewed as a weirdo). Now my take on this is that if I were a genius, I would roll with the punches… but hey, obviously this is one of those “don’t grouch until you’ve walked a mile in her shoes” kind of thing. So Jane decides to get pregnant – with someone stupid. That’s right: stupid.
Here’s where pop culture and genius collide: from the point of view of academics (and as an academic myself, I can assure you that this is pretty much true), where does one find a population of men who exhibit reckless disregard for life and limb, thereby signaling a marked lack of intelligence? On the football field, of course!
So Jane ends up a “special present” to Cal Bonner, the Chicago Stars’ top quarterback. At first things don’t exactly work out. Cal thinks Jane is (ahem) a good-time girl, and Jane’s skills in that area aren’t exactly top-notch. But one thing leads to another, and Jane gets exactly what she wants.
You’d think a genius would know that life is never easy. That actions have consequences, etc. But no… anyway, Jane and Cal end up together, fighting and making love. It’s hard for Jane to accept Cal’s degrees, once she learns of them…even harder for Cal to accept Jane’s stubborn, brilliant nature.
This is a wildly funny novel – don’t miss it! Make yourself a gin-and-tonic, warn your husband beforehand, and throw yourself on a couch.
9 Comments
I love this book…. I fall in love the Bonner’s family…
Great one, Eloisa! This is one of my favorites too. In fact it was my first SEP. I recently did a reread to see if it still stood up to my memories of it, and yep, it did:) Too many LOL moments to name them all.
I absolutetly love this book. It was my first SEP book and I was hooked after that. Defintiely one of my favorites still, and I will never be able to forget that scene with the cereal box… GENIOUS!!!! LOL *goes to raid her bookshelves for her copy of NBBM*
Ah, Dr. Jane … things didn’t exactly go as planned, eh?
It was because of you that I have read just about every SEP book ever written (still have yet to get my hands on a copy of “Heaven, TX”) — I read an article of yours in the NY Times that mentioned “Ain’t She Sweet?” and I checked it out the next day. I have since spent many hours with SEP’s wonderful characters. My favorite heroine is the Widow Snopes from “Dream A Little Dream,” but my second favorite is definitely Sugar Beth Carey.
I went on a little much there, but I wanted to drop a comment and thank you for the recommendation.
Hi Eloisa. I love Nobody’s Baby But Mine. In fact, I love ALL of SEP’s books. She is so good with romantic comedy. Great recommendation once again!
This was my first SEP book. My mom had this book and had given it to me to read. However, there was just something about the cover that kept putting me off. Well, thankfully I was really bored one night and I started reading this book…It is awesome. It is one that I reread all the time when I need to laugh, cry, and cheer!
I love SEP too, but Kiss an Angel was the first SEP book I read and it still holds a special place for me. I have read nearly every SEP book (as many as I could get my hands on) and she is always reliably romantic, funny and real-her books always touch me (and even make me cry)
Brilliant suggestion EJ!
I loved this book. While in Real Life a genius would know that the genetics of Jane’s proposal are wrong, I just don’t care. The discussion between Jane and Cal when they first meet about the changing business model (ahem) for, as Eloisa puts it, the “good time girl” industry is a comic gem. And then add in the cereal killer scene and the secondary romance for Cal’s mother and father, and you understand why SEP is such a genius herself.
Loved this book! And all her books.
I’ve been a fan since Honeymoon. I don’t have the book in front of me, but I read the first line, something along the lines of “all day long Honey prayed to the god, Walt Disney”, and I was hooked! A fan for life!