TEST
An AAR Top 100 Romance
originally published on January 11, 2011
It’s always such a thrill when a long anticipated book lives up to expectations. Readers who loved It Had to be You and Nobody’s Baby But Mine have been waiting a long time for Kevin and Molly’s story, and I’m so glad to say that this book is worth the wait. The humor, lovable heroine and (let’s admit it) sexy jock hero are vintage SEP, and they make This Heart of Mine a fabulous read.
Molly Somerville has had a crush on Chicago Stars quarterback Kevin Tucker forever, but it’s not something she’s proud of. Molly’s a smart girl; she graduated summa cum laude from Northwestern, and she has a Phi Beta Kappa key. Since Molly’s sister Phoebe owns the Stars, Molly has observed Kevin plenty over the years, and his personality leaves a lot to be desired. He never remembers her name, and his dating tastes run to attractive foreign bimbos with a tenuous grasp on the English language. Molly, meanwhile, is a children’s book author. She gave away her fortune years ago so she could make it on her own, and she supports herself writing and illustrating books about a bunny named Daphne as well as articles for a young adult magazine.
One weekend, Molly decides to head to Phoebe’s vacation home in Wisconsin for some private time. As she opens the door she discovers that she’s not the only one there. Kevin has been ordered to cool his heels there after receiving a ten thousand dollar fine for his recent reckless behavior (which includes sky-diving and helo-skiing). When he hears Molly come in he thinks she’s a burglar, so he tackles her – and gets bitten by Molly’s French poodle for his pains. This not-so-auspicious beginning leads to an eventual bedroom encounter and a marriage of convenience that is unwanted on both sides.
Giving away more of the plot would really spoil the magic in this case. Parts of this plot may sound familiar, but leave it to SEP to put a new twist on old themes. The intelligent football player who dates stupid women, the older couple secondary romance, and the surprise pregnancy have all appeared in earlier books, but Phillips manages to make sure that everything old is new again. It all seems different here, probably because the characters are so real.
The humor in this book is simply wonderful. Every chapter begins with an excerpt from one of Molly’s books or her articles, which is a really fun touch. Molly’s fictional bunny Daphne has a nemesis named Benny the badger who is obviously Kevin. Several funny scenes arise from this. There are also numerous pop-culture nods to everything from The Blair Witch Project to the Harry Potter phenomenon (Molly uses “Slytherin” as an expletive).
Kevin and Molly are everything a reader could hope for. Most of the story takes place in the off-season, so there’s not a lot of football here. But Kevin’s persona is very much wrapped up in his identity as an athlete and his need to put football before everything (until he comes to his senses, of course). Molly is quirky in a fun way. One might think that her long-time crush on Kevin would make her something of a push-over where he’s concerned, but she always stands her ground. Revisiting favorite characters is also a major perk here. Dan and Phoebe (from It Had to Be You) appear with their family, and they play a major part in the plot. There are also new characters, including an older couple who have a secondary romance. My personal favorites were Troy and Amy, very young (and frisky) newlyweds who try to give Kevin and Molly marital advice.
One of the things that really keeps the plot humming along is the great sexual tension between Kevin and Molly. It’s helped along by the marriage of convenience plot, which creates frustration on both sides. Phillips often creates characters who don’t think they want to sleep with each other – until they are around each other constantly. Long before they come to any kind of understanding about sex, the dialogue between these two sizzles.
I also just have to mention the wonderful sub-plot involving censorship. This is a book without any real “villain.” But a faceless group called SKIFSA (Straight Kids For a Straight America) decides that Molly’s books have content that encourages homosexuality. Molly is forced to make difficult choices about her writing and her career.
As I read and reviewed this book, I tried to figure out the one thing that made it such a fun read. But with This Heart of Mine, there isn’t just one thing. Humor, poignancy, creative plotting, wonderful characters, and superb sexual tension make this book an all-around winner. I can’t wait to read it again.
Buy it at Amazon/iBooks/Barnes and Noble/Kobo
Grade: A
Book Type: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 09/11/17
Publication Date: 2002
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.
I've been at AAR since dinosaurs roamed the Internet. I've been a Reviewer, Reviews Editor, Managing Editor, Publisher, and Blogger. Oh, and Advertising Corodinator. Right now I'm taking a step back to concentrate on kids, new husband, and new job in law...but I'll still keep my toe in the romance waters.
Related Reviews
I am so glad I was over my SEP auto-buy by this book. It sounds like it would push all my buttons. I gave this one a pass and I am glad.
This is by far my least favourite SEP that I’ve read, and the rape issue is part of it. Kevin being forced to marry Molly, who is just a straight up awful human being doesn’t make it better. All of the horribly contrived ways in which Molly tries to orchestrate drama when they’re together as well. It also made me hate both Dan and Phoebe from It Had to Be You, who I’d previously liked. But in supporting and enabling Molly against Kevin, who was completely and entirely a victim here – not cool. The only aspect of the book I liked was the secondary romance, but the rest of the book made me so uncomfortable, I now actively warn others away from this book. I totally agree that it’s good that different people like different things, but it makes me sad that this book is still rated so highly by romance readers, because the straight up lack of consent would be appalling if the situations were reversed, and are just as appalling when it’s a woman doing the assaulting.
Yes, I too am somewhat sad that this book is highly rated in the romance community as I think it is a harmful romance in the messages it is sending and does not really qualify as a romance. If there is one criteria I use as a reader it is that the author has to convince me that the couple are convincing together in the long run, and the themes she uses to bring them together cannot achieve that.
I wonder too how people feel over the years about the issue of consensual sex and if this book will continue to be viewed positively given the public consciousness raising we’ve all experienced over the past couple of years.
We are in the process of looking at the books currently on our Top 100 that our staff thinks should be included on the next iteration of the list. I don’t think this book will make the cut.
Yes! It definitely made me like Dan and Phoebe less because what year is it? You can’t force someone into marriage. I really hate removing any character’s agency, especially a victim. I read it having been a huge fan of SEP and it totally turned me off from her. I can’t deal with rape apologist narratives.
I remember really lookin forward to the release of this book and then being deeply disappointed. I loathed Molly with intensity of a hundred blazing suns. She raped the hero. There was no question in my mind. This is the only SEP book that I immediately donated after reading.
I read this book a loooong time ago, and it straight up made me uncomfortable. I read it again a few years later to see if I was remembering correctly how much I hated it. There is a whopping consent issue in this book- even SEP feels there is a consent issue in this book. IIRC, Kevin is livid with Molly for taking advantage of him. Again, I think he (via SEP) brings up the question of rape. This is an utterly forced marriage on his behalf, his choices are out Molly to her family for being a creepy predator or deeply anger his coach AND the owner of his team who are related to Molly. He didn’t have any good choices and his powerlessness made me deeply uncomfortable. I was so uncomfortable on his behalf. And, I hated Molly.
So- I want to say that I am not applying a “modern” cultural lens- I felt this long before Weinstein, et. disgusting al.. SEP set the situation up in that way. She brought the lack of consent up and Kevin’s powerlessness up as very crucial plot points. This is a central issue of the book. I’m not criticizing the book or SEP’s decisions. But, I am saying very definitively that this book is straight up not to everyone’s tastes for a legitimate reason.
What Molly did can easily be construed as a sexual assault. I do not like that in a romance. It is a giant deal breaker for me. I get that SEP went a different direction- Kevin forgives Molly. Great. If it were real life and someone I actually knew, I’d learn to deal with my beliefs and world-view. This isn’t- it’s a book and life is too short to spend it reading stuff that makes you squirm with discomfort.
Well, I have a different take on art and much of it relates to how I teach as a literature teacher. A novel that endorses rape DOES have a social responsibility and the endorsement of sexual assault does hurt people by putting forth harmful ideas into public discourse and trying to pass it off as “just entertainment,” humorous fiction. It is harmful too to claim that such ideas are entertainment and shouldn’t be questioned by readers, even if readers were able to brush it off and leave it unquestioned.
My second take on art is that it is a product of our culture and historical moment and that readers do read it through their contemporary lens.
We should hold art accountable for the ideas it conveys. In fact, SEP has the characters in This Heart of Mine do that very thing. Kevin blames Molly and is harmed by her actions. Molly blames herself and some of the novel (not enough, in my opinion) is a rape-redemption narrative. Rape redemptions are common sub-genres in the larger romance genre. So, to try to take a moral-free reading of this novel goes against what some of the novel itself is examining
Finally, we are living in a weird moment when every day we turn on the news to hear of a new powerful male social figure being accused of sexual harassment and/or sexual assault. There are two just today! How we read texts in this climate without absorbing all that we take in daily is a big part of being an active reader in our world. The Slate excerpt article that you cited, Dabney, is arguing that the movie does not endorse pedophilia. Note that it is the “endorsement” of a reprehensible act that is the problem. Does SEP endorse female sexual assault? I think she comes close to doing that, if not flat out doing that.
I have zero problem with people enjoying a book I don’t. First of all it’s fiction, and everyone has a right to like or dislike any form of art or literature. If Nancy Friday and her books taught me anything it’s that people (and especially in her work, women) like to explore in their fantasies things they might not even necessarily enjoy in real life and many things that aren’t “p.c.”. I have enjoyed Cara McKenna who writes characters with tastes that are certainly controversial. It’s one reason I held back from commenting right away as I don’t always want to rain on someone else’s parade. There are many books that people love that really either don’t work for me or annoy me (and vice versa, like Love In The Afternoon).
I can’t explain why some books with jerky guy behavior get a pass from me and some enrage me. I’ve read M.C. Books where I just roll my eyes at the Neanderthal behavior, but Linda Howard (a favorite author of mine) wrote a couple stinkers I’d like to toss against the wall. If someone likes this book (and clearly many people LOVE it for it to score so highly on the list here, then great. I can’t get past Molly’s behavior and it soured the book for me, just MHO. If it brings someone else laughter and enjoyment then it’s great for them. I also think examining Molly’s behavior as a heroine vs. the same thing done by a hero is a worthy question.
I do think supporting artists that currently engage in illegal or just troubling behavior is a different story, Mahler is long dead so listening to his music now doesn’t support or enable him. Pretty much every historical person was likely racist or imperfect by our current standards that took centuries for us to refine. And we are still evolving, hopefully for the better. I personally would never pay to see a Roman Polanski film or one by Woody Allen, just my choice.
I have been thinking about all the people involved in the movies and shows with actors and producers who have done criminal things and what the collateral damage is to the innocent people associated with them when they are pulled. I’m glad one movie is just reshooting scenes with a replacement actor so everyone else’s lives and livelihoods hopefully aren’t affected. One of the best movies I saw all year was Wind River and I think it was a Miramax film- so I’m hoping the amazing writer, director and actors aren’t tarred by association with Weinstein when award season comes.
I enjoy SEP’s books, especially on the surface. I tend to be the opposite of a surface reader though and while this book is fun, if I look too closely, it’s odd and even troubling. I hated the main romance in the first half, and the first part of the book is actually quite painful reading for me. It’s hard to find a romance couple out there who get off on a worse foot than Molly and Kevin. The dislike for each other, the quasi seduction/rape? scene that leads to Molly’s pregnancy, the miscarriage, etc. all are elided somehow into a comic romance. It never quite recovers from the bizarre early chapters. Definitely not my favorite of her books.
And those are the things that I like the most about the book! #differentstrokes
The rape scene is particularly hard for me to read. Is it that it’s a woman taking advantage of a man that makes it okay and even eventually comedic in the overall plot? If the roles were reversed, would the book still be funny? Anyway, I’m curious how others feel and if this book holds up over time.
I was going to post something like what you posted but I feel like I’m being the fly in the ointment a lot here at times, so I hung back a bit. I have a real problem with Molly-her behavior is creepy/criminal. As you say, if a man did it, it would not be cute or funny. There are a lot of men in the news right now who are being called to task morally and legally for doing things of this nature (and well they should!!)
I’m usually someone who naturally tends to go for the woman’s side in books -but I felt for the guy in this book and how he was treated. And I have a personal bias against athlete heroes, I just don’t usually care for them. It’s just my own taste and prejudice I know, so for me to feel like he’s being treated poorly and siding against the cute, quirky writer heroine takes a LOT. I feel like there was a presumption that “Hey he’s a big guy and a professional athlete so he should be GLAD some cute, quirky chick who writes kids books crawled in bed with him. He’s a guy so he should just be up for any kind of sex with any willing female, feelings be damned.” I just couldn’t get past it to see the humor the way I couldn’t get past some of the behavior of the heroes in other SEP books. She’s a writer who can really just hit the wrong keys with me I’ve discovered.
I am in NYC visiting my son who goes to college here. Today he was telling about a class he’s taking in which they discussed whether or not one can listen to Mahler and enjoy him or believe his music is valuable given Mahler’s beliefs. In my son’s class and in my chat with my kid they and we tried to parse how one sees art vis-a-vis the person who made the art and whether art can survive if it’s interpreted through a cultural lens other than the one in which is was written.
As I’ve stated many a time at AAR, my personal belief is twofold. One, what you enjoy is what you enjoy and unless your enjoyment actively hurts others, you are free to do so. Second, art writ large will fail if we insist on judging it through the lens of our time. There is an article in Slate this week about whether or not it’s OK to enjoy the new indie flick Call Me by Your Name in which the (gay) protagonists are 17 and 24. I agree with the last paragraph of the article which reads:
In trying to think through these issues in Call Me by Your Name, I called Joseph Fischel, a Yale scholar who has written on the messy politics of age and consent for Slate. He noted our society’s intense focus on age and sexuality is a relatively recent notion, not a long-settled one, and that while the law may have a legitimate need to be blunt and rigid, our art does not. In my view, it’s reasonable to be disturbed by the unconventional relationship in Call Me by Your Name, but it’s not reasonable to say the movie endorses pedophilia, or really any kind of power-based abuse, just because it depicts that relationship. If we go down that censorious and unnuanced path with our art, very little will survive the trip.
Lastly I’d say that SEP wrote believable characters. If Kevin, a powerful, successful, white, professional athlete can easily forgive Molly, so can I. I trust Kevin’s response. My mother–recently widowed after 66 years of marriage–says you can’t judge the interior of someone else’s marriage. What transpired between Kevin and Molly clearly works for them and thus, here, it works for me.
@chrisreader -I felt exactly as you did. I too tend to be a female-centric reader, and this book felt especially manipulative because it flips the typical rape narrative around and turns it into comedy to allow a woman to get away with things we immediately denounce when a man is guilty. It tries to be morally ambiguous about whether Kevin was raped because he has a forced orgasm. Then, the novel pivots to Molly’s victimhood as a woman who loses her baby. Then it pivots to a quirky comedy in which Kevin comes to realize how wonderful Molly really is. SEP has a gift for comedic timing and I enjoy much of her writing, but she has a number of troubling ideas in many of her books. Over time she is an author I view much more skeptically, and it is, as you said, related to how our culture is changing around ideas of sexual abuse.
This is my favorite Phillips. I adore Molly and Kevin and the secondary romance between Lily and Liam is sublime. Plus, it’s so funny. The teenage caretakers who can’t stop boinking, the baseball game, and, best of all, Molly’s books.