Breathing Room: A Novel [Hardcover]

Susan Elizabeth Phillips (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 4, 2002

Join the New York Times bestselling author on a journey to the sun-washed hills of Tuscany. Another sexy, wonderful, contemporary love story with all the heart, wisdom, and wit that have made Susan Elizabeth Phillips the gold standard for women's fiction.

She's Dr. Isabel Favor, America's diva of self-help.
He's Ren Gage, Hollywood's favorite villain.
Sometimes you just know that God has a sense of humor.Dr. Isabel Favor, author of Four Cornerstones for a Favorable Life, has sacrificed everything to build her self-help empire. Then, in a matter of weeks, it all comes crashing down. She loses her money to an unscrupulous accountant, her fiancé to a frumpy older woman, and her reputation to headlines denouncing her as a fraud. America's diva of self-help soon discovers she can fix everyone's life but her own. Broke, heartsick, and soul-weary, she heads for Italy in search of a little breathing room.

Lorenzo Gage makes his living killing people... on the silver screen, that is. He's viciously handsome and sublimely talented. But as he begins his vacation in Italy, he's also vaguely dissatisfied. Being a villain with a face to die for has its rewards, but he hates the feeling that everything he's neglected in life is catching up with him. Then he spots Isabel sipping a glass of wine in a sidewalk café. A good guy wouldn't think of seducing such a tidy-looking woman... but he'd never seen the fun in playing the hero.

It doesn't take long for Isabel to realize she's escaped one kind of chaos only to be plunged into another. Even the shelter of a simple stone farmhouse nestled in a Tuscan olive grove can't provide her with the refuge she needs -- not when the townspeople are scheming to drive her away, and her plan to restore her reputation has come up empty. And especially not when the man who deceived her refuses to leave her in peace.

Breathing Room is a book for any woman who's dreamed of wandering through a vineyard, of lazing under the Tuscan sky, or of reforming a deliciously wicked man. This is a story of hope and renewal, of love and redemption when it's needed the most. Sometimes it takes a special place... a special love... a little breathing room... for life to deliver all its glorious promise.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The familiar tricks of the trade are refreshingly revamped in this lively contemporary romance set in Tuscany. Lorenzo (Ren) Gage is a devilishly handsome movie star, best known for his villainous roles onscreen and his playboy antics off. Isabel Favor is a tightly wound self-help guru and author of The Four Cornerstones of a Favorable Life whose own perfect life has recently come crashing down around her. Both have come to Italy to escape the endless rehashes of their latest misfortunes in the public eye, and the equally endless drone of self-criticism. Ren and Isabel meet under what can only be described as unusual circumstances, leaving each of them thinking, thankfully, they'll never see the other again. Imagine their surprise when Isabel turns up on Ren's doorstep, her much anticipated rental villa belonging to none other than her ill-advised one-night stand. As might be anticipated, their fiery antagonism soon breeds sparks of a different kind. The relationship develops in a somewhat familiar fashion, but the development of Isabel and Ren as characters makes their story shine. Meanwhile, at the villa, all is not as it seems, and the two lovers find themselves playing amateur detectives, trying to untangle the strange behavior of the townspeople and of Ren's hired caretaker. As if things weren't complicated enough, Ren's ex-wife, Tracy, suddenly appears on the scene pregnant and with several kids in tow. Tracy's appearance ushers in a touching subplot centering on the nature of marriage in the real world an unexpected and affecting treat in the midst of this steamy, lighthearted romance. With this intriguing combination of the fantasy and reality of romance, Phillips has created a very modern and textured tale: witty, moving, passionate and tender.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

With the personal, professional, and financial aspects of her life all in shambles, counselor and self-help guru Dr. Isabel Favor escapes to the Tuscan countryside for two months to rest, write, and rethink her future. But her hopes of a peaceful idyll are dashed when the locals try to convince her to leave her rented farmhouse, whose owner turns out to be Lorenzo Gage, the film world's favorite psychopath and the man with whom Isabel had an impulsive, out-of-character, one-night stand on her first evening in Florence. Chaos reigns and so does passion in this funny, occasionally whacky, yet surprisingly insightful contemporary romance, which gives its optimistic heroine and conflicted movie-idol hero a little "breathing room" and lets Italy's hill country work its magic. With stunningly vivid descriptions and some of her most complex protagonists to date, Phillips (This Heart of Mine) has once again produced a thoroughly delightful romance. Phillips lives in the Chicago area.
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1st edition (June 4, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0066211220
• ISBN-13: 978-0066211220
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (108 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,471,961 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

SUSAN ELIZABETH PHILLIPS is a New York Times, Publisher's Weekly, and USA Today bestseller, whose books are published all over the world.

If you'd like to know more, including info on her newest book, whether any of her books will be made into movies, how to get an autographed book, where she gets her ideas, please visit her web site. You can also see goofy vacation photos. register for her monthly contest, and chat with her on her Message Board. http://www.susanelizabethphillips.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Love Story in a Beautiful Setting, June 5, 2002

By 

Michelle (Bowersville, GA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breathing Room: A Novel (Hardcover)

I absolutely love Susan Elizabeth Phillips. I could not wait until this book came out, and I was extremely satisfied by the way that it turned out. I absolutely love the sexy story between Lorenzo "Ren" Gage, and Dr. Isabel Favor. Isabel was a hishly successful author of a self help book when her whole empire came crashing down around her shoulders. She had immense personal trouble in that her fiance left her for a frumpy older woman (who was pregnant with his child), her accountant skipped town with 1.2 million dollars of Isabel's money that was supposed to go to the IRS for her taxes. Meanwhile, Isabel's best friend was supposed to travel to an Italian farmhouse to write a book. However, Debbie (I think)met the man of her dreams so Isabel was able to rent the farmhouse for a small fee. When she travels to Italy she is still haunted by the things that her drip of an ex-fiance told her. So, she throws caution to the wind and has a wild encounter with the sexiest man that she has ever seen-Dante.
Of course, Dante is our hero Ren, and he is one of the sexiest that Suan Elizabeth Phillips has ever created. Also, I love the subplot where the Itialian people are searching for the fertility statue. I adored this book, and Susan Elizabeth Phillips is one of (if not the best) author that I have ever read. ... I was sooo pumped yesterday when I was reading it, and it did not disappoint me.
P.S. Please do not judge me so harshly when you read this random review, it is my first.

32 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Just....nice, July 23, 2002

By 

T. M. Wheaton "tmwheato" (Syracuse, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Breathing Room: A Novel (Hardcover)

Susan Elizabeth Phillips is a great writer. Not just, good but great. She can do more with a sentence to create a picture than a lot of writers can do with a whole book. Her descriptions of Tuscany made me immediately want to book a trip there. Her descriptions of Ren's wonderful food concoctions made my mouth water. And of course, the story of Isabel and Ren is lovely.

With Isabel we get the familiar SEP character arc of a woman who reaches rock bottom only to come back out on top both personally and through her romance with the hero. And in Ren we get one of her wonderfully drawn alpha heroes. I love the fact that he is an actor who always plays the villain in movies.

And of course, Nobody writes secondary characters as well as SEP does. Ren ex-wife's romantic foibles make a great foil for the romance of Ren and Isabel and is just as engrossing. You didn't feel as if the secondary plot was taking you away from the primary one because it was just as interesting. But I've always found this true of her stories.

So why is this only a 3 star? Well, it lacked a certain emotional depth that I know this writer is capable of. I can't help but think of The fabulous 5-star "Nobody's Baby But Mine." It is a laugh out loud funny romantic comedy and is quite frothy, but it also has some really wonderful layers that Breathing Room seems to lack.

Breathing Room is a very good read, but I don't think it is SEP's best.

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Breathing Room Leaves Me Breathless!, June 7, 2002

By 

paula_k_98 "paula_k_98" (Muskogee, OK USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Breathing Room: A Novel (Hardcover)

How do I describe Breathing Room by Susan Elizabeth Phillips? Well, let's see-it's sexy, romantic, naughty, has characters I adored, fabulous secondary characters, great dialogue, and takes place in an exotic location. Let me ask you, as a romance reader, what more can you ask for?

Dr. Isabel Favor has it all. She's a self-help guru who can do no wrong, or so she thinks. Then she is attacked in the tabloids by a disgruntled ex-employee, she finds out the IRA is after her for unpaid taxes, her accountant who was supposed to take care of the taxes has skipped the country with all her money, and her fiancé has gotten another woman pregnant. All this happens within a space 24 hours to a woman who is supposed to have all the answers.

Lorenzo Gage is a drop dead bad boy. He makes his living playing the most horrendous villains in movies. His attitude is he can do whatever, whenever, with whomever he wants when he wants. Life is good until a former girlfriend, who just happens to be America's favorite actress, dies and the blames lands in his lap.

Two people on top of the world find themselves hiding out in Italy waiting for the bad press to die down. However, they end up finding more when they discover each other. Breathing Room is a fantastic read. Lorenzo, or Ren as he is called, is that bad boy every woman wants to tame. He has it all, looks, money, talent, and loads of sex appeal. Isabel is the self-contained character that needs to learn to live life. Put them together and you have a wonderful story. Ms. Phillips outdid herself in Breathing Room. This is one of those books that will go on my keepers' shelf and will be read over and over.