Impossible to find someone who cares less about football than me, but I remembered how much I liked the first in this series (It Had to Be You), and then John Charles and Barbara Peters of The Poisoned Pen Bookstore both recommended this one to me so I succumbed to the hand sell. Not for the first time, or the last. Sigh. My TBR pile is never going to shrink down to a manageable level. Levels.

But I really liked this one, Simply the Best. The football is only peripheral to the plot (hallelujah), which concerns wannabe chocolatier Rory Garrett and sports agent Brett Rivers, a hate-each-other-at-first-sight couple (Well…) who are, it turns out, not who we think they are, or who they think they are for that matter. The same can be said of the rest of the characters, too. I always love reading the stories of characters growing and changing in any genre.

Plot recap: Rory’s brother, the Chicago Stars starting QB and the spoiled darling of their parents, is arrested for the murder of his gold digger ex. Rory, mostly as the result of a guilty conscience (although…maybe not) turns herself into Nancy Drew trying to find out who really did it, because she never believes for a moment Clint did (our first clue that their relationship is not what she tells us it is).

There are marvelous scenes where Phillips’ mastery of dialogue is on full, glorious display, like when Rory goes up against a group of survivalists in Michigan’s U.P.

The fake soldier boys were armed, and she was growing more pissed off by the second. She’d read about these guys–small-minded men with so little self-esteem that they were threatened by anyone who didn’t fit their narrow concept of who was an American. Men so bored by their real lives that they needed to manufacture excitement. More women should do their patriotic duty by screwing these losers to keep them off the street…”Judging by those fierce-looking patches on your vests and your general attitude, I suspect you men see yourselves as guardians of the Constitution–a document you clearly haven’t read. And pointing your phallic symbols at me and my candy-ass boyfriend makes you look ridiculous…”

and in every scene between Rory and Brett

“You’ll let me know, won’t you, when you graduate from third grade.”

She deserved that.

She did, too, and acknowledging it is emblematic of the entire scene of their drive together, is part of her journey, and is part of theirs. Betty Smith wrote that dialogue should characterize the person speaking, move the plot forward, and be interesting in and of itself. In this book Phillips scores two and often three in every line.

Kristin, the Evil Stepmother, maybe not so evil? Toby, the nerd across the hall, more human than creepy geek? From the first scene, when five-year old Rory tries to sell baby Clint to a passing stranger, to the last, when Rory goes head to head with Brett’s boss Heath, and not forgetting the bi, polyamorous, and possibly nymphomaniacal Callie Capello (great character, would love to see more of her in future books), everyone you encounter in this story is ruefully self-aware (or gets there) and has more than one dimension.

Lots of great stuff about chocolate, too (Who knew there was a chocolate you could pair with beer? and that it would be my favorite, milk chocolate?) and I especially love Rory’s dismissal of putting herbs in chocolate. I mean, who thought that was a good idea. Ew.

Fun read that will put a smile on your face. Recommended.

Book Review Monday Chatter Simply the Best Susan Elizabeth Phillips