Discount Price: $7.99
Price fluctuation possible.
How soon does it ship: Normal ship time within one day
Shipping? Absolutely FREE if you qualify for Super Saver Shipping.
Type of bind: Mass Market Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780061032097
ISBN number: 0061032093
Label: Avon
Manufacturer: Avon
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 400
Printing Date: May 01, 2003
Publishing house: Avon
Release Date: April 29, 2003
Sale Popularity Level: 93791
Studio: Avon
Other books you might be interested in perusing:
Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
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.
User popularity level:
Rated by buyers 
-
I read SEP for the romance. I think she's terrific, and two of her titles, Match Me If You Can, and Heaven, Texas, and two of the best romances I have ever read.
If you want a nice little story, a "women's fiction" kind of book, you may really like this. It is amusing, the descriptions of Tuscany are compelling, the characters are likable for the most part.
But if you purchased this book, as I did, for the romance -- for an emotionally satisfying story of a man and woman who find each other, and against odds, fall in love and have a happily ever after, you will be very disappointed.
Having read almost her entire backlist, I can say that her strengths include dynamic complicated leads, great sexual tension, good secondary characters with interesting stories of their own, and witty dialogue. Of these, only the last is present in Breathing Room.
I found it ironic that while the hero in Breathing Room is a handsome Hollywood star, with lots of lovers to his credit, and of Italian descent to boot, Lorenzo Gage is the least sexy and interesting hero of hers, and the sex scenes are the most tepid.
There's lots I could complain about, as others have, but to me the greatest sin is the lack of attention devoted to the leads. Isabel and Ren are almost an afterthought. Instead, the story of Ren's ex-wife and her marital problems (which amounted to a Big Misunderstanding and a lot of immaturity), and another silly subplot involving the townsfolk and their fertility issues take center stage after the very first third of the book.
If you are primarily a romance reader and picked this book up expecting the heat and passion and emotional depth of SEP's other standout couples (Cal Bonner and Jane Darlington, Gabe Bonner and Rachel Stone, Annabelle Granger and Heath Champion, and Phoebe Summerville and Dan Calebow) you will be very disappointed in Breathing Room.
Rated by buyers -
Breathing Room by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
As a fan of the Chicago Stars series by SEP, I tried this one although the description made the book sound absolutely awful. And surprisingly, I enjoyed it very much.
So here's the basic plot. Dr. Isabel Favor is a psychologist who has built up a foundation based on the four cornerstones of a favorable life. Except her boyfriend gets another woman pregnant and leaves her, her accountant cheats her out of all of her money and disappears when the IRS comes knocking, and her book deals fall through. She's left bereft and miserable, so she escapes to the Tuscany part of Italy.
Lorenzo (Ren) Gage is a movie star who had problems with drugs, but kicked it, and is well-known for playing some of the most evil parts in history.
When Isabel shows up in Italy, Ren is in disguise and pretends to be a native Italian who speaks no English, Dante. Isabel, hurting from the harsh words of her boyfriend, who just dumped her for his pregnant mistress, decides Dante must be a gigolo and that's probably just what she needs. Except the union is satisfying for Dante (Ren) and not Isabel. When the two meet up days later at his villa (she's renting another house down the street that he owns), both are surprised to see the other. And Ren sees her as a challenge he needs to finish.
What I hated: The pages and pages of description of Tuscany and Italian food. Seriously, way way over done. The way Isabel was constantly praying, all the time, everywhere, and in front of others, which is rather rude. I come from a family of priests and Bishops, so this truly offended me. She was way too goody two shoes too. When Ren has his hands all over another woman and comes on to her in front of Isable (while they're sleeping together), she shrugs it off. No, no, no, no. Ren was way too obsessed with sex. Even for a guy.
What I loved: There's a side story about Ren's ex-wife and her current husband, as well as their four children (plus one on the way). It's adorable. I enjoyed Isabel's counseling sessions with them and the homework she gave them. It was hilarious.
Overall, the writing was pretty good. Not the usual SEP standards, but I think that's because she tried way too hard to be a selling point for vacations in Tuscany. And she's clearly obsessed with Italian food. Keep it out of the book, though. I felt like I was getting a very long sales pitch on Italy. The story was delightful, but I really ended up disliking Isabel. She was way too rigid, wore her religion like a martyr, and let slide Ren's infidelities, which bothered me considerably.
Rated by buyers 
-
This is my very first time reading a book by this author. I was drawn in by the promise of reading about interesting characters set against the background of the Tuscan hillsides a la "Under the Tuscan Sun". What you get instead is a poorly paced, implausible storyline and a set of characters for which you just feel no empathy. Even listening to the audio version of this book, which typically adds a little drama to even the most banal of stories, didn't help.
Rated by buyers -
SEP's writing is the usual witty, fast, and funny. I love how light her books are, and the lines are never boring.
This book is such a fantasy. The heroine,Isabel Favor, suffered major setbacks in her love life and her bank account, and those events led her to rent a little place in Tuscany. Then all of a sudden, life is looking up, better than what it was before!!! I love the optimism.
The real fantasy is meeting and getting to spend a lot of time with a hunky movie star bad boy. As if living in Tuscany and eating Italian food constantly weren't enough to bring a woman back to life!
I love the kiddie characters in the book, the author captures their fun essence.
Rated by buyers 
-
I didn't like Isabel or enjoy reading about her as much as I've enjoyed other protagonists. Her views on life were a little too goofy for me. In the end, she changes her views but the process didn't interest me. It's an ok story as far as romance goes, two very different people getting together and bringing something of value to each other. I'm used to more wit, charm and laughter from this author which wasn't in this book. Story brief: Successful self help psychology author/speaker loses all her money and her reputation. She goes to live in a farmhouse in Tuscany, Italy for awhile to regroup. She meets handsome movie star with emotional scars and flaws. Sexual language: moderate. Number of sex scenes: about eight. Setting: current day New York City and Italy. Copyright: 2002. Genre: contemporary romance.
Find other books like this one:
