My review of The Flirt by Kathleen TessaroWould it be every man’s dream to be paid to flirt with women? Hughie thinks he has found this dream job that starts with a cream colored card secretively given to a woman to capture her attention, curiosity, and imagination. Kathleen Tessaro takes the reader to London where the main character is the charming and attractive Hughie Venables-Smythe. Hughie is a would-be actor looking for work and without realizing it, looking for a loving relationship. Hughie doesn’t think he wants to tie himself down and in fact finds himself in a “no strings attached” relationship with an older woman. Leticia, who owns a rather non-traditional lingerie boutique, wants to be with Hughie only for sex and no further commitment. Hughie answers a very unusual ad and finds himself being trained to be a “professional flirt”. He feels this is a good job that enables him to work on his acting skills while making some much needed money. The job involves being assigned to flirt with a married woman to help them feel more romantic and wanted. This theoretically makes the woman feel better about herself and it carries over into her marriage and makes for a better relationship with her husband. The husbands themselves hire “the flirt” through this business set up to meet the needs of some very wealthy but discontented clients. Cream colored cards are secretively given to the wives by Hughie, and he follows up with his charms and attention. The conflict occurs when Hughie decides to implement what seems to be working in his “profession” into his own life with Leticia. What follows is a series of events that suddenly finds lives intersecting in ways that were not expected or meant to be. Kathleen Tessaro, who gave us Elegance, brings us another comedic addition to “Chick Lit” that moves along quickly with humor and heart. The many characters introduced in each chapter add their part to the mix of this romantic romp. Some may find it hard to keep track of everyone and the part they play in this sometimes improbable idealistic escapade. However, when read as it is meant to be, a delightfully light romantic comedy and fun beach read, the reader will be glad that they encountered The Flirt! Submitted by Karen Haney, July, 2008
A book I borrowed and grabbed quickly as an after-thought on my way out the door to a week long vacation. I know the cliche saying, but speaking honestly, this is just not a book that I would pick up and read the back of, let alone purchase based on the cover alone. Opening, I thought it was pretty silly and almost put it down. But this is not normally my genre. I thought I'd bear with it. Although there were too many characters for my taste, I did end up enjoying the book (having that feeling where you can't wait to go back to it) and how the character's lives all ended up intertwining. I do like when that happens, even if some of the scenarios were a little implausible. Hey, the point is to escape reality sometimes. I did wonder why some of the characters were even introduced. Seemed like a new one each chapter for awhile, some having great potential, but their story lines dissipated or left me feeling unsatisfied. I couldn't tell you who the main character is. I want to say Hughie (the out of work actor that falls into the flirting gig) because it all begins and ends with him. However, Leticia and Olivia seem to be better developed and easier to connect with. The ending was rushed. I wanted more. It is like I waited the whole book for things to finally come together and when it did I realized there were only a handful of pages left. I did like the digression about the flirting business being a real thing. Non-Fiction seems to open a new part of wonder in my brain. Overall, it was a fun, easy read and it was fun to guess who would end up with who.
Tessaro is the author of two previous books, "Elegance" and "Innocence", both of which I thoroughly enjoyed. This one sounded good, too, so I finally got around to reserving it a few weeks ago. And it is good, but it's not exactly what the back of the book leads you to believe...Hugie is an out-of-work actor, but when we first meet him, he's looking for a job. He's also flirting with a coffee-shop waitress, trying to get her to put his coffee on account, seeing as how he's left his AMEX card at home (a very old line that he's worked to death, but the waitress has a soft spot in her heart for him, usually paying for his coffee herself). He answers an ad in the paper, and thus is hired on to learn the art of flirting. We follow him on this journey, and at no time would I really call him a "professional" at this new endeavor; he fails much more than he succeeds, and indeed, it's these failures that cause the "series of remarkable events". There's a rather large cast of characters, but Tessaro does an excellent job of developing each one. I never felt like anyone got slighted as far as their story went, and the different plot lines dovetailed nicely. The only complaint I really have is the twist that occurs close to the end of the book involving Hughie; I can't say any more for fear of giving it away, but I found myself thinking it was a little too staged and preposterous. Still, this is a nice work, a little more serious than your usual Chick Lit offering. Look for Tessaro's next book, "The Debutante", in stores this October.
—Traci
I should have liked this book. Everything pointed to it being a really good chic lit book, but honestly, I just couldn't get into it. To me it was like the author was trying to copy the movie "Love Actually" in the way that there are all these plots and characters that intersect throughout the story, with "The Flirt" and the company that he works for being central to them all. I couldn't get into the characters, I couldn't picture them. The story seemed to jump around, and some of the characters, like Red Moriarty didn't seem to fit in the story at all, and she's never really developed, although she had a lot of potential. I think the author just put too many characters in this novel.The writing was good though, flowed well. If I come across another of her books, I might read it, as long as there aren't too many characters and story lines.
—Leah
This is the second book I read by Kathleen Tessaro. I really like her writing style. Stories have many seemingly unrelated characters. However, in the end they are intricate woven. This particular story revolves around "professional flirts." They are hired and trained by an agency to innocently (or so it seems) flirt with the women in their client's wives. A man would hire a flirt often after some indiscretion or when his wife was not "at her loveliest." It was said that even a tired mother because more alluring to her husband if another man flirted with her. The flirts were prohibited from having any romantic relationships...period...even outside of work. This, of course, can be very challenging for those who are natural romantics. The techniques the flirts use are many and creative. There is a wide variety of characters. There are happy endings for some, sad for others, and for a few, the endings are unknown. Love getting lost in Tessaro's books.
—Tama
