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Amanda has a two-part query:

I need help finding a book! I checked it out of the library a few years ago and now I’m dying to read it again but I can’t remember much about it.

It’s one of those books where the heroine was weird/ugly in high school, left town, got pretty and is now coming back. I think for her younger sister’s wedding? And she bakes cakes for a living, so the plan is she will bake everything for the upcoming wedding. Lucky her.

The hero is a guy who was Mr. hot-shot in high school (of course) and never left town. The heroine had a huge crush on his in high school and the scene I remember most vividly is the flashback of when, in high school, she went so far as to lie down in front of his car in protest of him dating some other girl.

Beyond this I can’t remember much. The sister’s wedding breaks off and the hero and heroine get their HEA. I think this books was published by zebra sometime in the 90s?

P.S. I love these novels where the girl comes back to her hometown completely transformed and dazzles the hero who blew her off in high school. Could you recommend any books with this sort of plotline?

It’s like a makeover plotline, only slightly different, and I confess, I like it too. Part ugly-duckling, part returning-home – all potentially awesome. Does anyone remember this book, and do you have any recommendations for “Coming Home Only More Hotter” books?

 

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  1. Lindsay says:

    I’m much better looking now than I ever was in high-school, but alas, my high school crushes would still not notice me, since half (the good half) have turned out to be gay.

  2. Vicki says:

    I, total geek, left my high school after tenth grade to go to a boarding school and then the first two years of college. I returned home after braces, contacts, maturity, and a roommate who knew how to dress had done their magic on me. One day, as a college senior, I was sitting in the cafeteria with a large group of campus movers and shakers. The girl next to me, who had been immensely popular all through high school, said, “I have so much fun with you. I wish I’d known you in high school.” I said, “You did know me in high school. You just wouldn’t talk to me.” Fortunately, she was actually a nice person, apologized, and we became closer friends.

  3. teshara says:

    well, it’s nice to know after she’s gotten herself a makeover the shallow jackass jock now wants to be with her.

    Not.

  4. Cat Marsters says:

    I’m just shocked and appalled.

    No one has mentioned Romy & Michelle’s High School Reunion yet.

    For shame.

  5. AllyJS says:

    I also thought Christine a fool for going with Raoul rather then staying with Erik and Roxanne was a complete moron for liking Christian better then Cyrano.

    Sort of off subject but what irks me the most about Christine and Erik is the fact that she thought he was her father for most of it. I always saw the popularity of them more as people preferring the edgy bad boy (Erik) over the decent (if a little foppish) nice guy (Raoul)

    There’s a YA version of this by Meg Cabot where the main character reinvents herself during high school to go after the hot jock boy with the help of a book called “How to Be Popular.” Though in this one, the jock is a douche and she realizes that the right boy was the one who was her friend all along.

    If the jock was a huge douche, I can’t buy it. I like it when they were secretly sweet but if not, I like it to be the cute best friend.

  6. JamiSings says:

    @Ally –

    Sort of off subject but what irks me the most about Christine and Erik is the fact that she thought he was her father for most of it. I always saw the popularity of them more as people preferring the edgy bad boy (Erik) over the decent (if a little foppish) nice guy (Raoul)

    No, she thought he was the Angel Of Music sent to her from Heaven by her father.

    The reason I prefer Erik, actually, is because he would’ve let Christine keep singing. Raoul wanted her to never perform again. He wanted to keep her at home, being the perfect little wife who has no interests outside her husband. I’d rather be alone then be with a man who keeps me from music. Christine would end up being completely unhappy in her marriage to Raoul as he would repress her. Erik would’ve let Christine fly, probably even help her career. She could have all the joy of a man who loves her and will never cheat and the ability to be herself and sing! All Erik wanted was to be allowed to walk with her on Sundays and sing with her at home.

    @Liz – I actually remember my 6th grade teacher (who was a bully herself)* mentioning that study when we were reading about WW2.

    *Yeah, my 6th grade teacher was a bully. She believes people shouldn’t use perfume, antiperspirant, mouth wash, and should only bathe every 3 days. Because I used those things and bathed every single day she treated me like crap. Used to tell me I was a horrible person and try to make me feel stupid. (She did this to a lot of her students.) Pretty much blamed me for the hole in the ozone layer. (While teaching us that we were all going to die in the coming ice age because of global cooling.) Mom regrets to this day not standing up to her and pulling me out of that class. I went from a A/B student to a D/F student. So, it turns out, LOTS of this teacher’s students. So many, in fact, that they demoted her to fourth grade.

    Maybe we should’ve done that study in class and be allowed to bully her.

  7. Stephanie says:

    Did this happen in the book?  Just wondering, because I just saw Phantom on Broadway last week, and Raoul actually encourages her to sing in the Don Juan opera—if only to trap the Phantom.  The Phantom actually struck me as extremely possessive of Christine, and more obsessessed with owning her and her voice than truly being in love with her.

  8. meganb says:

    I love a good “sweeps back into town to show ‘em what you’ve become” story. Does anybody know of a story when it’s the HERO who does this? That sounds awesome.

    Tell Me Lies by Jennifer Crusie pretty much follows that storyline (with a twist or two).

    A bunch of comments have brought to mind a short story by Rachel Gibson that I read a few years ago about a couple getting back together at their high school reunion.  It was in an anthology called Secrets of a Perfect Night.

  9. Liz says:

    @MeganB I thought of Rachel Gibson too.  In Not Another Bad Date the female and male protagonists knew each other in college, but break up b/c the hero’s ex turned up pregnant.  The heroine returns to their town (after the hero’s wife dies), and i remember him thinking that she is hotter than she was in college.

  10. JamiSings says:

    @Stephanie – Yeah, I’m talking about the actual book, not the Weber musical. Raoul doesn’t want Christine to sing anymore once they’re married. Erik says they’ll take a little apartment, sing together, and go for walks on Sundays.

    Yes, Erik is a possessive stalker and wouldn’t be someone I’d want IRL. But since I sing myself and die a little inside when I don’t get to sing he is preferable to me then Raoul. If given a choice between true love and a music career – music would win, hands down.

  11. Jessica says:

    OK, I went and got “Falling for Gracie” from the library yesterday after reading this post and I loved it.  I stayed up way too late finishing it.  However, I do have to question the job performance of Los Lobos’ journalists and sheriff’s deputies.

  12. Estelle Chauvelin says:

    Ok, it has been a few years since my last reread of POTO and I’d forgotten that Raoul wanted her to give up singing.  My new opinion is that Christine should have stayed single.

  13. Alpha Lyra says:

    Heh, I was going to say I was Team Raoul, since Erik was definitely a possessive stalker without the maturity to be a romantic partner. But if Raoul wanted her to give up her singing career, I agree. Team Single Diva 🙂

  14. Karen says:

    Thanks to Jenica and Beki for their recommendations of “Ain’t She Sweet”—I downloaded it to my e-reader this evening and started reading it on the Metro ride in to work.  Boy was I *pissed* when I got to my stop at Chapter 2 and had to stop reading!

  15. rose tattoos says:

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  16. Meganb says:

    @Liz Is Not Another Bad Date good?  I couldn’t make myself read it, even though I read the others in that series.  I was just too afraid it would be like Daisy’s Back in Town, which I completely hated.  I love most of Gibson’s other books, though.  See Jane Score is on my all time top 10.

  17. Alpha Lyra says:

    Speaking of high school harassment, have you guys seen this?

    http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2011483076_bullies31.html

    A 15-year-old girl had a “brief relationship” with a popular senior boy, and was so severely harassed afterwards (called a “slut” and other things) by her classmates that she killed herself.

    Aside from the fact that the relationship she had appears to have been statutory rape and was thus a criminal offense by the boy, why is it always the girl who is shamed for having sex? This is so horrible. It just infuriates me.

  18. orangehands says:

    I actually liked HS and I don’t really get these books either. Being popular in HS is not the be all and end all of achievement in my mind. And I personally HATE make-over story lines. If the heroine gets “ugly” again, that HEA is screwed.

    So many, in fact, that they demoted her to fourth grade.

    JamiSings: Because what they needed was to expose her to even younger children. *rolls eyes* I had several teachers who were bullies (not to mention the pedophile) and the schools – despite numerous complaints by students and even sometimes parents – never did anything about it. It’s disgusting.

    Bullying is such a huge deal, and its treated like its a harmless joke. And oh yeah, sex-shaming for girls is a big one.

  19. JamiSings says:

    @Orange – They couldn’t fire her so they thought if they gave her younger kids then they’d have two years to undo the damage she did to them.

    I should also mention the son she was always bragging about – the same son who was a drug addict and living on the streets. She kind of made up stuff about him to make him sound great but everyone knew the truth.

    I’m surprised people think Raoul would actually “allow” Christine to keep singing. He was a Viscount, he wasn’t even suppose to marry her. Remember, his older brother Charles who was drowned in the underground lake – presumably by Erik – kept the lead ballerina as a mistress and he was encouraging Raoul to keep Christine as a mistress, but not marry her since she was just an opera singer. And he basically does tell her she won’t be singing anymore once they’re married.

    Let’s face it, had they been real people, their marriage would’ve ended up very unhappy. Raoul would be screwing anything with a vagina. Christine would be stuck at home with their kids and nursing raging STD infections Raoul had given her. Eventually she would’ve died of one or gone insane because he denied her music.

    Erik might’ve been a psycho stalker, but he never would’ve given Christine the clap!

  20. AllyJS says:

    @ Alpha Lyra

    Heh, I was going to say I was Team Raoul, since Erik was definitely a possessive stalker without the maturity to be a romantic partner. But if Raoul wanted her to give up her singing career, I agree. Team Single Diva 🙂

    I think I’m gonna have to agree with you. Though if it came to a choice between the two, I’d still say Raoul.

  21. JamiSings says:

    Well, I’m still Team Erik. In the world of fiction better to be married to a psycho stalker who’ll let me sing then a creepy viscount who’ll expect me to stay home and be his slave.

  22. SonomaLass says:

    @Chicklet

    Actually, I’m not sure I could read this book. It seems like it would be filled with scenes that generate the kind of second-hand embarrassment that gives me a stomachache.

    I thought I was alone with that particular problem!! It’s good to know someone else can’t handle extreme second-hand embarrassment (great term, I’m stealing it).

    @Alpha Lyra, that link you posted is the same case Liz was talking about, that has Massachusetts considering a tougher law.

  23. Estelle Chauvelin says:

    Hey, we’ve got a team now!  Although I suppose she doesn’t literally have to stay a single diva forever.  She could always meet an acceptable third option after the canon story ends.

  24. JamiSings says:

    @Estelle – I can’t help it, I feel bad for Erik. Maybe it’s because I was – and still am – bullied so much because I’m fat, I can’t help but feel bad for him. I know what it’s like to be so crappy because of how you’re treated you actually want to kill yourself or your bullies to make the pain end.

    That’s why I like to imagine Erik as more an avenging angel. Perhaps he killed Joseph because he found the creep trying to rape one of the kids in the ballet. Perhaps Charles (Raoul’s big brother) beat the crap out of his mistress for fun.

    Erik was forced to kill by the Sultana. (Something else from the book not in the Weber musical – Weber cut out “The Persian” all together, in fact.) It was kill or be killed. His mother rejected, probably beat him. He was kept in a cage as a side-show freak – doubt he was treated well then, might’ve even been prostituted in other ways. You can’t go through all that in pre-therapy days without ending up pretty messed up in the head.

    Granted, all fiction so we can speculate any way we want. I just can’t help it. Being called ugly and worthless all my life, I feel for him.

  25. amanda says:

    Thanks everyone for helping me find Falling for Gracie (which I love, despite the squirmy-embarassing moments)!

    and I am so on the Single Diva Team. Just saying.

  26. Chicklet says:

    @SonomaLass:

    I thought I was alone with that particular problem!! It’s good to know someone else can’t handle extreme second-hand embarrassment (great term, I’m stealing it).

    I stole it myself, from fandom, so make off with it, by all means! *g* I, too, thought I was alone in having second-hand embarrassment for fictional characters, until I discovered fellow sufferers when I got into online fandom. There are lots of TV shows and movies where I have to half-watch certain scenes because characters are humiliated or embarrassed. For example, I literally have not watched the Dazed and Confused scene where Mike gets beat up at the party since I saw the movie in the theatre 17 years ago. I always fast-forward through that scene; it makes me too uncomfortable to watch.

  27. Polly says:

    @Chicklet and SonomaLass:

    Does that mean that squirm humor is a no go for you in general? Things like the Office and Extras? Or is there something different about reading extreme second hand embarrassment?

  28. JamiSings says:

    @Chicklet and SonomaLass –

    I can be like that too. Not always, mind you, but sometimes I just can’t take it. Even if it’s something I’ve seen before like some bone headed thing Barney does on The Andy Griffith Show.

  29. Star Opal says:

    My pet second hand embarrassment:
    When “The New Mrs. DeWinter” comes out with the same costume as the dead Rebecca in Rebecca (book or movie), I have a tendency to cover my eyes. It’s just too terrible.

    Some people yell, “Get out of the house!” at horror movies. I yell, “Don’t listen to Mrs. Danvers!” at Rebecca.

    Let’s not even discuss Carrie.

  30. Star Opal says:

    JamiSings, whenever I think of Erik, I remember this line right here:

    “He had a heart that could have held the empire of the world; and, in the end, he had to content himself with a cellar.”

    It always makes me sad for him. And then that makes me think of a book that was an apocryphal prequel (who’s title I totally don’t remember) that went something like:

    “Such a little thing really, a kiss … most people don’t give it a moment’s consideration. They kiss on meeting, they kiss on parting, that simple touching of flesh that is taken entirely for granted as a basic human right. I’ve lived on this earth half a century without knowing what it is to be kissed … and I’ll never know now.”

    As I remember it, Christine was a bit on the not so bright side (yes? no?). The Persian and Erik were about a million times more interesting than Christine or Raoul.

  31. JamiSings says:

    @Star – Yeah, Christine was actually your typical dumb blond. (Another thing Weber changed. Christine is described as having blue eyes and honey blond hair.) She was also near sighted. There’s a scene in the book from when she and Raoul were children about them looking for fairies and she could “see” them because she was so nearsighted that things far off looked blurry. So she was suppose to be really innocent even though she was an opera singer and an adult. (Honestly, someone might’ve tried something with her at some point if she was really so pretty.)

    She really doesn’t wise up until after she sees Erik unmasked and up close. Loses her innocence in that moment.

    One of the best alternative versions of Phantom I read was called The Angel Of The Opera. It was a Sherlock Holmes-Phantom crossover. (It’s also the best non-Doyle Holmes I ever read.) Holmes sees Erik as someone deserving sympathy and Christine as a fool.

    When I was a teenager I used to daydream that I was one of Erik’s mysterious helpers. (There’s suppose to be other people who have lived their entire lives under the opera house, though we never see them.) Loving him in secret while he chases Christine.

    How sad is that? I was a loser even in my daydreams.

  32. Chicklet says:

    @Polly:

    Does that mean that squirm humor is a no go for you in general? Things like the Office and Extras? Or is there something different about reading extreme second hand embarrassment?

    It really depends on the movie/show in question; I’m usually fine sort of half-watching the scene if I’m also doing something else like knitting. Some properties that depend almost entirely on a character doing stupid/humiliating things (i.e., any Ben Stiller movie) are too much. I just avoid them. (Related: What is UP with that, Stiller? Do you get off on humiliating yourself?)

    Books are almost easier, because I can skim through the scenes quickly.

  33. What is UP with that, Stiller? Do you get off on humiliating yourself?)

    Books are almost easier, because I can skim through the

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