The Flirt

May 5, 2008
When charming, penniless would-be actor Hughie Armstrong Venables-Smythe answers a mysterious London ad for “an attractive, well-mannered, mentally flexible young man,” he learns that he’s to become a professional flirt, hired not to make conquests but to bring a touch of romance into the lives of unappreciated women. The catch: being a hopeless romantic, Hughie takes his job a bit too seriously. Deftly combining a sweetly improbable premise with witty, sometimes luminous writing, Tessaro (Elegance
) tells the stories of Hughie’s numerous clients, whose lives intersect in unexpected ways. They include Leticia, an emotionally repressed but sexually adventurous lingerie designer; Rose, a clueless waitress who accidentally becomes the darling of the London art scene; and Olivia, an emotionally abused socialite overdue for a transformation. Along with humor and a high London hipness quotient, Tessaro scores with keen insights into romance’s perceptual and emotional hall of mirrors.

July 15, 2008
Unemployed actor Hughie Venables-Smythe gets by on his good looks and boyish charm. Then one day, he sees an advertisement that changes his life. Valentine Charles, "procurer of rare domestic services," is looking for a "morally flexible" young man, and Hughie fits the bill to become a professional flirt, someone who boosts women's egos. However, when Hughie begins to use some of the techniques he's learned to enhance his own love life, nothing goes as expected. Tessaro's third novel (after "Elegance" and "Innocence") boasts a large cast of entertaining charactersthe plumber who loves the waitress who loves Hughie; Hughie's on-the-edge vixen lover who owns an exclusive lingerie store; Hughie's sister; an attorney and his perpetually pregnant wife; and a wealthy woman with a loutish, overbearing husband. With its delectable details and delicious characterizations, this book serves up a tasty slice of British life. Suitable for fiction collections of all sizes.Shelley Mosley, Glendale Community Coll. Lib. Media Ctr., AZ

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