Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #143667 in Books
• Published on: 2004-04-01
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Synopsis
Sophy's single and happy about it. She does, however, have an imaginary boyfriend, Dominic, a little white lie designed to keep Sophy's mother off her back. Which is fine, until his presence is demanded at a family wedding. So does Sophy admit Dominic is a fantasy? Oh no. Sophy hires an escort. But when the distinctly delicious Josh Carmichael arrives on her doorstep, Sophy can tell things are going to get tricky. And the wedding is only the beginning...

About the Author
Liz Young started writing after a variety of jobs that included being part of an airline cabin crew, modelling for TV commercials in Cyprus and working for the Sultan's Armed Forces in Oman. She is the author of Asking for Trouble, Fair Game and, most recently, A Girl's Best Friend. She lives in Surrey.

Excerpted from Asking for Trouble by Elizabeth Young. Copyright © 2000. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
I blame it entirely on pressure of work, but for the next couple of weeks Dominic and I were still officially an item at the bottom of my in-tray. Every time it rose to the surface, saying, 'Well?' I told it to bugger off, I was far too busy and important to deal with it just now. After a lull we were suddenly inundated. IT, marketing, accounts: you name it, they wanted it, and that was without the temps. We were trawling old candidate files and advertising everywhere but the backs of cornflake packets. There was barely even time to discuss really crucial stuff, like the previous night's Friends, or that irritating woman in the sandwich shop. I didn't tackle Dominic properly until Sunday morning, nineteen days before the wedding. Having him dump me would have been the simplest way out, but that wouldn't keep anybody's end up, least of all mine. I suppose I'd been hoping my imagination would suddenly whack me on the head with the perfect way out. It had been very creative once. I'd had brilliant fantasies about being in the Famous Five (instead of that wet Anne with her dolls) or plotting against the Sheriff with Robin Hood (instead of that wet Maid Marian).

Mind you, I hadn't exercised it much lately, except with the kind of fantasies you don't tell your mother about, so since all it had come up with was 'Abduction by Aliens', I was still dithering over alternatives. Nobody was helping me, either. Alix was still asleep, and although a vaguely human body was sprawled on the sofa, it was absorbed in the football pages. Its beloved Tossers United had screwed up yet again so it was serious stuff. I was up against a bad case of TMD, a.k.a. Temporary Male Deafness.

The body belonged to Alix's 'little' brother Ace, all five foot eleven of him. He was twenty-six, quite nice-looking under the scruff, and his light-brown ponytail was in vibrant condition, thanks to my Pantene 2 in 1, which he pinched constantly. With it he wore one gold earring and, except when Tossers had screwed up, a chilled-out air I defy anyone to beat.

'You might make some suggestion, even if it's completely brainless,' I muttered. 'You could at least show willing.'

Not so much as a primeval grunt. Currently occupying the cupboard that passed as a third bedroom in this flat, Ace had moved in for a week a couple of months back, and had stayed because he preferred paying cupboard-sized rent to the room-sized variety. Despite nicking Pantene and everything else, Ace had his uses. If you had a sudden craving for Jaffa Cakes just before EastEnders, he'd nip to the Pop-In News 'n' Grocery if you asked him very nicely.

After a thirty-second time lapse, something got through the footie fog. 'I'd make him a perve, if I were you,' he announced. 'Tell your mum you went round one night and found him poncing around in high heels and one of your bras, all upset because he couldn't find enough socks to stuff it with.' 'Dominic's not like you,' I said testily. 'He doesn't have to hunt under the bed every morning for any putrid socks that haven't actually walked to the washing machine by themselves. He's got whole drawers full, all neatly rolled up and colour-coded.' 'S&M, then.' The little toad was grinning his face off. 'What if he suddenly asked you to do the Miss Bumwhack bit?' He put on a lecherous, gasp-and-pant voice. 'I've been a really, really bad boy - I was playing with my winkle all night--'

'For God's sake, he'd never call it a winkle. Anyway, I refuse to have a relationship with a perve.'

'Suit yourself. Sling me a couple of those chocolate fingers, will you?'

I slung. There were four left in the packet on the coffee table. Four, and I'd bought them only an hour previously, while picking up the papers at the Pop-In.

Ace bit half off both of them and continued with his mouth full, 'Your mum was bound to resort to emo-tional blackmail in the end. It's a mum's favourite weapon and if you haven't sussed that out by now, then quite frankly, I despair of you.'

I could almost have written a dissertation on Emotional Blackmail, Maternal Variety Of. Before phoning home an hour and a half previously I'd been psyching myself up for a hefty dose of precisely that. I'd decided to be strong, harden my heart, not give in to it. I'd worked out exactly what I was going to say.

I'd started all brisk and no-nonsense, as you do. I was very sorry but I didn't think Dominic was going to be able to make it, after all. He was terribly busy. Cue for, 'Oh, Sophy, really! I knew you'd let me down again, just when everybody's dying to meet him. I told wretched Maggie he was almost definitely coming and you know what that woman's like . . .' She went on a bit.

Eventually Mum'd gone all plaintive on me: 'Some-times I wonder whether you're ashamed of me and Daddy. Every single time you've promised to bring him home . . .' Etc.

To distract myself from the memory of Mum's soulful voice and Ace's demolition of the biscuits, I leafed through the Mag on Sunday; the lovelorn small ads are always good for a laugh. As usual they were crawling with slim, attractive, bubbly women who WLTM unmarried, un-sad, un-ugly blokes for caring and sharing. You had to admire their optimism. 'Maybe I should put an ad in,' I said now. '"Daft cow, 30, needs passable blokes for one day only. No polyester shirts, no creeps, positively no sex, fifty quid."'

'I'll do it for fifty quid,' the little toad grinned. 'Only you'll have to buy me a flash suit first.'

Customer Reviews

Don't ask for trouble ...
I bought this book as I loved the film "Something Borrowed", which is fabulous. Sadly, the book is very poor indeed - the characters are really self-obsessed and wearisome, and the story (totally unlike the very grown-up and sparky film) is childish and namby-pamby. I can't imagine what other reviewers have seen in it. Chick lick should be - and certainly used to be - a whole lot better than this.

If you want to ask for trouble then, I'd advise giving this one a miss and buying the film instead.

Brilliant!
This book had me gripped from the beginning. Sophy creates a fake boyfriend, Dominic, to appease her mother and all is well until Sophy and Dominic's presence is asked when Sophy's sister, Belinda, gets married. Does Sophy tell her mother she lied? Does she hell. She hires an escort in the shape of Josh Carmichael. A witty, laugh out loud read that I couldn't put down. I couldn't help hoping for Sophy and Josh to get together but everything seemed to get in their way!

Girls grab the tissues!
Pure genius for any girl who loves her rom coms and I think that's almost any girl at heart.

The cast is superb with Jack Davenport adding that brilliant english humour. I don't think I realised how beautiful Debra Messing was beofre this film - stunning. Anyone who loved My Best Friend's Wedding with Dermot Mulroney with equally love him in this, if not more by the end. As Messing says in the dvd extras, Mulroney has some wicked charming lines throughout.

I never thought I'd say I'm a fan of Michael Buble but it would seem that I am after fabulous songs throughout the film. His version of Sway, Home and Save the Last Dance are really heartwarming, however there's no major songs, only sheet music on the soundtrack album.

Send the boyfriend to the pub or forget about the one who dumped you by grabbing some munchies and settling down with this one. You'll want to watch it again and again, so what if it didn't do great at the box office, it's still a classic in my books!