The Thrill of It All

by Ridgway, Christie

• ISBN13: 9780060502904
• ISBN10: 0060502908
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-10-05
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publications

Summary

With a sweet, funny voice and stories that readers love, USA Today bestselling author Christie Ridgway is poised for great things. Let's grow Christie the way we've grown Rachel Gibson! Felicity Charm went from dirt-poor desert rat to the ?America's Shopping Sweetheart? when she single-handedly broke out television's hottest new shopping channel, GetTV, to a whole new audience of young, hip consumers. But try as she might to reinvent her background, the truth is bound to come calling-in the form of crazy Aunt Vi, who needs Felicity's reliability to help sort out the latest family crisis. So she puts her ?perfect' boyfriend and ?perfect' life on hold, and strikes out in her Miata to Half Palm, CA, hoping to make fast work of her nutsoid relatives and get back to LA as quickly as possible. But before she manages that, she'll meet Luke Nilsson, an extreme rock climbing star who's just as caught up in the antics of the Charm family as Felicity is. He's wrong for Felicity in every single way imaginable, but get the two of the together and things seem so right. Perhaps Aunt Vi isn't so nutsoid after all...

Excerpts

The Thrill of It All

Chapter One

There was more dazzle in the Las Vegas ballroomthan a convention of Crest White Strippers on a glitterfactory tour. Ultraviolet smiles snapped on and offlike flashbulbs, their beams catching in the diamonddropchandeliers overhead and in the facets of the cutcrystalstemware on the snowy tablecloths. Celine'sshow at Caesar's Palace was dark that night, but Celineherself was still at work, her silver sequins winkingas she slinked forward to double-airkiss thecheeks of the Home Shopping Network's CEO.Nearby, the canary-yellow jewel in J-Lo's cocktailring -- a simulated "Jem" from her own signatureline -- caught the light and bounced off the glasses ofthe QVC executive sitting beside her.

At the table reserved for GetTV -- front and center,as GetTV had received the most nominations for theawards that honored the best in the shopping networkand infomercial industry -- no high-powered executiveor high-salaried celebrity could distract FelicityCharm from the single most important figure in the room. Elegant, serene, and standing alone on a satinskirtedtable atop the stage, the fourteen-inch statuette,nicknamed the "Joanie," commanded allFelicity's attention.

Her hand curled, as if already wrapping around thetrophy's slick surface. The Joanie's gleamingfourteen-karat finish would pick up the matchingthreads in the white chiffon of her simple straplessevening dress, Felicity thought. Perfect. The crowningtouch to the image she'd been shaping and polishingfor the past sixteen years.

A silky southern accent snaked through the buzz ofthe crowd. "Don't you feel like a big ol' fake?"

"No." Felicity's gaze whipped left, clashing withthe cool, calculating one of Andrea Rice, the coworkerseated next to her at the banquet table.To coverfor her knee-jerk outburst, Felicity tempered her voiceand worked up a half-smile. "I mean, uh ... what?"

Andrea shrugged. "Oh, it's just me and my jitters.About now I start thinkin' how undeservin' I am or Istart worryin' about givin' my acceptance speechwhile somethin' leafy green and the size of southTexas is stuck between my teeth."

Felicity hung on to her noncommittal smile. Notonly wouldn't she let that four-letter word "fake" intoher head, but she'd start cashiering at K mart beforeshe imagined herself standing up in front of threethousand industry professionals -- not to mention theTV viewers watching the awards ceremony live athome -- with a Popeye-worthy portion of spinachwedged in the seam of her two front incisors.

Andrea waved a hand. "I can't imagine why I'mgivin' it a li'l ol' thought. This might be my seventhnomination for Host of the Year and the only timeyou've been mentioned, but I'm just sure you'll win."

It wasn't lost on Felicity that the moment demandedshe reciprocate, but it was all she could do to respondwith another smile. Her stage crew had let her knowthat in the weeks since Advertising Age magazine hadnamed her "America's Sweetheart of Sales," the otherwoman had been tirelessly campaigning the membersof the Electronic Retail Association to vote for anyonebut "Felicity Full-of-Herself," as Andrea liked to callher behind her back.

The chandeliers briefly flickered, signaling that thecommercial break was almost over and sending Felicity'spulse rate soaring. As live close-ups of herselfand the four other Host of the Year nominees poppedonto the huge screens hanging over the stage, the manon her right, her producer, Drew Hartnett, leaneddown to murmur into her ear.

"This is it," he said.

She smiled for the umpteenth time, as anxious tohide her nerves from him as she was to conceal themfrom everyone else. Drew always looked like herideal man -- but tonight! He wore a tuxedo like othermen wore jeans and sweatsocks and his cultured bearingonly made her more determined that any cracks inher poised, self-assured shell wouldn't show.

Drew deserved no less. They'd worked together thepast two years with the tacit agreement that they weretoo busy with the transformation of GetTV to allow a romantic relationship to steal their focus, but with thisyear's success, she knew the time was ripe for that tochange.

Winning the Joanie would prove Felicity goodenough to win Drew, too.

The chandeliers dimmed, and then the emceebounded back onto the stage. During the next fewminutes, while the cameras retained live, tight shotson the others, the fifth screen displayed a canned segmentabout each nominee, complete with gushingvoice-over and clips from their respective shows.

Felicity sat frozen, trying to look bright-eyed andattentive through the others' spotlights. Then it washer turn.

"In the past year at GetTV, Felicity Charm hasturned our industry on its ear. Not content with the demographictargeted by QVC, HSN, Worldwide Shopping,and the infomercial retailers, Felicity speaksto—and more importantly sells to -- her generation.InStyle magazine calls her the 'It Girl of ElectronicRetail.'

"Maybe it's the products she presents -- many thatshe selects herself -- or the celebrities she convincesto appear with her, from Sarah Michelle Gellerdemonstrating moves from her Buffed-Up series ofexercise DVDs to the rock band the Red Hot ChiliPeppers offering up their special Red Hot Chili Pepperpasta sauce. Whatever the reason, there's an undeniablemagic about Felicity that has twenty- andthirty-somethings tuning in."

Then they ran a clip from a recent show. Felic-ity saw herself admiring a more run-of-the-millproduct -- a set of 250-threadcount Egyptian cottonbedwear -- "Boyfriends don't leave beds dressed inthese sheets!" -- and then she suggested to the at-homeaudience that the product also made great gifts forolder relatives. Her Aunt Vi's book group -- ClassicLadies Read the Classics -- used them on every bed intheir first and second homes, she told the audience,and her Uncle Billy's golf foursome swore sleeping onthe smooth cotton had taken an average of six strokesoff their golf score.

The Thrill of It All. Copyright © by Christie Ridgway. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc. All rights reserved. Available now wherever books are sold.

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Excerpted from The Thrill of It All by Christie Ridgway
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