Welcome to Temptation (2000)

Welcome to Temptation is a contemporary romance written by Jennifer Crusie and released in 2000. The novel explores the love story between Sophie Dempsey, a screenwriter making a movie in the small town of Temptation, and the mayor, Phinneas "Phin" Tucker. Over the course of the story, they solve a murder and deal with conflict around Sophie's movie, which is alternately a documentary or a porn flick. The lead characters appear in supporting roles in the sequel, Faking It, which centers on Sophie's brother, a secondary character in Welcome to Temptation.

Crusie, who has often defended the romance genre against critics, wrote the novel to deconstruct the complaints levied against the genre. The novel examines perceptions of reality versus fantasy and concludes that embracing a fantasy may lead to greater self-awareness. Through imagery and plot points, Crusie shows the shift in the power dynamics between the couple change as their relationship progresses, resulting in a more equal balance of power. Sophie's movie, which includes scenes taken from her courtship with Phin, provides an opportunity to explore the boundaries between private acts and public events. Using a protagonist who is also a con artist, Crusie highlights the inherent con in romance novels - that two extremely different people who have known each other for only a short time could live happily ever after.

The book was well-received; reviewers highlighted its humor, dialogue, and more daring sex scenes. It was a New York Times besteller and was number two on Amazon.com's list of top contemporary romances of 2000.

Background

As research for her doctoral dissertation, Jennifer Crusie determined to read 100 romance novels. Crusie had never explored that genre, and she was convinced she would find it difficult to wade through those types of books. To her surprise, she discovered that she enjoyed the genre, so much so that she became a literary critic for the genre and began writing romance novels herself.

During the 1980s and 1990s, literary critics frequently dismissed the romance novel genre, often for contrasting reasons. Janice Radway contended that the genre is bad for women, blinding them to the difference between fantasy and reality. She posited that women turn towards books in this genre to get an emotional release denied to them in their daily lives, where they must devote themselves to caregiving and have little time for themselves. Other critics saw the genre as simply a rehash of stereotypical sexual and marital roles. In the late 1990s, Crusie wrote several essays defending the romance novel against critics.

Crusie was also developing her own career as a novelist. Lamenting the lack of the “edgy, angry feminist love stories" that she most enjoyed reading, Crusie determined to fill that gap herself. After writing several short category romances, Crusie transitioned to writing single-title novels. Her third of these longer works was Welcome to Temptation, which was released in hardcover in March 2000 by St. Martin's Press. It was reissued in trade paperback format in September 2010.

One of the secondary characters, Davy Dempsey, becomes the hero of Crusie's follow-up, Faking It. The protagonists in this novel are secondary characters there.

Plot summary

The novel begins as Sophie Dempsey and her younger sister Amy approach the small Ohio town of Temptation. They have been hired by their former sister-in-law, Clea Whipple, to create a movie that will revive her failing acting career. Before the sisters reach the town, they are involved in a minor car accident with Stephen and Virginia Garvey, prominent citizens of Temptation who also consider themselves the moral pillars of society.

The hero of the book, Phinneas "Phin" Tucker, is another prominent citizen; he is the fourth generation of his family to serve as mayor of Temptation.

As the book progresses, there is conflict between the characters on the nature of the film they are making; ultimately three different versions are produced. One is a documentary, Return to Temptation, showcasing Clea and the town's reactions to her return to her birthplace and the making of the movie. The second version, Cherished, is women's soft-core pornography, with Clea and Rob Lutz, the sone of her former lover, as the featured actors. A third version, Hot Fleshy Thighs is a bad hard-corn porn movie aimed at men.

Near the middle of the novel, Clea's husband Zane is murdered.

Style

The novel is a contemporary romance. The plot is, at first glance, fairly typical of the genre. The hero is rich and of a high social stature, and his love will elevate a poor, yet honest lower-class heroine. Crusie quickly turns this on its head. The hero dislikes his position and dreams of walking away from his social responsibilities. The heroine dislikes the hero and is actively working to undermine his authority.

Unlike other heroes of the genre, Phin is neither aloof nor a committed bachelor. He is a single father and is portrayed as a loving man who is already comfortable in a domestic role.

Themes

Welcome to Temptation is, at its core, a feminist defense of the romance genre. Through imagery, characterization, and plot points, Crusie deconstructs many of the complaints that critics frequently leveled against the genre during the 1990s. In so doing, she also echoed her own journey to becoming a novelist, from skepticism to acceptance to an embrace of that which she was originally prepared to dislike. The heroine is even given a name derived from The Grand Sophy, a novel by highly regarded romance novelist Georgette Heyer.