I'M NO ANGEL

Savvy Palm Beach PI Angel Devlin, who wears both stiletto heels and a stiletto knife strapped to her thigh, knows trouble when she sees it, and it's written all over handsome-as-sin Tom Donovan, an ex-alligator wrestler who recently became a billionaire. Tom seems intent on getting to know Angel better, and she soon learns why. Tom wants access to reclusive Holt Hudson, Tom's godfather and the only one who knows what really happened 26 years earlier when Tom's father was fatally shot in Holt's mansion. But despite the incendiary attraction between Angel and Tom, she realizes she must keep Tom from Holt or risk having Holt cancel the charity gala she talked him into hosting at his estate. Though nearly incandescent with sensual heat, Berg's latest (after And Then He Kissed Me ) feels like a cross between a soap opera and Alias : Angel slithers into a red hooker dress to go undercover at a strip club, her ex-husband's name is Dagger, and designer dresses and handbags receive enough page space to be minor characters. But the protagonists' affection for their families and the real-life problems they face (such as Alzheimer's) prevent this beach read from succumbing entirely to silliness. Agent, Robin Rue. (July)

Forecast: With its electric orange cover, featuring a sexy blonde with angel wings and devil horns, this book should appeal to both chick-lit aficionados and romance readers.