cover image Three Brides, No Groom

Three Brides, No Groom

Debbie Macomber. Silhouette Books, $6.99 (376pp) ISBN 978-0-373-48352-5

Three college classmates meet at their 15th reunion to discover that their lives have taken unexpected twists. Upon graduation, each planned to marry, but was betrayed by the man she trusted. Each in turn relates the story of her heartbreak, her recovery and how she found--and may have lost--true love with another man. The cliche-ridden prose never rises above the serviceable, and the characters are fundamentally archetypes, from the bad boy on a motorcycle to the computer nerd who whips off his metaphorical glasses and becomes a hunk (is it purely by chance that he's named Clark?). Still, popular romance writer Macomber (This Matter of Marriage) has a gift for evoking the emotions that are at the heart of the genre's popularity, and her breezy style keeps the pages turning to the predictable, but still satisfying, happy ending. Author tour. (Oct.)