Bodine's contemporary romance has strong bones, but the execution is marred by stock characters. Media mogul David Sumner buys the Chicago Mail
and immediately moves gossip columnist Rebecca Covington to the home and food section, replacing her with young, aggressive Shannon Forrester. Rebecca enlists her gay best friend, Harry Grant, to cook while she spices up her columns with gossip. Bodine (author of several series romances as Lynn Leslie and Leslie Lynn) drowns her characters in cliché: big-spending divorcée Rebecca's endless label-dropping (“[she] hiked up her black Carolina Herrera skirt... not caring if the expensive Wolford fishnets got bigger holes”), Harry's immaculate home, widower David's vow to never love again, Shannon's endless jealousy. Even good chemistry between Rebecca and David can't diminish the sense that the real star is Rebecca's Juicy Couture cashmere jogging suit. (Dec.)
