Brown (Legally Blonde) has come up with another winning premise. Becca Reinhart, a scrappy, self-made 31-year-old workaholic on Wall Street's fast track, loves her job and has no interest in snagging a husband. Edward Kirkland, a genteel, good-natured bachelor in his mid-30s, is content to handle the family's philanthropies and don a tux to dine for a good cause most evenings. He is expected to marry Bunny Stirrup, daughter of neighbors in the Hamptons, but is in no hurry to do so. Becca and Edward are thrust together when they become the co-guardians of Emily Stearns, a four-year-old suddenly orphaned by the death of both parents. Emily's mother had been Becca's best friend, and her father Edward's. Precocious Emily, heir to a fortune, desperately needs love and attention. Becca gives up business meetings in Paris and Stockholm to see that Emily is accepted into the right nursery school. Edward gives up his treasured "irresponsible solitude," as well as his regular squash game, to play hide and seek. The less-than-maternal Bunny, threatened by Becca and the change in Edward's lifestyle, connives with his mother to hasten their nuptials, going so far as to engage a wedding coordinator and place an announcement in the Sunday Times. Edward is bewildered, but he's too much of a dutiful son to call a halt—even though lately he finds himself wondering what it would be like to kiss Becca. The hasty and contrived climax defies credibility, but this featherlight charmer makes a perfect beach read. (July)
