Maybe Later, Love/Easier-To-Read Print

When she is 55 years old, Dorrie Greene's life turns upside down: her husband dies suddenly, making her the owner of a jewelry store she doesn't know how to run and the sole occupant of a house that seems very empty (both of her children are married). Then two surprises help Dorrie pull herself out of the doldrums. Her vivacious, eccentric and thrice-divorced friend Charmaine Stubbs breezes into Dallas, determined that Dorrie won't vegetate (``Old, my ass! You're six months younger'n me!''). And when she receives a lucrative offer for the store, she realizes that she wants to keep it and become a businesswoman. Travis Burton, her accountant, teaches Dorrie to manage her affairs, and gradually their professional relationship blossoms into romance. Meanwhile Charmaine introduces Dorrie to New Age culture (to an extent that will bore skeptics). Drawing on such friends, but mostly on herself, Dorrie grows into an assertive, self-reliant woman. Her personal odyssey, as well as first-novelist Bocardo's cast of well-drawn and varied supporting characters, should delight mature romance fans who are tired of heroines young enough to be their daughters. (Sept.)