cover image Ever After

Ever After

Louann Gaeddert. St. Martin's Press, $3.95 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-312-92119-4

A contrived premise, smarmy villains and the heroine's budding independence leave little time for her to become acquainted with the hero in this busy tale by the author of Perfect Strangers . When Emily Stanoszek inherits a Berkshires house and farm from Peter Darrow, a man she has never heard of, she sets out to investigate the mystery. It's glaringly obvious to the reader (though apparently not to the heroine) that Peter loved Emily's late grandmother and deeded Emily a home and security in her memory. Keith Cavanaugh, a zoologist with the requisite unhappy romance in his past, arrives to continue the field study he began the previous summer. Emily finds a job selling art, refurbishes the house and settles in, delight in her new self-reliance dampened only by a developer and a lawyer who try, respectively, to bully and swindle her out of her land. Keith, a prickly sort of hero, is of no use foiling the villains, but does assist at a difficult whelping when Emily dredges up an old Lassie trick and sends him a plea for help tied around a dog's collar. It's difficult to believe this ill-assorted pair are on a first-name basis by the end of the book, much less desperately in love. (Apr.)