Glow

In Kery's highly erotic but deeply unsatisfying sequel to Glimmer, main characters Alice Reed and Dylan Fall remain disappointingly two-dimensional. They are stick figures skittering over the slick surface of a shallow, meandering plot interspersed with Alice's hazy flashbacks of a grim past. Dylan, CEO of Durand Enterprises, is dead certain that Alice, one of his employees, is the company founder's long-lost daughter, but he feels that Alice is too emotionally fragile to deal with the truth. Of course, that ostensible fragility doesn't stop him from getting romantically involved with her. As their clandestine affair bounces between tiptoeing over Alice's delicate psyche and diving into raw, brutal sex, the story's slender thread of credibility frays even further. When someone from Alice's dark past emerges to threaten her life, the tension amps up but is still underwhelming. Will Dylan be able to come to her rescue? Will Alice muster the emotional strength to assume her role as heir to the Durand Enterprises fortune? It's hard to find any reason to care. Agent: Laura Bradford, Bradford Literary Agency. (Dec.)