Candy Kisses

In Gordon's fourth novel (after Mandy and the Mayor), Candy Price isn't quite excited about the prospect of spending yet another summer in her hometown of Albany, working for a histrionics-prone boss and yearning for an opportunity to leverage her job as assistant to a gubernatorial candidate into something more important, perhaps even in Washington. In the absence of a realistic opportunity to ""get out of SmAll-bany,"" Candy settles on the project of improving the love life of her recently-jilted roommate, Mike Wheeler. Mike, in turn, agrees to help Candy find romance of her own. Using a bag of chocolate kisses, Candy and Mike devise a system of rating the real kisses they receive from their dates. Several weeks and an interminable string of candy-related puns later, Candy and Mike begin to arrive at an obvious conclusion. While a subplot about Mike's job at a veterans' home being endangered adds momentum, it fails to elevate this cookie-cutter romance.