cover image Sweet Baklava

Sweet Baklava

Debby Mayne, Abingdon, $13.99 trade paper (352p) ISBN 978-1-4267-0870-1

Romance novelist Mayne (Love Finds You in Treasure Island, Florida) reunites Paula Andrews, owner of a soap and candle business in Tarpon Springs, Fla., with her high school sweetheart, Nick Papadopoulos, now in the Air Force. Nick's romantic family pushes aggressively for a rematch when Nick is home on leave, plying Paula with lots of Greek food to keep her around. But Paula and Nick have some insecurities to work out, including fallout from Paula's parents' divorce. Attempts to build romantic tension get repetitive, as does the Papadopoulos family's scheming (though the recipes at the end look tasty). Minor characters have similarly slack development arcs as they come to see the errors of their ways. Mayne's Christian plot elements resemble powdered sugar, sprinkled over complications to resolve them, but readers who like their Christian fiction sweet and light will enjoy this confection. (Mar.)