by Olivia Goldsmith
Guilty pleasures don't come much tastier than this latest bon-bon from Goldsmith (The First Wives Club), in which just about every twenty-something in Seattle is sleeping with someone (or sometwo) else. Everyone, that is, except Jon Delano, a computer geek whose love life reads like a disaster report: Blind dates flee; true dates fail to materialize. The only thing going for Jon is his best friend, journalist Tracie Hig-gins, who is smart, sexy and sophisticated. When Jon begs her to help rework him into a more desirable man—a "bad boy," as she puts it—the novel kicks into comic high gear. Even after the makeover—new clothes, a hipper haircut, an edgier attitude—Jon keeps flubbing his assignments. Unlike most of the louts Tracie knows, he's basically a sincere, responsible, straightahead sort of a guy.
Goldsmith tips her hat to Jane Austen and other literary greats with the meddling Tracie, whose motives for remaking Jon are decidedly less than noble. Not to worry, though. Just as Jon gets everything "right," everything goes wrong in Trade's life. (Dutton, $24.95)
Bottom Line: Delightful romantic farce
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