Avon, $5.99, ISBN 0-380-81179-0
Contemporary Romance, 2000

If the author’s last two books are an overkill in lunatic secondary characters, this time around she has given the tigers, pandas, llamas, crazy grannies, and dancing polka dot hippos the sack, removed all the cheerleader hangers-on, and gone back to basics.

Which means Taming Mr. Wright is a no-nonsense funny contemporary romance with two main character working their way into bed and matrimony. It doesn’t break any new grounds, but it’ll do nicely for me.

Tess Marrow and Jack Wright are never best friends ever since their parents got married to each other and made them step-siblings. Never mind that she thinks he filled those jeans very well or he thinks she fills those bras in first-class style. But when they have to spend Thanksgiving playing Hardy Boy and Nancy Drew in The Case of Our Missing Parents, they have more than ample chance to spark.

This story may as well be the shopping list of all “fun romantic contemporary romances”. Humor? Check. Insecure heroine? Check. Beta rich hero? Check. There’s nothing new, nothing exciting, just one nice comfort read.

But hey, we can’t always expect visionary works from authors. For a few hours of nice, undemanding ride in Florida – where impossibly perfect men in tight jeans and women in bikinis parade by – this book will fit the bill.