Ivy Books (Paperback), ISBN 0804119619

Our story begins with Noah Patrick sitting on the beach in California waiting for the tide to come in and wash him away forever, along with all his mistakes (trust me, he committed more than his share). Good opening for a movie, the former child star thinks (Gary Coleman could play him in the movie version of his life…well, maybe not). But since we've barely begun Chapter One, we know fate will intervene and save our hero from a watery grave. Noah's fate comes disguised as his former agent, Vivienne Varner. A desperate Noah will take any deal, even a deal from this Mommie Dearest devil, to get his life back.

Enter Lindsay West, our story's heroine and Noah's former co-star on Betwixt and Be Teen, a popular television show from the Eighties. Just to complicate matters, she also happens to be Vivienne's daughter. Mother and daughter stopped speaking to each other when Lindsay walked away from the show that made her and Noah famous and moved back home to Belle Coeur, Missouri, determined to forget her life in Hollywood. Being a good sister, a requirement of the heroine, Lindsay agrees to star in her sister's play Return Engagement, unaware of who her co-star will be. Any guesses?

The past and the present will soon collide. Our hero and heroine struggle for a second chance to get it right.

Tired of struggling for a second chance stories? But wait, the main characters look really good! Okay, nothing new there. How 'bout the fact that the heroine, a repressed mother/widow, seeks a warm gorgeous body (and nothing else)? And the hero (the guy in possession of that warm, gorgeous body) seeks to jumpstart his stalled acting career -- a career that generally requires memorizing lines, not to mention remembering people, places and other niggling details -- while suffering from an impaired memory. Throw into the mix a few slightly psychic relatives, Lindsay's bitter sister (still reeling from their mother's abandonment 15 years earlier) and an uncle with an unloaded gun named Lucille. Now we've got ourselves a story!

Lest we think Noah and Lindsay possess nothing more in common than their own gorgeousness (and faded acting careers), we learn that they both wrestle with a lot of pent up anger. (Where's Anger Management's Jack Nicholson when you need him?)

However, do they share anything else -- aside from that one night they spent together before Lindsay left the limelight? Turns out, Noah doesn't even remember the night Lindsay once regretted so much. A little insulting, perhaps, but years of boozing apparently obliterated a number of Noah's brain cells, leaving him a little hazy on things.

Still, Noah knows he belongs in California, not Missouri. Yet he can't help but be drawn to this little town and its wacky residents. Specifically, he feels drawn to Lindsay, a woman he barely remembers. Once the play ends, he plans to return to Los Angeles to build a future without her. At least that's what he thinks.

Meg Corcoran

Meg Corcoran is a freelance writer who works on assignment for the Northern Exposure Greeting Card Company writing greeting card copy. Her articles have appeared at Writers Crossing and Entertainment Magazine On Line.

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