Kasey Michaels: This Can't Be Love

Zebra (Paperback), ISBN 0-8127-7119-1

Molly Applegate always felt like a bother to her parents. They barely stopped traveling long enough to give birth to her, and she spent her childhood being stuffed into one boarding school or another. Then they went and died on her during college, leaving her a sizeable inheritance but with a condition -- if not married, she must work 10 months out of the year. Molly simply plays at work, taking whatever job sounds appealing then moving on whenever she tires of it. That explains how she ended up running a day care center for a few days, taking over from her cousin Janie, one of the few constant people in Molly's life.

Her day care week wraps up with her facing down famed Broadway musical producer Dominic Longstreet. Dom's brother left Dom's niece and nephew with him for three weeks, but Dom's plans to just drop them at day care ends up thwarted by the school's annual two week closure. Dom certainly can't entertain the kids -- he needs to be working on his next big musical. On a whim, Molly offers to be the live-in nanny for the next two weeks.

This seemingly simple arrangement throws Dom's life into an uproar. Molly makes a wonderful nanny, but the Broadway stars gathered at Dom's compound to rehearse his next show mistake her for the diva's replacement. The overbearing stage mother of the show's child star believes Molly to be Dominic's bedmate.

Dom suffers a health scare that forces an end to rehearsals. For once, he actually must relax, and he ends up enjoying his time with his niece and nephew -- and of course, the gorgeous Molly. She wants nothing more than a fling, but she soon finds herself growing attached to both Dom and the kids. She begins to understand that she might not really want to be an unattached, carefree party girl may for the rest of her life.

Although all of the secondary characters fit stereotypical molds, Kasey Michaels make them a lot of fun. Even when completely over the top (such as Bille, the stage mother, or Cynara, the diva), the characters still feel real. Michaels writes wonderful dialogue, which keeps the story zipping right along. The whole premise seems a bit silly from the get-go, but that doesn't stop this from being a fun and fluffy read.

Jen Foote

Jen Foote recently moved to central Florida, where she is a copy editor and page designer at a small daily newspaper. She is ecstatic to live an hour away from the ocean.

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