HANDYMAN

Mix a sweet-faced single mom in distress, a sympathetic building contractor with the best of intentions, and a rich quack’s quick-fix therapy idea—and what do you get? Sugar and spice and everything nice, in Nichols’s pre—Valentine’s Day debut. Jake was merely in Dr. Golding’s San Francisco office getting the measurements to bid for a remodeling job while the therapist was out of town, but when Maggie came in, sat down, and started crying nonstop, how could he not show compassion? Once she started talking, Jake listened, and somehow the fact that he wasn’t the famous psychiatrist with the miracle 21-day “overhaul” that her friend Gina had steered her toward (and paid for) never came up. Maggie left feeling infinitely better, Jake left feeling very much in love, and Dr. Golding, a greedy schemer with both money and marital problems, conveniently suffers a heart attack in New York. Facing surgery, he’s out of commission, giving Jake the wiggle room he needs to continue his little charade. On her next visit to him, hearing Maggie’s worry list—her son growing up without a dad and needing medical attention she can’t afford, a harassing boss, and the unsafe neighborhood she lives in—Jake swings into action, fixing her locks, blackmailing her boss into giving her a raise and benefits, and wrestling with Maggie’s boy, Tim, who’s thrilled with all the male attention. Unfortunately, Maggie still believes Jake is her therapist, and when Gina gets wind of his “therapy,” her jealousy is such that she hires an investigator to get all the dirt on Golding she can. Jake, so in love that he loses control, kisses Maggie, and a crisis in their relationship ensues. But not to worry: Love conquers all. No-load, feel-good fiction that all but melts in the mouth, which is fine for those who like their romance dished up smooth and easy.