THE UNLIKELY ROMANCE OF KATE BJORKMAN

Senior Kate is six feet tall, legally blind without her glasses, and bright beyond her years. She's also a writing about recent events in her life, with The Romance Writer's Phrase Book to guide her. At Christmas, her brother Bjorn, his new wife Trish, his friend Richard, and Richard's beautiful companion Fleur arrive at the Bjorkman's Minnesota home for a surprise visit. Kate has had a crush on Richard for as long as she can remember, even after his family moved to California four years earlier. But she likes Fleur, and so stifles her own romantic impulses (the same cannot be said about Kate's sexy best friend Ashley). When Kate learns that Fleur and Richard are just friends, and that her crush is requited, the course of love almost, but not quite, runs smooth. Plummer (The Romantic Obsessions & Humiliations of Annie Sehlmeier, 1989, etc.) has crackerjack timing as she stirs up one fresh romance; it's funny and fast-paced, crammed with witty dialogue and a cast of amiable characters who are not only mildly wacky, but who love each other and will do whatever they can to help Kate find her de rigueur happy ending. A breathlessly good-natured story.