STARTING OVER

Silly soap opera from the author of An Ocean Apart (1999).

Hunky husband Gregor leaves devoted wife Liz for a “wee blonde-haired bombshell” in a tight pink sweater, and Liz retreats to her father’s farm on the island of Fife to think things over. Nathaniel Craig, lonely after his wife’s death, welcomes his middle-aged daughter back. The crux of the story: Nathaniel’s grandson Alex has plans to convert the family land into a golf course, even though they’ve farmed it for over a hundred and fifty years. Liz has her doubts, while Nathaniel would just as soon sell, provided he can continue to live in the farmhouse. Then Liz finds herself attracted to a boarder supplied by her matchmaking father and even goes so far as to comb her hair in a more becoming fashion.. Arthur Kempler is a professor of German, and too old to want sex, but he does desire female companionship and invites lovelorn Liz to Seville, where the two take in the local color. Plans for the golf course are taking shape when Nathaniel meets a new woman: 60-ish Roberta (Bobby) Bayliss, Australian daughter of a Scotland-born tycoon. Bobby is a no-nonsense type and one hell of a golfer. After falling in love in a matter-of-fact way with old Nathaniel, she decides to use the vast fortune her father left her to create the best new links in Britain. Liz returns home with a great tan and blond highlights, only to hear that Gregor has been badly burned in a car accident and that he’s had enough of his wee bombshell, having caught her flirting with another man in a local pub. Can Liz ever forgive him? Take him back? These and other questions are resolved in a ho-hum denouement that will surprise no one.

Stilted style, lots of expository dialogue, and an utterly predictable plot, from the son of Rosamunde.