Looking for a Love Story

For a while, author Francesca Sewell was living her dream: her first novel was a hit, she married a handsome up-and-coming photographer, and she became the toast of her new Upper East Side neighborhood (where the happy couple bought and furnished their dream co-op). Three years on, however, she's struggling with her second book, her husband is distant, and her glamorous social life has grown uncomfortable (as has her wardrobe). When she's dumped by both her husband and her agent, Francesca is left with Annie, their rescue dog, to confront the downside of success. Desperate for work, she agrees to ghostwrite the family history of Chicky, the globe-trotting 90-year-old daughter of two 1920s vaudeville stars. Predictably but satisfactorily, Francesca comes to terms with her (and her parents') divorce by investigating the story of Chicky and her folks, in the process discovering the love story she'd been seeking all along. Shaffer (Serendipity ) is at her best telling Chicky's story, a throwback to potboilers of the 1920s, giving this single-gal redemption story unexpected depth. (May)