DATING WITHOUT NOVOCAINE

Talented seamstress Hannah O'Dowd cuffs men's pants to pay the rent, but while her hands hover at ankle-height, her attentions are focused a bit farther up. She's 29 and hasn't yet found her backyard barbecue guy: "I don't want to turn thirty and still not know who I'm going to marry," she gripes, setting the tone for this mild single-girl tale set in Portland, Ore. At least she has company in her loyal but flaky roommate, Cassie, who is taking belly-dancing classes to unblock her "sex chakra," and the more sensible Louise, a phone counselor at a crisis center. It's immediately obvious that Hannah is going to fall for their mutual friend Scott, a sweet and successful dentist who's allegedly off limits because he used to date Louise. Although there's never any doubt she'll end up with him, it's still satisfying when he gets her into the chair. In her first contemporary novel (after five romances), Cach is funniest in her descriptions of Hannah's dental phobia, and she adds a few touching scenes when Hannah's mother suffers a stroke. Unfortunately, the characters tend to toss around clichés rather than engage in meaningful dialogue. Even the young, single audience to which the novel is clearly pitched will find the heroine's dating fiascoes—the gay guy trying to go straight, the cop with attention-deficit disorder—old hat, but those in need of a dose of the tried and true may appreciate the familiarity. Agent, Linda Kruger. (Mar.)