cover image Strapless

Strapless

Leigh Riker. Harlequin Books, $12.95 (320pp) ISBN 978-0-373-25018-9

A plucky New York gal pushing 30 negotiates romantic and career pitfalls in Leigh Riker's Strapless. Darcie Baxter has a devastatingly cute, Ivy League-educated investment banker boyfriend who will only schedule an ""appointment"" with her once a week at the Hyatt. Meanwhile, her co-worker at the lingerie company Wunderthings keeps stealing her development ideas. Complications multiply when Darcie is sent on business to Australia, where she meets a dreamy, barely tamed sheep rancher who wants her to be his little woman. The witticisms fall somewhat flat (""I stand five feet four in my panty hose, which are soaked at the moment no, not with lust but... from this freaking rain""), but still this is a competent entry in the Bridget Jones look-alike contest, with a Down Under twist.