Catch a Rising Star

Bateman (I Love Claire) kicks off a new series about three single 30-something roommates in New York City. The protagonist of this installment is Tabby Brockman, a struggling actress who is asked to resurrect a character she once played on a popular soap opera. It's a dream job, even though Tabby wrestles with how to be a faithful Christian on the set of such a steamy show and occasionally refuses to play a scene that she thinks is immoral. Meanwhile, her off-the-air love life is heating up, too. Tabby's mom is determined to set her up with a drippy guy who won't take no for an answer, but Tabby loses her heart to a hunky, recently widowed stage dad, whose two children play her twins on the soap. There are only two problems: Tabby can't stand kids, and her archrival, an annoying actress named Rachel Savage, appears to be after the same man. Tabby's first-person narration is chatty and fast-paced, the dialogue is snappy, and Tabby's roommates, parents and sister are all well-developed characters. The number of hospital scenes in this otherwise winsome and fun novel strains credulity, but in the realm of Christian chick lit, Bateman is a rising star in her own right.