cover image Liasons

Liasons

Penny Colvin. Pocket Books, $4.95 (352pp) ISBN 978-0-671-65894-6

A famed French designer with a closetful of secrets handpicks a trio of American models to represent his haute couture fashions in the 1920s and '30s. Each mannequin typifies an aspect of vaunted womanhood: one is a scheming former prostitute, another a daredevil rich girl and the third a sweet innocent with an independent streak and a stalwart heart. The tale begins with zest as the three move inexorably toward success, and wraps up with a flourish in a final, lurid confrontation. But although Colvin ( Blood and Wine ) puts the trio through enough paces--romances, treacheries, heartbreaks--to fill a season's worth of soap operas, everything stalls in the middle, with love affairs drawn out against an essentially static background. (Mar . )