cover image WHITE BIKINI PANTIES

WHITE BIKINI PANTIES

Kelly James-Enger, . . Kensington/Strapless, $12.95 (300pp) ISBN 978-0-7582-0698-5

Practical, not too fussy, unexpectedly sexy—28-year-old Trina Elder is as low maintenance as white bikini panties. Her plain Jane-ness never bothered her before, but when she discovers that Rick, her sexy nerd of a boyfriend, is cheating on her, she's thrown for a loop. What's a young, well-adjusted copywriter to do? Trina mopes, has meaningless—then slightly more meaningful—sex and contracts genital warts. She also spends time with her suburban family, her wacky actress best friend and her funny gay co-worker at the Coddled Cook, a Williams Sonoma–like operation. There are occasional flashes of originality, as when Trina says of a back-handed compliment, "It's like the opposite of a cloud with a silver lining. It's a fuzzy stuffed animal with a razor shoved inside," but the novel's humor is generally of the low-key variety. James-Enger sympathetically captures Trina's workaday doldrums, shines a realistic light on family problems and doesn't settle for superficial solutions to romantic dilemmas. Readers looking for an escape from dull jobs and everyday worries may find it all a little too familiar, but it's the very ordinariness of the story that appeals. Agent, Laurie Harper. (Nov.)