Love @ First Site

Thirty-four year-old television producer Jess Monroe triumphs over the vicissitudes of singlehood with a wry sense of humor and a little help from her friends in Moore's snappy but familiar novel (after Fourplay). The spirited daughter of happily married parents and adoring younger sister to happily married Olivia, fancy-free Jess is looking for the perfect mate. She ""gave the best years of her thighs"" to her last ne'er-do-well boyfriend, and many alcohol-sodden evenings at bars with her vampy pal Madeleine don't lead to true love, either. So Jess's friends sign her up for an Internet dating service for her 34th birthday, a venture that, not surprisingly, leads to a series of bruising, dead-end encounters. When Olivia is diagnosed with breast cancer, Jess must do some serious introspection and reevaluate her priorities in life and in men. Variations on the standard chick lit stock characters populate the novel: Jess's prim mother; her distracted, inventor father; and her gay best friend Richard-not to mention Ben, the noble love-interest who runs a hospice for cancer-stricken children, becomes Jess' rock during her sister's illness, and finally proposes marriage on her 35th birthday party. Moore's latest is an entertaining re-tread of the personal growth and happily-ever-after story.