But Where is Love?

In a cliche-ridden debut as substantial as candy floss and almost as achingly sweet, Lane, former singing star and ex-wife of bandleader Xavier Cugat, chronicles the meteoric career of gorgeous young chanteuse Julie Lauren. Raised in the Brooklyn of the 1930s and '40s by her stage-struck mother, Rose, and her warm-hearted father, Sam, Julie undergoes two severe bouts with illness in childhood before winning a role on Broadway at age 15 and embarking on a string of exhausting tours as the sexy lead singer for macho bandleader Paco Castell. She marries Paco within a year, then stoically endures his jealous rages and selfish attempts to block her successful acting career, which pairs her with the cream of European and Hollywood talent. Famous names--Cary Grant, Peter Ustinov, Vittorio De Sica--drop onto these pages with a thud, interspersed among dull rounds of domestic misery and trite descriptions of Julie's ever-ascending stardom. A slender subplot involving Hollywood agent Steve Burton, who is also trapped in an unhappy marriage, keeps pace. Finally ridding herself of Paco, Julie finds sweet love and abandon with the newly divorced Steve in an epilogue that seems more like a hastily tacked-on afterthought than a triumphal blending of parallel story lines. (Feb.)