Night Magic

Following the author's engaging Dream Train , this tedious romance, based on the tale ``Beauty and the Beast,'' is particularly disappointing. At 16, Risa Crane falls in love with the mysterious Erik D'Anton, a gifted architect who, hideously scarred in a car accident, lives as a recluse. After two years' of evening trysts in Erik's subterranean music room (Risa has the voice of an angel), they marry--but Risa's gentle efforts to draw her husband to the outside world are obstructed as Erik refuses to have the child she desperately wants, and becomes ever more fearful of losing her to another man. Allen's gushing prose seems more suited to preteen fantasy than an adult novel, even one slated for the ``women's market.'' (May)