Cloud Waltzer

Meredith Tolliver moves from Chicago to Albuquerque, N.Mex., away from her office in her dad’s investment banking firm, to take a stab at financial writing for magazines. If she can interview “insufferably arrogant” wealthy developer Archer Hanson, her writing will garner national exposure and boost her career. He shuns the press and her, but after a chance meeting, their mutual attraction blossoms. Steamy sex ensues in the dark, since she doesn’t want him to see her body, but her secret eating disorder drives them apart. Back in 1984 when Cates’s steamy contemporary romance was first published, it would have garnered high marks for explaining anorexia as a destructive self-loathing illness. But despite a few clumsy attempts to update the book, such as haphazardly inserted references to cell phones, today’s readers will be startled by protagonists who’d rather break up over a single offense than talk it out. (Feb.)