Vivian Leiber. Mightywords (www.mightywords.com), $5.95 (88p)
In the third of the Lipstick Chronicles, Leiber's series of e-romance charmers, Carole Titus, hotshot saleswoman for Allheart.com, is swept off her feet by Mitch Evans, a Senate aide who is eight years her junior and about the most gorgeous guy she's ever met. The story opens as Carole winds up a bad business meeting with "three clowns who didn't notice that every business in America was either hooked up or... passed up". Things don't look much better at the airport, where her overbooked flight to D.C. is delayed on the runway, leaving her squished between a verbose brush salesman from Chicago and "Mr. Gorgeous" (Mitch). Mitch pulls a few strings, and soon the two are tucked into first class, sipping champagne and swapping witty banter. Carole writes off the encounter as a nice way to pass the time, but Mitch has other ideas and, during the next few days, proceeds to show her how much he wants her in his life. What set this story apart from innumerable others like it are Leiber's strong, fresh, funny voice, sparkling prose and a seamless narrative that effortlessly carries the reader to a believable ending. Readers may be familiar with Leiber (The Marriage Merger, from Silhouette), a seasoned romance author who has also written for Harlequin under the pseudonym ArLynn Presser. (Nov.)
