How to Trap a Tycoon

For most people, one job is enough. Dorsey MacGuinness has three in this peppy romantic comedy by the author of Her Man Friday. By day, Dorsey is a teaching assistant in the sociology department of the local college; by night, she's Mack, bartender at Drake's, a swank men's club; and in between she's Lauren Grable-Monroe, pseudonymous author of a runaway bestseller titled How to Trap a Tycoon ( la How to Marry a Millionaire). Adam Darien, publishing tycoon of Man's Life magazine, hangs out at Drake's and will do anything to find out who Grable-Monroe really is. Dorsey (as Mack) defends Grable-Monroe's book by arguing that if Adam's magazine celebrates all the nice things that men have, why shouldn't women have the same things by finding a wealthy tycoon willing to provide them? And so the gender war begins. Though the interior monologues have an annoying way of chopping up the dialogue and Dorsey and Adam's more contentious arguments are often repetitive, Bevarly's vibrant characters and playful language make her book an exceptionally engaging read. (June)