Tender Offerings

From popular author Rich ( Bijoux ) comes this retro romance set in the world of big business. An attempt to rekindle the flames that set fire to the go-go '80s, this high-stakes intrigue is rife with corporate takeovers, rampant greed, corruption, social climbing, excessive materialism and power lust--but somehow the embers don't ignite. Ambitious Sheila Lockwood, a 34-year-old single mother, subscribes ``to the time-is-money theory''--and she's a ``power dresser'' to boot. Sheila is hired by Covington International, a company ripe for takeover, to revamp their corporate image. Among those vying for control of Covington are a possibly traitorous executive, the company's golf-playing CEO and a venal corporate raider. These stock characters come complete with entourages: for the men, wives and mistresses, sycophantic or adulterous; for Sheila, one reliable assistant, who's a gay male, and an unreliable one, a catty, alcoholic female. Other characters include corporate spies, an unlikely English noble, squabbling siblings and a spell-casting ``hoodoo queen.'' As the battle for Covington rages, Sheila is reunited with the father of her child, mentors are betrayed by their proteges and readers learn more than they probably wanted to know about the lives of amoral vulgarians. (July)