ADDICTED

Once sexual addiction surpassed alcoholism as the compulsion of choice on the afternoon talk shows, it was just a matter of time before someone hopped on it as the subject for a salacious, pseudo-serious novel. Zane takes on the challenge, with predictably dismal results. Atlanta businesswoman Zoe Reynard has loved her husband, Jason, since the eighth grade, three years after their oil-and-water first meeting. A big chunk of the novel, which is hokily melodramatic and riddled with awkward clichés ("We were both thirteen, and puberty was barreling in on us like a ton of bricks"), is devoted to the couple's juvenile courtship, consummated on prom night. Now they have a wonderful life, three great children and a catchphrase, "I love you and this is forever! Always has been! Always will be!" The problem is that Jason, old-fashioned and shy in the sex department, has never fulfilled Zoe, and it seems he never will. As the novel opens, Zoe is just starting therapy because what began as a sexual obsession has now become an addiction: for the past year, she has had three lovers in addition to her husband. Jason hasn't a clue, and Zoe doesn't know how to stop. Can this marriage be saved? By the end, the train goes completely off the tracks with a grisly and thoroughly gratuitous murder. Zane (Shame on It All) writes in a conversational style, which seems to appeal to the grassroots following she has built up through self-publishing. But Zoe's journey into the depths affords little more than a cheap thrill for emotional rubberneckers and Jenny Jones fans everywhere. Agent, Jane Dystel. (Oct.)