Beneath the Stars

Charles delivers a slightly cloying contemporary about finding love in the wake of tragedy. Fireman Eddie Garner moves to Connelly, Pa., after his platonic best friend, who’s also the mother of his child, dies of cancer. In his new home, he meets up-and-coming fashion designer Sidney Marneaux, who is splitting his time between his life in Chicago and helping his sister take care of their deteriorating father in Connelly. Both men find an instant and sweetly rendered connection, and their early courtship is a delight to read. When Eddie’s son, artistic and talkative five-year-old Adrian, arrives on the scene, the story bogs down in a series of overly saccharine moments that undermine the delicate sentimentality of the earlier novel. All three characters work through their grief and responses to loss by pulling together and learning to form a family, but their interactions lack the charm necessary to justify the number of pages devoted to their straightforward struggle. (Feb.)