Angel Light: An Old-Fashioned Love Story

In an engaging if opportunistic plundering of publishing trends, Greeley unites angels and the Internet in a saccharine tale based on the Old Testament's Book of Tobias. Narrator Toby Tobin, a young Chicagoan, is a computer hacker who stands to inherit $10 million from his late great-uncle if he can travel to the Emerald Isle and marry his gorgeous cousin Sara Anne without revealing to her the conditions of the will. Toby proves a reluctant romancer until he's contacted in cyberspace by his guardian angel, a seraph named Raphael who persuades him to make the journey. Following angelic advice, Toby overcomes his distant cousin's cold shoulder, and romance blossoms when he and Sara Anne begin to discover each other's gifts. But Toby must also help his beloved get past the aftermath of a bad relationship with a violent thug who continues to threaten her safety. Greeley compensates for a thin story by heaping on the blarney (as he did in last year's Irish Gold) and a raft of travelogue-like material about the charms of Ireland. The author's penchant for cuteness grates at times, but this good-humored and ultimately fetching story, like the feisty angel it features, should have wings nonetheless. (Dec.)