DEAR CUPID

Kate Bradshaw's popular "Dear Cupid" Web advice column helps the hapless and hopeless find true love. But in the aftermath of her painful divorce, Kate's advice turns too bitter for her boss's taste. To retain her job and regain her zest for romance, Kate leaves her native Texas hill country for a business trip to L.A., where she practices her flirting technique on the first attractive man she sees, movie special-effects man Mike Cameron. Kate confidently expects that Mike will disappear from her life after their brief meeting. Instead, he falls in love with her. Sensing Kate's wariness of relationships, but desperate to be part of her life, Mike hires her to turn him, his clothes and his home into marriage material. His decision to withhold the identity of the wife he has in mind keeps the two at comic cross-purposes. Even after they give in to their attraction, Mike must win acceptance from Kate's son, Dylan, and convince her that forever is not a dirty word. Just like a valentine, this frothy read is both fun and insubstantial. But Ortolon's (Drive Me Wild) lively style and brisk pacing are perfectly suited to her playful theme, and her characterizations of Mike and of Kate's maritally muddled neighbors have a genuinely appealing warmth. (July)