Always and Forever

Published posthumously, this thinly plotted romance by the author of The Last Princess strains credulity. Recent Barnard graduate Kathy Ross travels to war-ravaged Hamburg in 1945 to aid in resettling refugees. There she meets David Kohn, an idealistic young doctor whose parents died in the Holocaust while he barely escaped to the U.S., and Phil Kohn, David's distant cousin who is in Germany to covertly bring stolen art back to New York. David and Kathy are immediately attracted to one another, but David, deeply disturbed by his return to his native land, is unable to declare his love. Kathy marries Phil and soon is struggling against the demands of Phil's crass and materialistic family. When Phil become physically abusive, she takes their young son and leaves for San Francisco and a new, successful life incognito--never, however, forgetting her love for David. Seriously burdened with stock characters and heavy predictability, the book is buried under such lines as ``Her body said `yes' but her heart said `no.' '' (Apr.)