Getting Warmer

Nearing 30, Natalie Quackenbush lives with her parents while enduring her second year of teaching high school English in Scottsdale, Ariz. To entertain themselves, Natalie and her gal pals down margaritas at the local bar, and as the tequila takes effect, they tell other patrons lies about their backgrounds and jobs. When Natalie realizes her latest victim is actually a pretty nice guy, she's already spun him a couple of tall tales. For much of the book, he thinks she teaches at a women's prison and only lives with her parents because her mother has Alzheimer's. This is meant to be funny, but falls flat, as do most of Snow's other stabs at humor. The fluffy boilerplate plot compounds the problem, and although Snow (Been There, Done That ) trots Natalie through the requisite motions of character growth, the novel's pleasures are few. (Jan.)