Chapel Hill

Improbable and full of caricatures rather than characters, Morgan's ( Worlds Apart ) potboiler is tough to take seriously. Fresh out of law school, Natalie Parnell and Jordan Brenner envision a beautiful, politically liberal future: they plan to marry, move to Arizona and change the lives of impoverished Indians. Alas, an accident leaves Natalie in a coma. Jordan, shattered, joins the Peace Corps and heads off to Peru--but not before he revels at a drunken, intimate farewell party with Sheila Riken, Natalie's roommate. Long ago, Sheila lost Jordan to Natalie and she'd like him back. Judd Riken (Sheila's father and a lawyer with more power and wealth than integrity) devises a cunning plan to ensnare the young man for his daughter: Jordan doesn't know Natalie is pregnant, and Judd arranges to steal the baby and pass it off as Sheila's. On getting word of ``Sheila's'' baby, Jordan returns to the States. But seven years later, Jordan and Sheila's unhappy marriage receives a fatal shock. Natalie pops out of her coma; still amnesiac, she is dogged by the feeling that she knows Jordan from someplace. (Jan.)