When Portia Fallon's boyfriend, Peter, dumps her on Valentine's Day, she realizes she's "four cats and a Reader's Digest
subscription away from being totally irredeemable." Maybe that explains why she lets her mother trick her into quitting her Syracuse apartment to summer down in Truly, Ga., home of the irrepressible Miz Fallons (Portia's mother, Mags; her aunt Vera; and her grandmother Bev). "Men just don't stick to Miz Fallons," Mags likes to say; Portia calls the Fallons' eternal singlehood the "Penis Teflon Effect." Portia's meddling kin aim to find her a "Flyer
"—a fling—to take her mind off Peter, and Ian Beckett, a British novelist, is chosen. Portia spends her days renovating a farmhouse with Ian and her nights reliving memories of her father, digging into her family's past to learn the secret of his abandonment. Just as she's falling for Ian, Peter shows up with a ring. "Penis Teflon wasn't a curse, but rather a learned behavior," Portia realizes, so she sets out to open the Miz Fallons' hearts, search for her father and find the true love of her life. Rich way overplays the frankly inexcusable Penis Teflon idea, but this is a sweet, readable book about following your dreams (and your dream man). Agent, Stephanie Kip Rostan
. (Nov.)
