Beverly Hills

In this sprawling, frothy commercial novel by the author of bestsellers Palm Beach and The Sisters , tiresomely narcissistic characters clash in the sumptuous setting of the Beverly Hills Sunset Hotel. Nearly every female heart in America beats wildly for film star Robert Hartford. Only beautiful, broke, talented Paula Hope, and Caroline Kirkegaard, a voluptuous, unscrupulous New Age ``seer,'' who is ``big, butch, ballsy as hell,'' sidestep his advances. Predictably, Robert falls for Paula and battles grimly against Caroline's bid to buy the Sunset Hotel, a gem he intends to refurbish with the aid of Winthrop Tower, a campy, Waspish arbiter of interior design. Caroline, leader of a sinister cult called Destiny, uses all her power and hatred to thwart Robert, but it is Paula's dark past, inopportunely brought to light, that crushes his dreams. Between heaping bowls of Russian caviar and celebrity name-dropping sprees, Booth shifts her one-dimensional cast members around without regard for realistic motives or consequences. Steamy, perverse sex and accounts of wealthy excess aren't sufficient to keep the book fueled and running. Author tour. (Aug.)