Sweet Love

A second chance at love for 40-something Boston TV reporter Julie Mueller, a single mom to a teenaged daughter, means disrupting life living above her parents in suburban Watertown, Mass. Julie's mother, cancer-survivor Betty, regrets her disapproval of Julie's first love, Michael Slayton—or so Julie suspects. With Betty's prodding, she packs herself off to the cooking school dessert course of renowned French chef Renée D'Ours, and finds that Michael, freshly returned from Washington, D.C., with a divorce in hand, is also attending. Despite the stock setup, Strohmeyer pulls off a memorable menu of believable relationship courses, seasoned with angst and humor. (June)