Portrait of a Married Woman

The author of Change of Heart has again produced a contemporary romance, this one focused on an extramarital love affair. On the verge of her 38th birthday, Maggie Hollander is vaguely unhappy. Married to her college sweetheart, ex-Harvard athletic champ and dreamboat Matthew (they met when Maggie was at Radcliffe, naturally), Maggie has two bright teenagers, a lovely Manhattan apartment and a bridge group. So why isn't she happy? For one thing, she has put aside her painting in favor of full-time wife- and motherhood. She fears her talent has gonebut surprise!it's still there waiting to be used, and at her very first art class she meets this sexy, soulful sculptor, David Golden, he of the ""uncivilized'' blue eyes and urgent sexual need. Readers soon realize that two weighty matters are at stake here: How will Maggie be able to reconcile a career with the demands of her family life? How will she make a decision between husband and lover? Mandel often sweeps into purple prose (she writes of Maggie: ``her sensuality, her intelligence, her warmth''; of David: ``his creativity, his intellect, his sexuality''), but in the main the story is competently told. (April 30)