Intimate

Gage's (A Glimpse of Stocking) new novel is a hyperactive rags-to-riches story of three people caught in a web of ambition, passion, deceit and revenge. Having escaped a childhood of poverty to become the head of a business empire and the richest man in America, Jordan Lazarus has everything money can buy--which doesn't include love. Leslie Chamberlain overcomes her provincial, small-town roots through education and becomes a top-flight advertising executive until her career is cut short--by love. Jill Flemming, who has run away from a nightmarish childhood, determined to become someone--anyone--else, is a master chameleon who ruthlessly seduces both men and women in her pathological quest--for love. Destiny and panting prose bring these three characters together in a complex triangle that will eventually kill one of them. The book is so overplotted and saturated with characters that, by the time Gage finally gets the principals together, readers are likely to be exhausted. (Apr.)