Coast Road

Set in Big Sur, Calif., Delinsky's latest contemporary romance (after Three Wishes) sings the praises of family and friendship. Rachel Keats, outdoorsy artist, mother of two and ex-wife of architect Jack McGill, is in a coma after a car crash on her way to a book-club meeting. When Jack hears the news in a late-night phone call from Rachel's best friend, flinty Katherine Evans, he puts aside pressing business obligations in San Francisco and rushes to her side. Rachel shows no sign of waking up soon, so Jack moves into her house to take care of their daughters, 15-year-old Samantha and 13-year-old Hope. Meanwhile, Jack keeps slipping into flashback memories of his life with Rachel but can't seem to figure out why she left him six years earlier. Luckily, Katherine is there to give him the answers: Jack is selfish, uncommunicative and materialistic. As Jack gets to know Rachel's life, her friends and the family she has made, he realizes Katherine is right and resolves to show Rachel he's changed--if only she'll wake up. Sexual stereotypes fuel this predictable saga, and the wait for Rachel's recovery can't sustain tension in the plot. Samantha's wild teenaged antics and the early, prickly stages of a romance between Katherine and Rachel's neurologist lend the only doses of excitement to a story that's stretched far too thin. (July)