COME SPRING

This disappointing first installment of a trilogy by LaHaye (Left Behind series) and television producer Dinallo offers little to excite faith fiction or general fiction fans. Dylan Cooper is a poor Scottish photographer capturing the faces of immigration in Boston in 1918, even as WWI continues its devastation overseas. Playing the classic starving artist role, Cooper falls hard for lovely gallery assistant Grace MacVicar (who "carried herself in a way that did justice to her name"). Her overprotective brother, Colin, seems bent on keeping Grace and Cooper apart, and tempers flare between the two men. Light on plot and character development, the novel features more "telling" than "showing." Some scenes, such as a slugfest between Cooper and Colin, feel made-for-the-screen. A few phrases ("Grace could hardly contain her excitement at the sight of it, which raised her pores") will puzzle readers. Scottish dialect comes and goes, and verb tense problems trouble the text. Historical romance readers will find the plot line familiar: lovers are separated in wartime, and one is believed to be dead. LaHaye's core fans will be disappointed with the few nods to faith, which include Colin's letter-of-the-law approach to Christianity and two pages of Easter Sunday sermon text. The story ends abruptly, leaving readers dangling until the second installment (due in October). (Feb.)