In this engaging love story, Austen enthusiast Reynolds (The Pemberley Variations
) brings echoes of Elizabeth and Darcy to present-day New England. Marine biologist Cassie Boulton spends summers at an insular Cape Cod academic community, studying salt marshes. Sparks fly when Calder Westing, the heir of a famous political dynasty, enters her life, but Cassie knows better than to fall for a man who can have any woman he wants. Certain her low-profile career and inner-city Chicago background disqualify her from long-term consideration, she cuts ties with Calder after just one steamy night. Cassie doesn't know that Calder harbors genuine feelings for her. With some literary maneuvering, Calder finally wins Cassie's heart, but his powerful, ruthless father is determined to split them up. Beyond a surplus of cliché and throwaway characters, lush descriptions of Cape Cod are appropriately aphrodisiacal, the couple's wit and chemistry make them worth rooting for, and Cassie's well-rendered intellectual life not only gives her depth and independence, it gives readers a welcome break from that standard of modern heroine-ism, the plucky fashion and/or media lackey. (Oct.)
