Primrose Lane

Mason’s third Harmony Harbor contemporary (after Starlight Bridge) is unnecessarily confusing. The lack of a backstory recap turns plot points into nothing more than frustrating noise, as with ghost Colleen Gallagher and why she needs doddering manservant Jasper to read her hidden memoir. Even worse is the soap-opera story surrounding heroine Olivia Davenport, an event planner and heiress in disguise. Is she abusing prescription pills and wine, and if so, is it out of grief for her little boy’s death or because her dead bigamist husband’s best friend is nagging her to take in the daughter the dead man had with his other—now missing—wife? And will Dr. Finn Gallagher, who disapproves of but lusts after Olivia, become her savior and maybe convenient husband after her in-laws hire a private investigator to dig up dirt on her and help them gain custody of the little girl she comes to love? There are many questions, and few reasons to seek the answers. Agent: Pamela Harty, Knight Agency. (July)