Cheater

Van Dyken’s contemporary romance will win fans and accolades with an adorable heroine, a roguish hero, and plenty of snappy banter. Avery Black, fresh out of college and living on her own, has been downsized out of her job. If she’s going to keep the lights on in her modest downtown Seattle apartment, she desperately needs a regular paycheck. A paid internship may not be ideal, but the money means she won’t have to move back in with her parents. It seems an easy-enough assignment until she meets her boss and finds out what a small world it is. Lucas Thorn, the v-p of marketing and research for whom she’ll be working, is also a cad, a cheater, and the man who left her sister at the altar, breaking the hearts of the entire Black family. Naturally, they hit it off. Told in the alternating voices of Avery and Lucas, Van Dyken’s diverting cat and mouse matchup is pure starry-eyed escapist fun. (Feb.)