Back in Your Arms

Rekindling lost love shapes this uneven Valentine's Day collection from veteran romance writers Kitt and Savoy and rising author Norfleet. In each of the three stories, a damsel hides her loneliness through family obligations, career or pure bitterness, until the man she should have always been with (but for one reason or another, wasn't) pops up, throwing her into his bed and into an unexpected emotional frenzy. The premise sounds familiar, and the authors fail to put a fresh spin on this overused theme. Kitt's ""Love Changes Everything,"" where a widowed mother reunites with her dead husband's best friend, is the weakest of the three stories, its lack of originality made worse by lazy writing. Savoy's ""Love Lessons"" is a step up in quality, adding murder-mystery suspense to the romance tale of archetypal high school sweethearts. Norfleet has the strongest offering, a story of a rising chef reconnecting with the love, life and town she'd left behind. (Though the story is marred by the protagonist's unfortunate name, Venus Lovejoy, and the equally unfortunately named town of Romance, Tex.) Like Valentine's Day, this book is about the ladies, and the collective strength of these stories resides in women's dilemma of choosing love or safeguarding their hearts.