BOOKENDS

With more warmth and fuzziness than Harrod’s sweater department, up-and-comer Green (Mr. Maybe, 2001, etc.) offers a near-perfect—and near perfectly clichéd—romantic wish-fulfillment fantasy, complete with perfect gay best friend, perfect bookshop, perfect Hugh Grant–like love object, and perfectly coy tricks to keep the lovers apart for 400 pages.

Cathy (wisecracking, frizzy hair, slightly overweight, can’t be bothered with makeup), Josh, and Si all met at university, when the center of their circle was elegant, stunning, Portia. All changed when Portia seduced Josh just so somebody else couldn't have him, then walked away. Ten years later, Josh has married perfect wife and mother Lucy. Cath—long celibate but content to spend her free time in the warm glow of her perfect kitchen with best friend Si—has a successful advertising career. And nobody has seen Portia since graduation. When Lucy, the best cook in London, proposes that she and Cath open a bookstore/café, they meet charming real-estate agent James, who, as it happens, is also a brilliant painter. Everything is perfectly lovely, studded with long cozy brunches and dinners, until the shop opens and Portia, now a celebrity TV writer, walks back into their lives. From there, Green pushes forward her scenes that slather on the coziness “like layers of snuggly warm clothes” with glaringly obvious plot-teasers (Did Portia come back for Josh? Is James sleeping with the sexy au pair? Will James forgive Cath for canceling their date? Will Si realize that his arrogant boyfriend is a bastard?) that could be resolved with a phone call but aren’t. Even the one bit of grim reality (Si turns up HIV-positive), used first to keep Cath and James apart a bit longer, turns into an opportunity for true love and another dinner party.

For a certain middle-of-the-road, book-loving, romantic sensibility, a perfect escape novel. Despite its off-the-charts predictability, only the coldest of hearts will not be warmed.