Special Delivery

Dashing Jack Watson is the playboy owner of Julie's, a chic Beverly Hills toggery. He's sworn off marriage after the love of his life perished in a car accident a decade ago. One day, his son's mother-in-law--the glamorous ex-starlet Amanda Robbins--is suddenly widowed after 36 years of wedded bliss. Throughout their children's marriage, Jack and Amanda have always maintained a cordial loathing for one another ... You can guess what happens next. Danielle Steel's Special Delivery is a bon-bon of a book only a mother could love. Well, not only, but especially--it's a paean to middle-aged romance, uxorial devotion, and maternal sacrifice. The characters are all about a micron thick (maybe less), but there are greater crimes than obviousness, to be sure. This heaping teaspoon of glitz--every car's a Ferrari, every drink "French champagne"--will cheer Steel's legions of readers. Mission accomplished.