An Ex to Grind

May 9, 2005
Nowadays, a woman might bring home more bacon than the lazy pig she married does—an idea Heller (Best Enemies
, etc.) runs with in her latest breezy, easy read. Melanie Banks, wedded to her job as a financial planner and freshly divorced from former football star Dan Swain, hates writing him that monthly alimony check, which he spends on Cristal and Gucci moccasins as he languishes in their fancy apartment, while she must settle for dingier digs. Since he's sworn off remarriage and a new career, nursing old injuries to his knee and his pride, Melanie's only out is a bit of legal fine print: if Dan shacks up with a woman for 90 days, he forfeits his right to Melanie's money. Her scheme to find him his ideal woman works all too well: Dan falls for a vixen veterinarian, invites her to move in and shapes up into the man who first stole Melanie's heart. Catastrophically obsessed with the new couple and hell-bent on winning Dan back, Melanie lets her work slide and deflects the advances of her heartthrob neighbor. Readers drawn to Heller's zippy style and culturally astute wit will forgive the ham-fisted plot, which rollicks toward a reassuringly happy ending. Agent, Ellen Levine.