Nikki Rivers, Finding Mr. Perfect

Finding Mr. Perfect

Nikki Rivers

Harlequin Flipside, Jun 2004, $4.50, 218 pp.

ISBN: 0373441916

Sociological researcher Hannah Ross explains her study results on why Granny Grains Cereal is losing the market to the firm's CEO Randall Pollard. She suggests that the company return to family values by targeting the mommy market. As the CFO and marketing gurus look ill at her recommendation, Randall agrees. He informs his staff that they must hire a family from a modeling company. Hannah differs, suggesting that a real family be used; Randall loves the idea and charges Hannah to find the perfect normal family.

Hannah selects the Walker brood of Timber Bay, Michigan as the perfectly normal American family. Then she arrives in town to find a dysfunctional family whose supposed oldest child is a hunk of an adult. As Danny finds the sociologist amusing except when he wants a kiss, Hannah is having cardiac arrest as much from her desires for Danny as from the few days she has to reengineer the Walkers into a model that will satisfy Randall.

This screwball romantic comedy will provide plenty of laughs for readers. Fans will feel for the beleaguered Hannah and her struggle with her pending professional fiasco and her love for Danny, who seems to wink at her misfortune.. The amusing story line contains a You Can't Take It With You type of family starring inside the Barbara Stanwyck flick, Christmas in Connecticut.

Harriet Klausner