A HIGHLY implausible plot and unsympathetic characters make this latest offering from Rachel Billington tough reading.

Alice Lightfoot is a widow who ambles through her predictable life, writing one interview a week for a national newspaper - until she meets Sir Brendan Costa, an arrogant and repugnant self-made businessman, and Blue Carroway, a sexy and mysterious deep-sea diver.

Then her life is thrown into turmoil and nothing will ever be the same again.

It is rare to find a story quite so contrived as this. Unlikely coincidences and incredible chance meetings are littered throughout the novel. But if you can suspend disbelief, you may be able to sit back and enjoy the farce.

Alice's steamy encounters and the complicated web of secrets and lies she uncovers provide just enough interest to keep the pages turning.

Updated: 09:09 Wednesday, June 02, 2004