THE SWEET SPOT started charming me from the beginning. By page five I was laughing out loud. Stephanie Evanovich has a way with words and clever repartee and the characters were promising and believable.

Amanda Cole is funny, real, and not perfect. Chase Walker is a gorgeous, successful, and rich baseball player and he is interested in Amanda. It's a formula that many people respond to in print; an ordinary girl attracts an extraordinary guy.

I'm working my way up to a "but" (and there is no pun intended). This contemporary romance began to curdle and lose its sweetness on page ninety-six. It became a confusing jumble of exploitation and manipulation from that point on.

Amanda is an independent woman; she owns her own successful restaurant but hasn't taken any time for a personal life. She thinks the hunky baseball player is conceited and egocentric. Chase comes to her restaurant every chance he can get until he wears her down and she agrees to go on a date with him. He's like a really charming stalker at this point. He convinces all her employees and even her parents that he is a nice guy.

Slowly, step by step, Amanda gives up her independence and her good sense as she succumbs to Chase and his demands. The cute, loving way that he treats her in public just doesn't make for the way he treats her in private; the fact that he's convinced her that she likes the way he treats her is a bitter spot for me.

Ms. Evanovich is a gifted writer. Her first novel, Big Girl Panties is original and fresh. She has a definite finesse in creating characters and her dialogue is sublime. I just don't understand why she gave in to trends and created her own shade of gray (maybe a really light shade of gray, but gray nevertheless). I hope THE SWEET SPOT is only the result of a phase that will pass, because I am interested in reading other books by this author.