Little Lady, Big Apple

By Hester Browne

Pocket. 360 pp. $23

After Bridget, you wouldn't think there's room for another slightly chubby but charming Brit bachelorette, yet there is. Oddly, it's another Jones: Melissa Romney-Jones, who runs a business offering "every girlfriend service a man could need, except sex and laundry." Don't know what to buy for your godson's christening? She'll take care of it. Need someone to point out that those too-short shirtsleeves give you an orangutan air? She's your woman. She's already been the heroine of The Little Lady Agency, and this sequel, Little Lady, Big Apple is a standout. Now 28, Melissa leaves London for an extended Manhattan vacation with her boyfriend (and former client), who feels a wee bit threatened by her man-saving business. He wants her to ratchet back to organizing tea parties and baby showers. But Melissa can't help getting sucked into a case: transforming the off-screen persona of an English actor from mumbling groper to dangerous Mr. Darcy. It's all spun as light as lingerie, but it's also effortlessly witty and utterly winning.