Meanwhile a love triangle blooms at KCPO: Hard-bitten, irresistibly handsome, former war correspondent Johnny is clearly smitten with Tully.

Kate no longer wishes to follow Tully into broadcasting and is more drawn to fiction writing, but she hesitates to tell her overbearing friend. Tully lands an internship at KCPO-TV in Seattle and finagles a producing job for Kate.

Tully has a life goal for them both: They will become network TV anchorwomen. In college, “TullyandKate” pledge the same sorority and major in communications. Tully takes refuge with the family of her “best friend forever,” Kate Mularkey, who compares herself unfavorably with Tully, in regards to looks and charisma. Tallulah “Tully” Hart, father unknown, is the daughter of a hippie, Cloud, who makes only intermittent appearances in her life. Lifelong, conflicted friendship of two women is the premise of Hannah’s maudlin latest ( Magic Hour, 2006, etc.), again set in Washington State. Some good writing, but not enough to sustain a concept-driven and rather old-fashioned story, despite its occasional contemporary gloss. I didn't have any other choice.I didn't want to leave forever.just long enough to feel that I wasn't doing it all wrong, that I mattered, that I wasn't an extension of Max's or Nicholas' life.'' She finds herself, her long-lost mom, realizes that she doesn't share her mother's irresponsibility, and heads back home-to Max, baby, and eventual happiness. Finally, unable to cope, Paige runs away: ``I had to go. Nicholas is exhausted by his rounds Paige is exhausted by Max and the two drift apart (they seem never to have heard of babysitters). General, Paige falls pregnant, which causes a few problems but nothing compared to what happens when son Max is born. Just as he's becoming a rising star in the cardiology department of Mass. The two fall in love, but the Prescott family doesn't approve of Paige, and so she has to work at two jobs to get Nicholas through school. There, she meets Nicholas Prescott, a Harvard med student who's blessed with such good fortune that he has nightmares about failure. Though Paige has been accepted at the Rhode Island School of Design, she can't go-though it's not entirely clear why-and so she works at a diner. She's Irish Catholic-which, here, means: her father invents useless objects and dreams of Ireland her mother ran out on her when she was only five and she's had an abortion.

Paige O'Toole is carrying many heavy burdens when she takes off for Cambridge, Massachusetts, after graduating from high school in Chicago. An updated formulaic second novel (after Songs of the Humpback Whale, 1992) in which the young heroine not only finds herself but along the way comes to terms with that other contemporary women's issue: motherhood.

Harvesting the heart