Alright, I admit it. I read Don’t Let It Be True because of the cute little cupcake on the cover. I have a fairly persistent sweet tooth – and I nearly always listen to it. That said, it’s a pretty apt cover; this book is like a small, sweet treat, entirely composed of empty calories. It’s fun at times, but there’s not much depth to it.

Kathleen Connor King, of the Houston Kings, has a pair of dirty little secrets. The first is that her penchant for philanthropy has left her virtually broke. She’s famous for her eccentric, vintage finds, but almost no one knows that she really shops thrift stores because she can’t afford the real thing anymore. Her other (recently discovered) secret is that she can’t have children. Since she is the last surviving member of a family that has been doomed to tragedy after tragedy, Kathleen finds this news devastating.

Kathleen’s long time boyfriend Dylan Grant fares little better at the moment. His jerk father has just died, and the income from a profitable oil well – which has supported Dylan and his spendthrift brother Wyatt for years – will now go to someone else. Apparently, Dylan’s dad lost a key card game to Oil kingpin Bo Harlan. On top of everything else, Dylan finds out that Wyatt is in the hole for a cool half million, which he owes to some Vegas bad-ass.

The basic gist of the plot is that Kathleen and Dylan try to get their money back. In the process they meet up with zany relatives, friends, and neighbors. Hi-jinks ensue. And everyone lives happily ever after. Now, it’s a little more interesting than my summary would imply. Kathleen and Dylan have different ways of solving their problem, and they don’t necessarily work together. Perhaps predictably, Kathleen’s ways are cannier and somewhat more successful, but Dylan brings some skills to the table as well.

Overall, this book isn’t bad, but I liked it more at the beginning than I did at the end. Ms. Barrett has a nice writing style, which accounts for the strong beginning. But her resolute determination to tie up every loose end in a positive way has a negative effect on the plot – which starts to spiral out of control toward the end.

The characterization is surprisingly strong, however. There are perhaps too many secondary characters, especially toward the end, when more are added. But most of them have an element of moral ambiguity that makes them a little more real. No one is all bad or all good, which is somewhat refreshing in a book that definitely has a larger than life plot. Dylan and Kathleen are both pretty interesting, and the fact that they start out in strong relationship (which they maintain throughout the book) is a nice change from the hackneyed Chick Lit clichés. I don’t know how many Chick Lit titles start with a heroine who loses her job and her boyfriend within the first twenty pages, but they are legion.

So basically Don’t Let It Be True is light and frolicking, but also a little out of control. It won’t solve the mysteries of the universe or anything, but it’s not a bad read.