She hires Johnny, which spells riches for him and Kate. Kate is content as a stay-at-home mom, but frets about being Johnny’s second choice and about her unrealized writing ambitions.

Johnny and Kate had started an affair once Tully moved to Manhattan, and when Kate gets pregnant with daughter Marah, they marry. When Tully lands a reporting job with a Today-like show, her career shifts into hyperdrive.

Expecting rejection, Kate keeps her infatuation with Johnny secret. 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. The book reads like a cheesy episode of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer. Even though there are entertaining moments, DeAngelis’ prose is run-of-the-mill and her observations, somewhat obvious. But as she tells him: “I make friends…I just can’t keep them.” Lee joins Maren on her quest to find her father, and a good portion of the book is about their developing relationship. Maren decides to find her dad by herself, and at a Wal-Mart in the middle of the country, she finally meets another cannibal closer to her own age. He weaves a rope out of hair from people he's eaten. Sully is a talkative man, and there’s something a bit sinister about him, too. It isn’t until she sets out on the road to find her father that she finally meets one of her own kind. She ate the son of her mother’s boss during a party. She ate a boy who befriended her at summer camp. She devoured the kind babysitter who showed her affection, and things only got worse from there. Maren started eating people when she was a little kid. In DeAngelis’ ( Petty Magic, 2010, etc.) third novel, 16-year-old Maren is determined to track down her father after her mother, who clearly loves her but is scared for her own life, abandons her, leaving behind some money and the girl's birth certificate, which includes some important information: her father’s name. Love is challenging for any species-but things get more complicated when you’re a ghoul who wants to eat anyone who gets close to you.

Novel bones and all