Summer Chick Lit 101 (2003)

A FRIEND OF THE FAMILY Lisa Jewell (Dutton, $23.95)

Three women deal with commitment-phobic beaus who happen to be brothers. HEROINE'S NEMESIS ''She could reach orgasm in thirty seconds flat and fell fast asleep... after sex, snoring like a warthog.'' ''I'M GOING TO DIE ALONE!'' REFERENCE ''Thirty-six years old, thought I was going to end up alone and childless...'' LOWDOWN The engaging characters, particularly the boys' madly-in-love parents, elevate this familiar tale. B+

REMIND ME AGAIN WHY I MARRIED YOU Rita Ciresi (Delacorte, $23.95)

Sharp-tongued, sexually adventurous Lisa becomes a suburban wife and mother. HEROINE'S NEMESIS ''How easy it would be for a man to collapse like a ton of bricks at her trim size-six feet.'' ''I'M GOING TO DIE ALONE!'' REFERENCE ''You are fat. You are ugly. You are bloated...if [he] weren't so bound by duty, he would leave you.'' LOWDOWN Ciresi's depiction of post-singleton life is clever and surprisingly honest. A

SUSHI FOR BEGINNERS Marian Keyes (Morrow, $24.95)

Good girl is thrown for a loop when she gets a job at a flashy magazine. HEROINE'S NEMESIS ''She always looked spectacularly, astonishingly, just-this-minute fashionable.'' ''I'M GOING TO DIE ALONE!'' REFERENCE ''All Ashling knew was that she almost never felt whole.... [S]omething remained forever absent, right at her very core.'' LOWDOWN Glossy magazine cattiness is entertaining. But not enough to save the predictable plot. C-

THE BIG BAD WOLF TELLS ALL Donna Kauffman (Bantam, $10.95)

Sex columnist rethinks her wanton ways when she meets the possible One. HEROINE'S NEMESIS She ''regarded her impending parenthood like a new religion.'' ''I'M GOING TO DIE ALONE!'' REFERENCE ''Her beloved independence took on a whiff of something that smelled a lot like loneliness.'' LOWDOWN Likening men to predatory animals was tired even before Ashley Judd made a bad movie about it.