cover image Saber Dance

Saber Dance

Ruth Glick. Pageant Books, $2.5 (144pp) ISBN 978-0-517-00747-1

Consumers of this bubble gum are unlikely to noticeor carethat no one lays claim to having authored the first book in the Charisma Inc. series. It is engineered to contain all the elements likely to appeal to the casual reader: intrigue, romance, exotic locales and glamorous clothes. The framework that provides all of the foregoing (as attractive as it is preposterous) is Charisma Inc., a talent agency that is really in the detective business. Samantha is recruited for Charisma; after going through training in everything from martial arts to makeup, Samantha and her roommate, Amber, are sent to the Friendship Games in Montreal, on a mission too sensitive for the CIA to handle. There, Samantha falls head over heels for a Russian skier named Aleksandr. After several brushes with the KGB and death (they're synonymous here), Aleksandr turns out to be the secret operative that Samantha was sent to contact. By book's end, Samantha is free for her next adventure, which is to be in the Florida Keys. This is printed television, as mindless and forgettable as a Charlie's Angels rerun. Ages 12-up. (August)