NUMBER 6 FUMBLES

A major blunder by the unknown, eponymous football player at a Penn State/Cornell game stirs feelings of doubt and instability in Rebecca "Beck" Lowe, a University of Pennsylvania sophomore and the general life-of-the-party, resilient heroine of this spunky but rudimentary debut. Though her physical features "will never add up to cuteness," Beck is "the fun one... who keeps the buzz going," scoring well both in fraternity bars and in class, often attending one right after the other. A pseudo-panic sets in as the fumble resonates for Beck, and she begins to scrutinize the many facets of her second year of college: her volatile relationship with her parents, the ongoing frenzied frat bar search for Mr. Right, her nagging virginity. For much of the book, barfly Beck (equipped with fake I.D.) busies herself taste-testing such potential new boyfriends as the elusive Ryan, who lies about his age and never calls; Ryan's bighearted buddy, Trey; or sweet, attentive Scott. Despite the heroine's forays into hip, collegiate self-analysis, Solar-Tuttle's account of this fruitless bed hopping never develops into something bigger or deeper. The author graduated from Penn State, magna cum laude, and though she confidently relates the clichéd college scene of excessive drinking, sordid sexual escapades and self-exploration, that's all the book has to offer. As a novel, this translates into a conglomeration of silly, eventually tedious misadventures. Even younger readers won't laugh so much as wince at this toothless, adolescent fluff, explicitly tailored for undergrads whose steadfast mantra is "anything's possible when you're drunk." Agent, Alice Martell. (Feb.)