Trash

Bennett, author of the Sunset Island novels, teams up with Gottesfeld in a new series that pulls out all the stops to snare female young adults looking for a read that's, well, just a trifle trashy. Cliches and coincidences abound, intentionally and shamelessly, beginning with the physical parallels the authors draw between each of the teenage characters and real-life screen celebs. At center stage is Chelsea, an Alicia Silverstone look-alike, who arrives in Manhattan to spend the summer as an intern for Trash, a wildly popular and outrageous TV talk show. Readers may well roll their eyes when one of Chelsea's roommates and fellow interns just happens to be her long-lost best friend who moved away at the end of junior high; and when Trash's producers just happen to plan a show about teen children of mass murderers, which threatens to disclose Chelsea's grisly secret about her past. This first episode ends with a dash of suspense and a gooey dose of romance: after she single-handedly saves the staff and audience from an angry, gun-wielding girl, Chelsea and her new beau embrace, ""realizing what they meant to each other, realizing what they had almost lost, before it had ever really begun."" For those willing to stay tuned there's more Trash ahead: due out this same month is Love, Lies and Video. Ages 12-up. (June)