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	Catherine Chant is a writer from New England as well the FMAM webmaster. She is a PRO member of the Romance Writers of American (RWA) and an active member of the From the Heart Romance Writers (FTHRW) chapter and the National Association of Women Writers (NAWW). A graduate of Boston College, she worked for fifteen years at her alma mater as a computing & communications consultant/technical writer and web content manager. She is currently working on her first novel. She can be reached at webmaster@fmam.biz.

POPPPED

Carol Higgins Clark
ISBN 0-7434-7665-4
Pocket Books, July 2004, $6.99, 337pp

A clever title for a cute caper. Wealthy businessman Roscoe Parker runs a cable station known as The Balloon Channel out of Las Vegas. He sponsors a contest that challenges two groups of people to compete for a slot on his station. This pits a relationship reality show against a TV sitcom. Both shows must use ballooning in the script, and Roscoe makes a habit of adding more stipulations as the competition heats up, including saddling the sitcom with two really lousy actors. This certainly keeps the teams on their toes.

When mishaps befall the reality show, producer Danny Madley turns to old school chum and private investigator, Regan Reilly, for help. He’s concerned someone on the sitcom team may be trying to sabotage his reality show. The cast of characters Regan encounters during her investigation is a hoot. There’s never a dull moment as the two groups go head to head to win the spot on the Balloon Channel.

Roscoe’s girlfriend Kitty has read Regan’s mother’s books, so Regan isn’t able to fool Roscoe into thinking she’s just some friend of Danny’s interested in producing her own reality show. Meanwhile Danny has his hands full with his ex-girlfriend Honey, a Las Vega showgirl desperate to get him back after breaking his heart. Then Danny’s parents turn up in Las Vegas to lend support when a website starts publishing reports that a couple on the reality show isn’t who they claim to be and might not even be married (spelling certain doom for Danny’s show). Three eccentric couples and a duo of relationship experts/advice columnists known as Aunt Agony and Uncle Heartburn round out the team for the reality show.

On the sitcom side you have Bubbles, the actress/producer in charge of the sitcom. Bubbles fears one of her more seasoned actors--"Pilot Pete," so named because he’s forever making pilots that never get picked up--might literally "take out" James, one of the horrible actors Roscoe is forcing them to work with, in his desperation to be part of a successful TV series.

Although the ending to POPPED probably won’t surprise most readers, there are plenty of laughs and wacky situations to keep you entertained. Too much is shown from Roscoe’s perspective, so when he reveals to everyone what’s he’s really been up to this whole time, only the characters don’t see it coming. The reader isn’t left with much he or she didn’t already know. What little was saved for the end isn’t startling enough to make you go "wow."

Still, it’s a fun story and the characters are so unique that you’ll want to read it for the simple enjoyment of watching these people interact with one another.

Catherine Chant

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