Runaway

Sometimes what we ask for isn't what we really need and ends up being far from what we actually want. Emerson Watts is the right-hand girl to big star Nikki, but it seems that there aren't enough positive points about this job to make it truly worthwhile, no matter how it looks to outsiders.

Emerson Watts is on the run: from school, from work, from her family, from her friends, from herself. As the closest person to Nikki, she is finding that a privileged life isn't necessarily a fun and exciting one --- at least not in a good way. Everybody is mad at her for some reason, and it's putting a major damper on her entire life. Only the live Stark Angel fashion show on New Year's Eve offers any respite from the bad behavior and nasty treatment Em is receiving. But it doesn't matter. Em is at her wit's end. Is there anything that could possibly shake up her world enough to put it all right again?

Nikki's life is filled with secrets, but there is a particular one that is going to change the entire game plan --- for Nikki, her career and everybody surrounding her. Can Christopher set aside intense personal feelings and help Em expose her employer to the world for what she really is? If Christopher agrees, Stark Enterprises will surely try to have them both killed --- for real this time? Emerson has to consider if she wants to keep running or slow down, expose the truth, and then suffer what could be dire consequences.

This little spy adventure by Meg Cabot is the third book in her Airhead series, about a teen star named Nikki and her surreal adventures. In RUNAWAY, everything turns a little sci-fi (I can barely tell you the general idea without giving away the major point of the plot), and I found the novel to be a little difficult to follow at times. But then again, I'm an old lady and not a young reader who is used to such spy stories.

RUNAWAY certainly will not disappoint Cabot's legion of faithful teen readers. In fact, I see a movie version in the future, perhaps with Taylor Momsen as Nikki. Before the film gets made, there undoubtedly will be additional Airhead books as soon as we know that Nikki makes it out of this craziness in one piece. So read on, Cabot fans. I'm sure another volume is on the way, but you have to ensure Nikki's survival first.