DATE WITH DEATH

HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 100TH EPISODE SPECIAL

GARDEN OF EVIL

CHARMED AGAIN

SPIRIT OF THE WOLF

To be honest, I gave up expecting much from the CHARMED novels long ago, and if I wasn't such a sucker for spin-offs novels from TV series that I follow I'd probably have given up on the novels themselves by now.

As with GARDEN OF EVIL, DATE WITH DEATH sees Paige unhappy about being single (you know, the role Phoebe used to have in the novels before Prue was killed off). Of course, it doesn't help that her two half-sisters are all lovey-dovey with their other halves, and neither does it help that Valentine's Day is only two weeks away.

Going on the pull in P3 clearly isn't working, so, following up a recommendation from a former classsmate of Phoebe's, she signs up to an Internet dating site, and gets flooded with dozens of potential dates.

Taking up serial dating with a vengeance, Paige finds herself meeting what appeared to be the pick of the bunch, but none of the dates work out. Even worse, her Palm Pilot - which naturally has details of all her dates - gives Phoebe a premonition of a guy murdering a young woman. Well, there's a surprise.

Before you can say, "I saw that coming," Darryl Morris is at the Manor and reveals that there were indeed three supernatural murders the previous night.

So it's pretty much the usual plot of one of the sisters' dates proving to be a demon, which seems to crop up in at least every other CHARMED novel.

That said, there's a few twists. The demon isn't quite as straightforward as it has been sometimes, and there's a little trip to the past for one of the sisters and her ex-boyfriend. But, let's face it, we've had portals to the past several times before in the novels as well.

The novels' less than brilliant continuity also rears its head, with Leo forced to tag along with Paige at one point in case she needs orbing out of danger. Huh? Her power might not be perfected at this point in the series' chronology but I would have thought she could have managed to orb out of a situation, even if she can't fully control her destination yet. And on that note, the author perhaps overdoes the idea of Paige orbing to the wrong location.

Had DATE WITH DEATH cropped up earlier in the book series, then it would probably have scored slightly higher. The conduit concept is slightly different to what we usually get, even if it didn't seem 100% thought out. However, after over a dozen books, it would be nice to see Pocket Books starting to give us something different as well as novels that are a bit more challenging to read.

Oh, and a couple of nitpicks - not for the first time, the name adopted by the demon is bloody obvious and since when have they owned a cat called "Sweetie"? BACK TO THE TOP

Written by ELIZABETH LENHARD

POCKET BOOKS

$5.99


RATING: 4/10