PLAYING GAMES #110

Funny, sweet, charming, romantic, and uplifting, "Playing Games" is an unusually smart Sweet Dreams novel that makes excellent use of its strong characterizations and gentle moralizing to create just the right blend of entertainment and wisdom. Zany main character Kerry Fields (aka "Kerry the Flash") remains one of the most vivid, likeable heroines in the Sweet Dreams series; her comical antics create a sharp contrast with potential love interest and resident "nerd" Jon Madison, a quiet, studious (albeit dreamy, in a geeky sort of way) classmate whose introversion both attracts Kerry and confounds her. Acting as a go-between in a game of correspondence chess between Jon and her brainy older brother Bill, Kerry finds herself increasingly drawn to mysterious Jon, whose stoicism makes his opinion of Kerry seemingly unreadable. Utilizing the sweeping metaphor of a chess game, the novel paces the developing romance just right, tossing in for good measure a few life-affirming platitudes about the fallacy of stereotyping others, how love knows no boundaries of cliques, and about the importance of recognizing one's own self worth. This will be one of those novels that you can read and enjoy again and again.