Leah Stephenson's ballet career is really taking off. After the exposure she got from an arresting full-page picture in a ballet magazine, she's been tapped as a model for a dance-wear campaign, AND (even more exciting by far) her former partner James Cummings and Russian ballet star Andrei Levintoff are filming a ballet movie right at the academy. And the producer wants Leah to star!

With such a huge jumpstart to her career, it's inevitable that Leah be inundated with advice - both to stay in school and continue her traditional dance education, and to take up the immortality and chance of a lifetime that comes with a starring movie role. And Leah only has a short week to decide.

I approached this with some trepidation. After all, Leah's 'all about me' attitude tends to get on my nerves, and what better showcase for that kind of behavior than a modeling studio or a movie set? But I was pleasantly surprised. Leah has to cope with the less glamorous aspects of the media industry - samples, demanding photographers, envy of her peers, pressure from her would-be partners. Leah vacillates convincingly between the two options, and for me at least the outcome was sometimes doubtful (I didn't peek ahead).

The not-so-good aspects include the by now inevitable storming-off-in-a-self-righteous-huff rivalry with Alex and the complete disappearance of Pam as a character (what happened to her?). But I really liked the way things were resolved. I liked that Leah didn't end up being the golden child in the audition she didn't prepare for (although the director's insistence that he really wanted *her* was a bit over the top, I felt), and I loved the resolution of the Alex-tension at the very end. Hurray for the entrance of boys!

I have to say, I liked this one best out of all the books I've read in this series. Maybe I'm growing more tolerant of the characters or maybe the writing has just moved closer in line with my tastes. Either way, I'm looking forward to the next one. And I'm really glad to finally say that. ( )