TERRI SCHLICHENMEYER The Bookworm Sez Advertisement

You love your friends with all your heart. You simply adore them.

You commiserate with them when life is particularly rotten, and you rejoice with them when they finally get their hearts' desire.

So why is it that, sometimes, what they have is exactly what you want?

In the new novel "The Secret Desires of a Soccer Mom," by Robyn Harding, jealousy raises its green-eyed head for Paige Atwell. That is, until something goes horribly wrong in the ritzy Denver community of Aberdeen Mists.

Who knows why Karen chose to unburden herself to Paige? Although Jane, Trudy, Carly, Paige, and Karen were all friends and all lived in the same neighborhood, Karen was closer to Carly than the others. Maybe Karen believed Carly would judge her. Maybe Karen thought the health-obsessed Jane wouldn't care. For sure, Karen knew that pious Trudy would have a cow over a confidence like this. Whatever the reason, Karen told Paige about her affair with a hunky Spanish art model, Javier, and she swore Paige to secrecy.

Paige hates secrets. They're difficult to keep and impossible to hide. Still, she promised to keep her lips sealed, but it was a lot harder than she thought. Especially since Paige and Karen socialize in the same circles. Especially since Jane seems suspicious about something.

Especially when the phone call comes. Poor Karen was found dead in her garage, and it looks as if she fell and hit her head. It was an accident, they say, but Paige believes there's more to her friend's death than a mere misstep.

The problem is, nobody believes her.

So now, between dealing with an attitude-affected pre-teen daughter, a first-grade son who's obsessed with disgusting bodily functions, and a husband who is drifting away emotionally, Paige starts poking around, looking for clues in what she thinks might be a murder case.

It seems that lots of people had reason to kill Karen. Doug, Karen's grieving husband doesn't seem to be exactly distraught over his wife's death. Javier claims that he was "just friends" with Karen, but Paige thinks he's lying. And then there's the little matter of a note written in pencil by someone who doesn't speak English very well...

Tired of the same darn detective stories on TV?

Good, because Paige Atwell isn't one bit like those tired old TV detectives.

Author Robyn Harding takes a little "chick lit", a bit of mild mystery, and a character with too much time on her hands, rolls them all into one fast story that's easy to read and not too taxing on the brain, and polishes it off with an ending that's quite different and quite perfect. I'm hoping Harding brings Paige back in another novel, and I'd be more than happy to see Paige's hilariously bratty kids again.

Are you looking for something light, fun, and funny to finish your summer out? Look no further than this novel. "The Secret Desires of a Soccer Mom" is a breezy Paige-turner, and you'll want to share it with all your friends.