Princess Mia by Meg Cabot May 15, 2009

Princess Mia by Meg Cabot fits into the juvenile fiction genre and was published in 2008. It is recommended for readers ages 14 and up.

Princess Mia is basically a continuation of Princess on the Brink. It begins two hours after the last one ended. Mia is waiting for Michael to notice her email, forgive her, and then get back together. Only this doesn’t happen and as a result she becomes depressed and has to see a psychologist named (really not joking here) Dr. Knutz, nice! Also her best friend Lilly is no longer friends with her because Mia kissed her ex boyfriend of a few hours J.P. She finds comfort in J.P. who has become a really good “friend”. Until he admits that he likes her, and they begin to date, which I think everyone saw coming as with most things in this particular volume of the Princess Diaries books. For example, Mia has been asked to speak at a gala for Domina Rei and while trying to find material from her ancestors she finds a diary Amelie, a princess from the 1600s who only ruled for twelve days before dying of the bubonic plague. For her speech she tells the story of Amelie and shocks the world with a decision that goes against what most of her family would ever want. There were, however, a few things that were not expected. Mia becomes friends with Lana, her former archenemy. Principal Gupta took Mia’s journal away, considering how this is the main source of the story line it was totally unexpected, but the story continues on through various other means. The last thing that I didn’t expect was that Kenny blew up the biology room right as J.P was confessing his love. Overall it was an alright book mostly redeemable because of the story line and not the actual application which was overly predictable and frustrating because it seems like Mia is the only one who doesn’t get it sometimes.

Other Reviews of Books by Meg Cabot click here

Big Boned by Meg Cabot March 16, 2009

Big Boned by Meg Cabot fits into the mystery fiction genre and was published in 2007. It is recommended for adult readers.

Big Boned is the final installment in the series that began with Size 12 Is Not Fat. In this novel Heather’s life finally seems to be going the right way but still it’s not exactly what she wants. Her job is going well, even though her boss is a little crazy about office supplies. She has a boyfriend named Tad, but he doesn’t agree with her on fundamentals like the consumption of meat and good old television. Heather is also working on getting into shape, but when jogging she feels as if her uterus may become dislodged. Then one morning after a “workout” with Tad she walks into work to find her boss murdered and inevitably gets involved in the investigation around his murder. As always Cooper is there concerned about her and taking care of her. Tad is also there for her but Heather begins to think that he is not exactly what she had in mind. As the story progresses Heather finds herself helping everyone out of one type of jam or another. In the end she finds love when she comes up with an answer to Tad’s big question. She also is able to catch her boss’s killer and in typical Heather fashion almost gets killed herself.

Other Reviews Available:

Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot

Size 14 Is Not Fat Either by Meg Cabot

Every Boy’s Got One by Meg Cabot March 16, 2009

Every Boy’s Got One by Meg Cabot fits into the romance fiction genre and was published in 2005.

Every Boy’s Got One is the most recent installment to the Boy series. One again we meet a whole new set of characters with minor mentioning of the old ones. This story centers around Jane Harris and Cal Langdon. Jane is a cartoonist credited with the creation of Wondercat an internationally recognized comic strip. Cal is a reporter with the New York Journal who recently made a very large book deal. They meet through their friends Holly and Mark whom they accompany to Italy where Cal is the best man and Jane is the Maid of Honor in their elopement. Jane and Cal don’t get the best of starts. Jane labeled him as Cell Phone guy because when she first sees him he is grumpily and endless at it with his blackberry. Cal sees Jane as an eccentric bottled water drinker with an odd obsession for writing in her travel journal. It gets worse when they find that they don’t agree on whether or not Holly and Mark should get married. Jane is all for it because they seem so in love and perfect for each other. Cal however, as a result from being jilted by his wife on their first anniversary, has an unfavorable view of marriage and tries but never gets the opportunity to talk Mark out of it. Slowly however Jane and Cal begin to find positive traits about the other and Cal finds that not only was he wrong about Mark’s marriage but that maybe he ideas about marriage in general were a little jaded. In the end, after jumping through many hoops, Holly and Mark end up happy and Jane and Cal surprise themselves with happiness as well. Overall a pretty good book but I recommend it with some reservations. For some unknown reason when writing for adults Cabot feels the need to infuse her novels with foul language and sexual dialog. One would assume from the cover that the One, in every boy’s got one, is referring to his heart, but with the way that Jane and Holly got on about Cal’s supposedly large appendage one might infer that it is the appendage that the title is referring to. Otherwise it is a good book with a fun and interesting plot making it much better than book two of the series.

Other Reviews Available:

The Boy Next Door by Meg Cabot

Boy Meets Girl by Meg Cabot

Boy Meets Girl by Meg Cabot March 16, 2009

Boy Meets Girl by Meg Cabot fits into the romance fiction genre and was published in 2004. It is recommended for adult readers.

Boy Meets Girl is the second book in the Boy series but it is nothing like the first. For one thing it does not, as you would expect from books in a series, continue with the same characters. They main characters are casually mentioned as the book progresses but that is all. In this book we follow some of the lesser explored of the first book. We are also introduced to Kate Mackenzie who is an employee of the New York Journal’s Human Resources Division. She works under Amy Jenkins (the HR devil we were introduced to in the first novel) whom Kate has aptly nicknamed the T.O.D, short for Tyrannical Office Despot. The T.O.D. is making Kate fire Ida Lopez, the highly popular dessert lady for the senior staff dining room, because Ida refused to give the T.O.D.’s boyfriend, Stuart Hertzog (a lawyer for the firm that represents the Journal), a piece of pie. Kate tries to convince the T.O.D. that this was an unreasonable reason to fire someone and tried to get her to pass it of as a warning but the T.O.D. would not be persuaded. Thus, in order to not lose her job, Kate fires Ida only to be sued later for wrongful termination. During the deposition Kate is met with quite a surprise in the form of Mitch Hertzog, brother to the aforementioned Stuart and the lawyer in charge of representing the case for Kate and the Journal. What follows can only be labeled as drama, drama, drama, and not in a good way. Kate feels bad about firing Ida and stresses about it constantly, that and the fact that she likes Mitch but thinks he is only a scummy lawyer. Mitch and Stuart get into it over random family troubles and also a disagreement over the Ida Lopez case. All the various minor characters seem to be having issues of their own that Cabot feels the need to go into ad nauseum. This coupled with a ridiculous tendency toward using foul language makes this my least favorite Cabot book ever.

Other Reviews Available:

Every Boy’s Got One by Meg Cabot

The Boy Next Door by Meg Cabot

The Boy Next Door by Meg Cabot March 10, 2009

The Boy Next Door by Meg Cabot fits into the romance mystery fiction genre and was published in 2002. It is recommended for adult readers.

The Boy Next Door is an addictive story told through a series of emails with various senders and recipients. In these emails we learn about Melissa Fuller (Mel) and her previously disastrous love life. We also read about Mel’s neighbor Mrs Friedlander and the events surrounding her mysterious attack that left her in a coma. After the attack John Trent, as a favor to his friend Max Friedlander, came to help with Mrs. Friedlander’s pets and, as per Max’s request, posed as Max. John raises suspicion by insisting that Mel call him John and by not living up to Max’s bad boy reputation. What follows is an interesting story of love and mystery that truly captured my attention in a single sitting read.

Other Reviews Available:

Boy Meets Girl by Meg Cabot

Every Boy’s Got One by Meg Cabot

The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad March 10, 2009

The Secret Agent by Joseph Conrad fits into the mystery fiction genre and was published in 1907. It is recommended for adult readers.

The Secret Agent was good but not at all what I expected. It follows the story of Adolf Verloc and his attempt to blow up the Greenwich Observatory. Verloc is a secret agent for the French Embassy in London and while he was previously invaluable to the Embassy he has grown redundant of late and was urged to do something big that would embarrass the British and give his employers the opportunity to inspire a revolution. He was told to strike at something scientific as that was the fad of the day. After much worrying and thinking upon the subject he finally decided to take some action. Nothing goes as planned leading to many deaths and the loss of everything he had. Nothing he did actually inspired a revolution.

How To Be Popular by Meg Cabot January 25, 2009

How To Be Popular by Meg Cabot fits into the juvenile fiction genre and was published in 2006. It is recommended for readers ages 14 and up.

How To Be Popular is a fun and creative twist on the typical story of a teenage girl, Steph Landry. Steph was made infamous after she spilled a cherry Super Big Gulp on the white skirt of the most popular girl in school, five years ago. She still hasn’t been able to live it down and to make matters worse in her small town whenever anyone does something stupid the most popular comeback has become, “Way to pull a Steph.” One day while helping her friend’s Grandmother clean out her attic Steph finds a book with the helpful title, How To Be Popular. She follows the advice in this book, with a few minor updates, and is amazed at how quickly her social status changes from loser to popular. Now she has to decide which is more important, her new popularity or her character and principles. Steph also learns the true meaning of friendship and how a true friend is more important than popularity. Of course, as with all Meg Cabot books, there is the boy factor. Steph gets who she wants only to wonder why it was that she wanted him in the first place. Overall I really enjoyed this book. Starting out each of the chapters is a quote from The Book (as Steph refers to How to be Popular). They are so funny, and mostly true I think. The novel’s plot mixed with the fun Cabot whit makes me willing to recommend it to anyone for a quick and entertaining read.

Seeing Redd by Frank Beddor January 23, 2009

Seeing Redd by Frank Beddor fits into the juvenile fantasy fiction genre and was published in 2007. It is recommended for readers ages 12 and up.

Seeing Redd exceeded my expectations not because I didn’t expect it to be good but simply because I forgot how good The Looking Glass Wars was. Beddor captures readers with such an interesting story line and imaginative twists on well-known characters. This novel picks up a few months after the last one ended where Redd and the Cat jumped into the Heart Crystal. They are unsure if Redd and the Cat survived the trip since no one had previously had the nerve to jump in. Alyss is trying hard to reestablish peace in her Queendom but struggles with people set in their ways after Redd’s thirteen year reign. Alyss learns that Redd is not her only enemy and has to use previously unimagined powers of destruction that may very well leave them all in ruin. Also, along the way, her and Dodge firm up their feeling for each other but struggle with what it will mean if they decide to have a relationship. Overall it was a very well written book and I repeated mentioned to my husband how much I like these books and I would definitely recommend them to anyone who likes fantasy fiction.

Other Reviews Available:

The Looking Glass Wars by Frank Beddor

Shadow of the Giant by Orson Scott Card January 19, 2009

Shadow of the Giant by Orson Scott Card fits into the juvenile science fiction genre and was published in 2005. It is recommended for readers ages 16 and up.

Shadow of the Giant is, as far as I know, the last book in the subseries that began with Ender’s Shadow. It follows the story of the battle school graduates as they try to gain control of the countries of the earth or as they try to create peace. The book follows the stories of Bean, Petra, and Peter Wiggin the closest. We learn the fate of the embryos that were created for Bean and Petra and the challenges that this fate brings to them. We also learn about Peter’s role as the Hegemon and what he plans to do with this title and how it will affect the world. Other Battle School graduates like: Virlomi, Han Tzu (Hot Soup), and Alai are also followed in great detail as they lead India, China, and the Muslim worlds respectively. Overall I really enjoyed this book but it was also a bit difficult. At times I had to think entirely too much, in my opinion, to keep up with the plot line and who all the characters were. This is probably mostly due to the fact that I haven’t read the other Ender books for so long that I had a hard time remembering who the people even were. It was a fascinating portrayal of the events that shaped the battle school children in to powerful world leaders. I would recommended this book to anyone who liked the previous Ender books but make sure you at least review the plot from the previous books first.

Size 14 Is Not Fat Either by Meg Cabot January 17, 2009

Size 14 Is Not Fat Either by Meg Cabot fits into the murder mystery fiction genre and was published in 2006. It is recommended for adult readers.

Size 14 Is Not Fat Either like its prequel Size 12 Is Not Fat is recommended for adult readers because of the age of the characters involved and not because of any inappropriate content. There are a very few pages near the end of the book that use the F-word more than I’d care for but other than that it is a really clean book. One of my friends complained that it started out too much like the first book so she didn’t want to read it. I’ll admit they are fairly similar but just like most books in a series are and not overly alike. Basic plot: Heather still works at the dorm and has a new boss to replace the psycho killer from the previous book. They find a head in the cafeteria but not the rest of the body and Heather is determined to stay out of this case. However, she keeps learning things from her residents and ends up unable to quell her interest and starts to investigate. In the end she does help find the killer but winds up in the hospital as well. The one and only thing I was disappointed with in this book was that more didn’t happen with her and Cooper. Heather actually gets up the nerve to talk to him about her feelings but that’s as far as they get. I eagerly awaited this book hoping that there would be at least some resolution there but maybe in Big Boned, the last book of the series, they’ll finally figure things out.

Other Reviews Available:

Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot

Big Boned by Meg Cabot