She Went all the Way by Meg Cabot September 4, 2009

She Went All The Way by Meg Cabot fits into the romance fiction genre and was published in 2002. It is recommended for adult readers.

When I first picked up this book I wondered what the title was hinting at and why the random shoe and clouds on the front. After reading it I think the title is referring to her sex life and the meaning of the shoe and clouds still escapes me. The she in the title refers to Lou Calabrese a screenwriter who made it big writing the movie Hindenburg for her struggling actor live-in boyfriend Barry, also known as Bruno di Blase. The only problem is that Bruno falls in love with his costar Greta Woolston and runs off and marries her leaving Lou bitter and alone to contemplate what went wrong. Greta, in the process of marrying Bruno, also left a boyfriend, actor Jack Townsend. The most predictable thing next would be to have Lou and Jack pair up, which is exactly what happens. However, the way this happens is quite unpredictable. Jack and Lou are on a helicopter on their way to remote Alaska and the set of a new movie in which Jack is the star and Lou the screenwriter. Unexpectedly the helicopter crashes and Jack and Lou find themselves running for their lives from crazed killers on snowmobiles. While on the run they irritate and frustrate each other and every turn then it randomly turns to lust which they satisfy in a remote cabin that they miraculously happen upon. After a good meal and a romp in the sack the two head on trying to find civilization so they can get help. In the end they find out the identity of their would be killer but not without further risking their lives and falling in love. The idea of this story was interesting and at time executed nicely but I thought it was a tad too predictable and I’ve never been a fan of detailed love scenes. Overall it was a quasi-entertaining read and while interesting not great.

Queen of Babble in the Big City by Meg Cabot

Queen of Babble in the Big City by Meg Cabot fits into the romance fiction genre and was published in 2007. It is recommended for readers ages 16 and up.

I enjoyed Queen of Babble in the Big City a lot more than the first book (Queen of Babble). For one thing it didn’t have detailed love scenes, thus the reduced age recommendation. For another the problems were more interesting to me. There was also the fun added bonus of “Lizzie Nichols’s Wedding Gown Gide” at the beginning of each chapter. These fun little segments gave advice about which shape and style of wedding gown to pick, how to choose a veil, and how to do your hair and makeup. The actual story puts Lizzie in New York city shortly after the last book ended. She decides to live with Luke instead of her friend Shari and with the help of Chaz, her old friend and Shari’s boyfriend, she manages to land a good job as a receptionist at a law firm. This paying job lets her afford to work for free at a wedding gown shop. This job gives her the experience she wants in her dream career. Through her job as a receptionist she meets Jill Higgins who is marrying into a high class family and is stressed about her upcoming wedding, especially the dress. Lizzie offers her assistance which gains Lizzie and her gown shop fame and notice in the city. However, it’s not all goodness and glory for Lizzie. After months of living with Luke she grows to expect a proposal and when she brings up marriage Luke freaks out and she finds herself homeless. Then the law firm she is working at discovers how she met Jill Higgins and fires her for breaking their privacy policy. It is through good luck and an amazing amount of courage that Lizzie is not only able to solve her problems but even improves her life beyond her dreams. Overall it’s a great book with an interesting plot that kept me reading happily.

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Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot

Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot

Queen of Babble by Meg Cabot fits into the romance fiction genre and was published in 2006. It is recommended for Adult readers.

As might be expected Queen of Babble follows the story of Lizzie, a young woman who can’t manage to keep her mouth shut. This inability leads her into a great deal of trouble. As her story begins we find her getting on the plane in London on a trip to see her boyfriend Andrew that she hasn’t seen in three months. The only problem is that she can’t remember his face. We follow her thought process, a truly random yet entertaining trail, as she encounters him and is shocked by his choice of outerwear. We then follow their time together and are shocked, along with Lizzie, at who Andrew really is and the things he asks her to do for him. When she learns he is stealing money from the government in order to pay for a better lifestyle she leaves him and hops on a train to meet her friend Shari who is working for the summer in France. On the train she meets Luke, a nice handsome boy who kindly lets her babble away about all her problems even though Lizzie tends toward over sharing. Lizzie feels comforted until she discovers that he is the son of the owner of the Chateau where she is meeting her friend. This mortifies her and it’s where the story really gets interesting. Lizzie’s trying to make up for running her mouth but only ends up running it more and getting into all kinds of trouble. Through luck, persistence, and amazing skill with fabric she manages to solve her problems, save a wedding, repair a once broken marriage, and find love for herself all while entertaining the reader with her amusing yet erratic thoughts. While I did enjoy this book quite a bit there were a few parts that made me uncomfortable and prompted the recommendation for adult readers. Cabot goes into quite a bit of detail when Lizzie and her boyfriend then later Luke have sex. I don’t think it adds anything to the book having it in so much detail. I think the problem is genuine, especially for someone of her age group, but I think we could have used less. Otherwise it was a great read and if things like that don’t bother you then pick it up and enjoy!

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Queen of Babble in the Big City by Meg Cabot

Forever Princess by Meg Cabot

Forever Princess by Meg Cabot fits into the juvenile fiction genre and was published in 2009. It is recommended for readers ages 14 and up.

Forever Princess is the final installment in the Princess Diaries books and was a fabulous conclusion to an overall wonderful series. It is the end of Mia’s senior year and she is getting into every college she applied to, she has a dedicated boyfriend J.P. who confesses his love daily, and she has finished her senior project. Unfortunately she is still unhappy with what life has to offer. She feels she is only getting into every college because she is a princess and the colleges want the publicity so she lies to her friends telling them that she hasn’t been accepted to any college. Also Mia is not in love with J.P. and only wants to be with him so she has a man while she pines away for Michael. This is further complicated by the return of Michael from Japan and their happy reconnection. Mia’s senior project is surrounded by a complicated mess of lies because she is worried that people with mock her real project, a historical romance novel. On top of this she is having trouble with her family and the consequences of her big announcement we read about it “Princess Miya”. I enjoyed the plots and subplots but often found myself wondering if anyone in real life is really this dense. Throughout the novel Mia questions things that every other character and the reader seem to know for certain. For example, when Michael comes back and they have a spicy reunion in Central Park she wonders endlessly if he still has feelings for her, which is obvious to anyone else. Putting this irritating inability aside I enjoyed the rest of the novel and was happy to finally read the conclusion of the series and to learn of Princess Mia’s happily ever after.

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Princess Mia by Meg Cabot

All-American Girl by Meg Cabot

Ready or Not by Meg Cabot

Jinx by Meg Cabot

How to be Popular by Meg Cabot

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

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

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

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.