Book Review: Size Doesn't Matter by Meg Cabot

Size Doesn’t Matter - Meg Cabot

Synopsis:
Heather Wells is finally living the life she’s been dreaming about for so long. She has a steady boyfriend- who also happens to be her remedial math assistant professor- and although he isn’t Cooper Cartwright (AKA the love of her life) the relationship is going perfectly. That is, of course, except for the 5 kilometre morning runs and vegan lifestyle, which Heather feels she could do without. But for her boyfriend Tad, it may be going too perfectly, especially when Tad tells Heather that he has a question he needs to ask her.
Suddenly for Heather, the ‘rebound’ guy is starting to get a little too serious.
But all thoughts of what the question could be are dismissed when Heather discovers the dead body of her latest boss, Dr Veatch, slumped over his desk with a bullet in his head.
Despite promising numerous people that she’ll stay out of this one, Heather can’t help but investigate the mysterious reason behind her boss’ demise. Could the culprit really be one of the graduate students, who are striking for better work conditions? Or could boring, rule-abiding Dr Veatch have had ties with the mob? After all, it was a clean and professional-looking shooting, and they are in New York.
Whatever the case, Heather is determined to solve the murder, finish studying, end the graduate student strike and convince Cooper he really loves her (despite being with Tad), all while keeping on a low-calorie diet that may or may not be solely made up of junk food.

What I gained from reading this book:
In this novel, Heather finds herself putting on an act for her boyfriend. She pretends that running 5km every morning with him is not a chore, and that she is happy to eat three-bean salad for lunch over the less-healthy option of a bowl of chili covered with melted cheese.
Although she does her best to hide it from him, you can’t help but feel sorry for Heather as she covers her true feelings about different situations regarding Tad. For example, while on their run early in the morning, she pretends to be cheerful because ‘I’m very careful not to let Tad see my real morning persona. Because he’s not ready for it. Yet.’ She also dislikes the fact that Tad doesn’t own a television, yet doesn’t fully voice her opinion about it.
Even though she has been going out with him for about three months, she is still hesitant to let him see what she is really like, and this is something that I think is quite prevalent in today’s society- some people don’t allow their partners to see their true personality because they are worried about what their partner will ultimately think.
Cabot highlights this problem through Heather, showing readers that the inability to properly communicate with a partner can only cause problems further on in the relationship.

Positives:
Cabot introduces a few new characters in this novel, including outrageous Southern PR woman Muffy Fowler, who is on a quest to find a husband, and Reverend Mark Halstead, the handsome but slightly suspicious new youth minister. Most of the characters from the previous novels also make appearances in this book, which will keep fans of this miniseries amused.

Negatives:
The reason for Dr. Veatch’s death, which is revealed at the end of the novel, is a bit of a letdown. But I know that people have killed for stranger things than that in real life, so I can’t really make a comment. Also, anything more brutal would have taken the humorous edge away from the novel and its subsequent happy ending, so I suppose Cabot had fewer choices available to her when it came to removing Dr Veatch from the scene.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Genre: Comedy/ Crime

Recommended for: People who enjoy both Cabot’s writing, and the witty characters she creates.

Australians can buy the book by clicking the picture below:

Book Review: Size 14 Is Not Fat Either by Meg Cabot

Size 14 Is Not Fat Either - Meg Cabot

Synopsis:
Heather Wells is about to embark on her first semester of classes- while simultaneously working as the assistant dorm director at Fischer Hall- and she couldn’t be more excited. Even though she will have to take remedial maths classes because her SAT scores are so low, Heather hopes that the free classes following her work probation will help her to forget the horrors that befell her the year before.
The promise of earning a BA, coupled with the fact that she has a cool new boss who isn’t hell-bent on killing her, convinces Heather that this year will be one to remember.
But unfortunately for Heather, her plans for a stress-free year don’t include finding the decapitated head of a popular cheerleader in a pot in the cafeteria.
With everybody warning her not to get involved in this particular murder mystery, Heather is more than happy to comply. But then her sense of intuition and justice comes into play and she finds herself asking questions about certain suspicious characters. Before she knows it, Heather is in over her head (no pun intended), trying to inconspicuously solve the case.
With the investigation taking up her time, her ex-fiancé Jordan getting married, her ex-con father showing up on her doorstep and her housemate still oblivious to her love for him, it seems that Heather will be doing more than just studying this semester…

What I gained from reading this book:
This book shows that sometimes there is more to some people than meet the eye. The dead cheerleader, Lindsay, is well liked and popular with her peers and the staff at New York College, but she also has a darker side that she keeps hidden. Likewise, another character in the novel is not as he appears, and it isn’t until towards the end of the story when the reader discovers exactly who he is.
These characters act as reminders that even if you think you know somebody really well, you are probably only seeing the surface of the person that they are trying to portray. People often hide secret parts of themselves from others and it isn’t until something happens that the truth comes out.

Positives:
Once again, the character of Heather is charming and utterly relatable to anyone who has ever suffered from their own insecurities. Her little conversations with the local drug dealer Reggie, as well as student Gavin and the staff at the dorm are also very entertaining, written with classic Cabot wit.

Negatives:
As much as I enjoyed this story, I just didn’t think I could give it any more or fewer stars, considering some of the other novels I have read and reviewed over the last year or so.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Genre: Comedy/ Crime

Recommended for: People who enjoyed reading Size 12 Is Not Fat.

Australians can buy the book by clicking the picture below:

Book Review: Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot

Size 12 Is Not Fat - Meg Cabot

Synopsis:
The life of Heather Wells has been far from ordinary. Once the darling of the teen pop world, and engaged to famous singer Jordan Cartwright, Heather was at the top of the entertainment game. That was, of course, until she rebelled against singing the sugary pop songs that were written for her, witnessed Jordan in a compromising situation with fellow singer Tania Trace, was abandoned and robbed by her mother and saw her dad end up in jail.
Now she works at a New York College dorm as the assistant resident hall director- a job that will guarantee her free university tuition if she passes probation- and boards with sexy private investigator, and Jordan’s older brother, Cooper, in his nearby brownstone apartment.
But Heather’s life is about to change a whole lot more, and not for the better.
When some of the female residents of the dorm fall to their deaths from the building elevators, Heather suspects that foul play is involved. She doesn’t believe the university administrations’ views that the girls were involved in elevator surfing, a predominantly male ‘sport’.
Enlisting Cooper’s help, and relying on a whole lot of junk-food to get her through, Heather’s on a mission to track down the killer of Fischer Hall and put an end to the student deaths…

What I gained from reading this book:
The opening chapter of this novel touches on the sensitive issue of weight, clothing sizes, and what is considered the norm for women’s body shapes. Heather is in a change room trying on pairs of jeans when she overhears the woman in the next stall complaining that the jeans she’s trying on are too big, despite the label saying that they are her size. This prompts the salesman at the store to mention that their clothes use the ‘vanity-sizing’ system, designed to make larger women feel better about wearing a ‘smaller’ size even though they’re still wearing exactly the same size, with only the number on the label reduced.
As a size 12- the size of the average American woman- Heather is outraged by the insinuation that size 12 is fat, and so the title of the novel is born.
Vanity sizing, although common with some clothing companies, is luckily starting to get phased out as more and more women become comfortable with their bodies and the image they want to project. For some readers, Heather’s sizing experiences may be a comfort, especially since she is portraying the image of a normal-sized girl, rather than a stick-thin heroine.

Positives:
Heather, while she has her quirks, is a somewhat relatable character. She is a fairly normal girl who loves to eat junk food, lusts after her housemate Cooper with an almost obsessive tenacity, and would rather have a bath than a shower because she’s too lazy to wash while standing. Although these aren’t behaviours that most people indulge in, readers are still able to relate with her character and see parts of their personality within her.

Negatives:
The character of Heather can be a little irritating, especially in the first few chapters where she continually calls her workplace a dorm, only to correct herself and call it a residence hall- every single time! But luckily this annoying affliction does ease up as you get further into the story.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Genre: Comedy/ Crime

Recommended for: People who enjoy reading stories about former pop stars who’ve reconstructed their lives.

Australians can buy the book by clicking the picture below:

Book Review: Queen Of Babble In The Big City by Meg Cabot

Queen Of Babble In The Big City - Meg Cabot

Synopsis:
Connoisseur of vintage fashion, Lizzie Nichols, is chasing her dream job of becoming a Wedding Gown Restoration Expert in the expensive city of New York.
Living with her boyfriend Luke in his mother’s Fifth Avenue apartment, and with a real Renoir painting hanging over the bed, Lizzie’s dream is off to a good start- except that finding a job in her chosen field is a lot harder than it looks.
The only wedding dress-orientated job she can find is non-paying, and she puts in long hours to prove herself proficient, hoping to learn the tricks of the trade from old Monsieur Henri.
Luckily Chaz, her best friend’s boyfriend, is also able to land her a job in his father’s law firm as a receptionist, which helps to pay the bills.
But then everything starts to change.
Jill Higgins, who works with the seals at Central Park Zoo, and is about to marry the most eligible bachelor in New York society, finds herself in wedding strife.
With her future mother-in-law causing her problems, and an atrocious heirloom wedding dress to wear, Jill secretly enlists Lizzie to save the day and make her wedding into one that she can forever treasure, after a little prompting of course.
Now Lizzie has to try and transform one very ugly duckling of a dress into one that a princess would feel honoured to wear, as well as keep secret the biggest gossip scoop of the century.

What I gained from reading this book:
This book teaches that sometimes people view others in the way that they want to see them, whether the perception is accurate or not. Lizzie believes that Luke is the man for her and refuses to change her mind, even when faced with obvious clues that indicate otherwise. Similarly, she judges other characters on how she thinks they are, reality be damned! By reading this book, people can draw comparisons between Lizzie and themselves and try to stop perceiving people in ways that are not realistic.

Positives:
This novel is extremely entertaining and fun to read. Lizzie’s babblings are humorous and I think they are genuine reflections of how some women really do think. This is especially the case when Lizzie’s thoughts become sidetracked at the sight of a cute dress that she sees on display at a shop. Sometimes when authors try this technique it can make readers frustrated with the character’s erratic thoughts, but luckily Cabot is able to make Lizzie into a likeable person who readers can relate to.

Negatives:
Lizzie’s adoration of her boyfriend, while understandable, can be a little trying at times. Yes, we know he is studying to be a doctor and save all the sick children, and yes he is gorgeous and French and a prince… Luckily for readers, Lizzie gets her mind on track before those particular babblings can get too annoying.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Genre: Romance/ Comedy

Recommended for: Fans of the original Queen Of Babble book.

Australians can buy the book by clicking the picture below:

Book Review: Queen Of Babble by Meg Cabot

Queen Of Babble - Meg Cabot

Synopsis:
When Lizzie Nichols’ long-distance boyfriend Andrew invites her to stay with him and his family in England, she jumps at the chance to travel overseas and visit him. But their three-month-long relationship is not as loved-up and romantic as she remembers it to be, and before long, Lizzie finds herself regretting her trip to London.
Things become especially worse when she discovers that Andrew is accepting welfare money from the government while also working at a restaurant, and despite her good intentions, Andrew gets into big trouble with the authorities when she innocently lets slip that he is not as destitute as he lets on. Finding that she cannot deal with a boyfriend who is cheating the government, and alone in an unfamiliar country, Lizzie fears she might have to return home to her family sooner than expected.
But then she remembers that her best friend Shari is in a sixteenth-century chateau in southern France, catering a wedding with her boyfriend Chaz, and decides to travel across the country alone- with only basic school French- to find her.
Once at Chateau Mirac, Lizzie finds herself in love with the old-fashioned elegance of the place, and smitten with Luke de Villiers, the handsome son of the chateau’s owner. It’s not long, however, before Lizzie’s big mouth strikes again, and she finds herself struggling to make amends for her latest leaked secret.
With a wedding dress to save, a handsome man to woo, an ex-boyfriend to deter and an angry best friend, Lizzie has a lot to deal with.
The question is, can she beat the odds and save the day? Or will this wedding be one to remember for all the wrong reasons?

What I gained from reading this book:
Lizzie has a very strong sense of what she considers to be right and wrong in the world, and she’s not afraid to take a stand against what she believes to be unfair.
Readers first get an inkling of her do-good nature after she discovers that her boyfriend Andrew is cheating his government’s welfare system. Although she inadvertently lets slip that he’s not genuine, she doesn’t stick around to continue her relationship with him. She also disagrees with the ideas of Luke’s girlfriend Dominique, to turn Chateau Mirac into a plastic surgery recovery centre, believing it would destroy the ambience of the place, and she encourages Luke to follow his dreams of becoming a doctor, despite his hesitations.
Just from observing Lizzie’s beliefs, readers can learn that not everything has to succumb to commercialism, and that missed opportunities are always the ones that you’ll regret in the future.

Positives:
Cabot’s novel brings forth a funny portrayal of how a small group of Americans view things in an unfamiliar country. It’s humorous following Lizzie’s attempts to find Diet Coke (a.k.a. those terrible chemicals) in London and France, and it’s just as entertaining to read about her shock when she discovers that Europeans really do have a more relaxed attitude regarding nudity when sunbathing.

Negatives:
Lizzie’s naivety is truly unbelievable at times. Although it is obvious to everyone that Andrew is a conniving and selfish guy who is only looking for easy money, Lizzie still builds him up in her mind to be something that he is not, and is then horrified when he reveals his true colours to her. This can be slightly annoying for readers, however it does add to her character’s small-town American innocence.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Genre: Romance/ Comedy

Recommended for: People who can sympathise with Lizzie’s inability to keep a secret.

Australians can buy this book by clicking the picture below: