Monday, March 16, 2009

Big Boned by Meg Cabot

big-boned 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-boys-got-one 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 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

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

The Boy Next Door by Meg Cabot

The Boy Next DoorThe 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

the-secret-agentThe 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.