Runaway by Meg Cabot

WARNING! Spoilers of Airhead and Being Nikki.

It has not been the best of Christmas Breaks for Em Watts, after finding out that the original owner of her current body, Nikki Howard, is still alive - though in an entirely different body - she was forced to lie to her best friend and love of her life Christopher and has been virtually kidnapped, along with the rest of the Howards, by Brandon Stark.

Once back in New York, Em's problems just get bigger as the Stark Angels Fashion Show - where she's supposed to wear the million dollar bra - comes closer and she and her friends start to unveil the secret that might have made Robert Stark want to kill Nikki Howard in the first place.

Runaway takes everything we have learned during the first two books and kicks it up a notch, making this book a fast paced ride. I love Em, I think she's a wonderful heroine who is really smart about most things, clueless about others and who still acts like a teenager; and I loved how she came to love herself in a way that perhaps she didn't before. It also says something nice about beauty - inside and out - which I shan't spoil.

Also, I love Lulu, Stephen, Frida and Felix, they always bring a certain something-something to every scene they step into. Loved the book.

Grade

2/3

(PS- Runaway comes out April 20th, 2010)

Book Gossip (#17)

Book Gossip #17

Another day, another cover, this time is the cover for Meg Cabot's Runaway - coming out May 2010, third installment of the Airhead Series - as unveiled in Airhead's Fan page@Facebook.



I love it when the covers fit together nicely. I absolutely hate when they decide to do cover makeover midway though a series.

Summary:

Emerson Watts is on the run: from school, from work, from her family, from her friends, from herself.

With everyone she loves furious with her for something she can't explain, and nothing but the live Stark Angel fashion show on New Year's Eve to look forward to, Em's reached the end of her rope. . .what's the point of even going on?

But when she discovers the truth about Nikki's secret, she knows there's only one person she can turn to.

Will Christopher be able to put aside his personal feelings and help her expose her employer to the world? Is it even fair to get Christopher involved--since if he agrees, there's every chance that Stark Enterprises will try to have them both killed--this time, permanently?

Maybe it would be better for Em to just keep on running.

PS - Sorry for the lack of post lately, got a new job and I'm trying to find the balance between work and fun. But I'm still reading! - AG

Being Nikki by Meg Cabot

WARNING, spoilers for Airhead.

When we last checked in with Em Watts, her brain had been transplanted into teen super model Nikki Howard's body and she was being forced to live Nikki's life and keep on being the face of Stark Enterprises -since Stark was what made possible the whole brain transplant thing, to begin with.

During Being Nikki, Em begins to realize that perhaps Stark is way more evil than what she had first thought, forcing her to live Nikki's life was just the tip of the iceberg. Now Nikki Howard's mother is missing; something everyone conveniently forgot to tell her and which she only found out about because Nikki's brother Steven showed up to tell her. The fact Nikki even had a brother? yeah, Stark also forgot to tell her that.

Torn between her family and Nikki's, with her long time crush and once best friend Christopher going into the dark side and British heartthrob Gabriel Luna writing songs about her, not to mention the fact that she might have to parade around in a 1o million dollar bra in front of everyone for the Stark's Angels fashion show...what's Em to do now?

Secrets, romance, intrigue and humor, Being Nikki has it all.

Loved the book, I have to say that, though I like Airhead well enough, I think Being Nikki has a stronger plot and is definitely one of my favorite Meg Cabot books. And it has a few twists and turns I didn't expect.

Plus, I can't wait to see what happens on the next book Runway.

Grade:

Airhead by Meg Cabot

Imagine one moment being an average teenage girl with a crush on your best friend and then, next thing you know, you wake up in the hospital, people are looking at you funny, your voice sounds weird and for the first time in your life you don't want a sundae and a cookie... oh, and when you look at the mirror it's not your face you see but that of the world's hottest teenage supermodel.

Well, that's what happens to Em Watts in Meg Cabot's newest teen book Airhead.

I won't spoil it for you, just say that it doesn't involve any type of Freaky Friday body change experience, instead it revolves around a premise that, though a bit far fetched, is quite original and wholly entertaining.

Airhead is a book like I hadn't read in a while, it has that warmth and lightness and fun that's classic Meg Cabot, and it comes across better than it has in the past few books (Pants on Fire, How to Be Popular) which were good but I think they lacked a dash of the old enchantment from earlier books (think Mediator series or 1-800).

Em is a totally likable heroine, smart and funny and mature-yet-age appropriate. Airhead has some really laugh out loud moments and some more quiet, sweet ones. The mix and contrast of Em's world and Nikki's world was amazingly well done.

The only sad part is that now I have to wait a whole year for the sequel "Being Nikki".

Go pick up Airhead.

Grade: