Book Review: Overbite by Meg Cabot

At First Sight: It has been a few months since Meena Harper last saw her (ex?) boyfriend Lucien Antonescu  - whom once seemed too good to be true and then turned out to be the Prince of Darkness and ruler of all Vampires. 

Since then, Meena went to work for the Palatine Guard, a secret section of the Vatican that deals with the supernatural., which allows her to use her gift of knowing when everyone is going do die. This means she's in close proximity to Alaric Wulf, the very guard first sent to kill Lucien. 

Ever since Lucien vanished, the relationship between Alaric and Meena has been a little tense, mostly because Meena is convinced there is still something good inside Lucian and has a theory about how even so called monsters can choose to be good. This doesn't sit well with Alaric, who has seen first hand the worse demons have to offer. 

But soon, their lives get ever more complicated as one of Meena's ex boyfriends show up turned into a vampire and soon his whole family is suspect. There is, of course, the fact that Alaric discovered tourists are vanishing left and right in New York City. That one of Alaric's least favorite people, Father Henrique - aka Padre Caliente - is arriving to town. And that Lucien Antonescu might be closer than anyone imagined.

Second Glance: Overbite is the sequel to 2010's Insatiable - which I adored, and not only because it was written by Meg Cabot.- but I have to say that it doesn't live up to it's predecessor. While Insatiable was funny and had this awesome... soap opera-y feel to it, Overbite feels jumbled.

I felt like there was a ton of story lines thrown in together and not all of them were quite what I wanted them to be. It all comes together in the end, but I didn't find it quite as satisfactory as I hoped I would. Plus, while I still thought Alaric was awesome and Alaric-with-a-heart was fun to read about, I found Meena kind of overly dramatic and even annoying at times. 

Also, there is this constant thing in the book where they say everyone's full name. Meena doesn't call Alaric just Alaric; he's Alaric Wulf almost every time he's mentioned; and same goes for Alaric, he's constantly saying Meena Harper. Which made me want to scream that I knew their names already!

I did like Jon and Jack Bauer, but then Jack is ALWAYS awesome.

Bottom Line: I think Overbite should have been edited better into a shorter book, or split to form two. There was ENOUGH fabric to cut, you know? The characters and situations I loved in Insatiable weren't quite as present here. And thought it was a tolerable read, it wasn't my favorite.

2/3

Cover Love #22 - Overbite

Look what I saw while checking out my book obsessions!!

Overbite is the sequel to Insatiable by Meg Cabot (which was one of my favorite reads last year), and I can't wait to read it.

Summary (from Amazon):

Meena Harper has a special gift, but it’s only now that anyone’s ever appreciated it. The Palatine Guard—a powerful secret demon-hunting unit of the Vatican—has hired her to work at their new branch in Lower Manhattan. With Meena’s ability to predict how everyone she meets will die, the Palatine finally has a chance against the undead.

Sure, her ex-boyfriend was Lucien Anton­escu, son of Dracula, the prince of darkness. But that was before he (and their relationship) went up in flames. Now Meena’s sworn off vampires for good . . . at least until she can prove her theory that just because they’ve lost their souls doesn’t mean demons have lost the ability to love.

Meena knows convincing her co-workers—including her partner, Über-demon-hunter Alaric Wulf—that vampires can be redeemed won’t be easy . . . especially when a deadly new threat seems to be endangering not just lives of the Palatine, but Meena’s friends and family as well.

But Meena isn’t the Palatine’s only hope. Father Henrique—aka Padre Caliente—New York City’s youngest, most charming priest, has also been assigned to the case.

So why doesn’t Meena—or Alaric—trust him?

As she begins unraveling the truth, Meena finds her loyalties tested, her true feelings laid bare . . . and temptations she never even imagined existed impossible to resist.

This time, Meena may finally have bitten off more than she can chew.

 Can't wait to read more about Alaric, I loved him last time.

Love,

Insatiable by Meg Cabot

... or prepare yourselves for a very long, very gushy review.

Writing for the long-running soap Insatiable is Meena Harper's dream job but it comes with some less-than-dreamy things attached to it, like her new boss Shoshona (who got the promotion that should have been Meena's) and the fact that Shoshona and the network are adding a Vampire story line to the show.

Like Meena doesn't have enough problems of her own, among them the fact that she knows when someone is going to die, and that no matter how much she tries to help, half the time people just don't listen to her. Still, when one night she can't sleep and her little dog, Jack Bauer, pleads to be taken out for a walk - at 2 A.M. - Meena figures it can't hurt. She had no idea that Lucien Antonescu would rescue her, and Jack, from a bat attack outside St. George's Cathedral and that, in doing so, would change her life... and her perception of vampires.

Lucien is none other than the Prince of Darkness in the flesh, come to New York to take care of some unpleasant business that might have something to do with his brother, and maybe to sweep Meena off her feet.

Following Lucien's footsteps is Palatine Guard Alaric Wulf, hunter of all things evil who has an special bad grudge against vampires and who will go any length to see Lucien destroyed.

Allow me to pause at this point to say this is not a typical vampire novel, but it is typical Meg Cabot in that it's made of AWESOME. I'm not kidding.

Meena is sweet and funny (she has a secret candy stash hidden in her office!) but she's also surprisingly clear eyed when it comes to Lucien and Alaric, seeing them for who they are -good and bad - rather than just as a vampire and a hunter.

Alaric became one of my favorite hunters of evil things (I'm putting him up there with Buffy! that's major props!), he named his sword, likes Betty and Veronica comics and has Goofy watch. He's also very good at mercilessly killing vampires.

And Lucien, well, there is no doubt he's a vampire but he's the kind of Vampire I like: he knows what he wants, he goes to get it, he's not one of those who nobly restrains. He's also mature, and very aware of the respectability he shoulders, he acts like a man, not like a teenager.

Aside from these three very strong, awesome characters, Insatiable has a lot more going on. There is this very visual feel about the book - Meg does a great job with descriptions, it was like I was reading in Technicolor - with a dash of Law & Order. Great Pop Culture references without excessive name-dropping, great support characters and just a really well-rounded story.

I'm already biting my nails waiting for the sequel - coming out Summer 2011 - because I just can't wait to spend more time with Meena & Co. This book is that good!

Favorite quote: "Alric didn't give him a chance for any last words. In his experience vampires didn't really have anything that interesting or insightful to say. It was all Shakespeare and emo."

PS - Check out Meg's site, it's full of Insatiable extras!