Book Review: The Bride Work Size 12 by Meg Cabot

At First Sight: With less than a month to go before her wedding to P.I. Cooper Cartwright, Heather Wells is super busy, but not with wedding preparations as one would guess, but with the check-in process at Fischer Hall, the dorm where she works.

There is the usual suspects to deal with: RA's who get sick, over-zealous parents trying to get special treatment for her very special awesome kids... and a Very Important Resident in the form of Prince Rashid from a middle eastern kingdom who comes complete with two even more over-zealous bodyguards than any parent Heather has ever dealt with.

Which is stressful enough - more so now that Fischer Hall, formerly known as Death Dorm, is currently the It Place To Live in Campus - but on top of that: Heather's mom dropped by for a surprise visit, people she's sure she didn't invite to her wedding keep thanking her for the invite and one of the RA's was just found dead... and Heather has gotten to her head that another student might be the one to blame. 

Second Glance: It's not secret that I love Meg Cabot's books, and that I love Heather Wells. She has has a special place in my heart mostly because I love her personality, things haven't always gone great for Heather - even if she was a pop star once - but she doesn't let that bring her down, she's honest to God one of the most optimistic characters ever, without getting annoying.

Other than that, this is a pretty good mystery thought the plot line is fairly simple. It does have a couple of sub plots that show up and then are dropped rather suddenly, and I would have liked more resolution on that. The book is, however, very fun.

Heather is hilarious and I love seeing her with Cooper and her friends. Like I said, I genuinely like her and she's one fictional girl that I would love to have as a friend, so I enjoy spending time with her. 

Bottom Line: I liked The Bride Wore Size 12 quite a bit (and quite a bit more than Size 12 and Ready to Rock). I had a good time hanging out with Heather. I'll be happy to read another one of her adventures, and I would be okay if this was the end since things do get nicely wrapped up. The Bride Wore Size 12 is a self contained, funny mystery and it comes out September 24. 

 

Book Review: Voice Over! Seiyu Academy by Maki Minami

The Deal: Hime Kino dreams of becoming a voice actress like her idol Miss Sakura from a very popular anime called "Lovely Blazer!" She even got accepted into an exclusive high school with a Seiyu program (that's what voice actors get called in Japan). 

She starts with lots of hope and enthusiasm but she soon finds herself in the stragglers group along with a guy who can't control his accent, another who can't control his anger (and has a bit of a scary voice) and a girl who talks really low.... and Hime herself has a rather gravely voice. 

Still, the four stragglers work together to try to pull through and it seems to be going all right until the sophomore guys challenge them to broadcasting duel. 

Oh, and did I mention she happens to be going to school with Miss Sakura's super talented son?

My Thoughts: Well, this was a really charming first volume of a brand new manga. Voice Over! Seiyu Academy is quite sweet, and the art is pretty - though some aspects are a bit over designed, like the uniforms - but the story was a bit slow.

This was very likely because it was just the first volume and things were being set up, but I sometimes was left feeling like I hadn't fully understood something and like it was going a bit slow. 

I did like Hime and her new friends, and how she starts to find her own strengths and how she and her friends encourage each other. 

I would recommend this one for tweens or young teens. 

I swear I've been reading... Sort of...

So... I'm in the middle of a bit of a slump.

It's not that I'm not reading, I am, just that I'm re-reading a lot. I have all these books (both for review and that I own, including a ton of dead-tree editions) but I just can't seem to pick them up or stick to them for very long.

Case in point: I've been reading The Hero's Guide to Storming the Castle for the last... month. And this was the one book I was REALLY looking forward this year. 

Same with The Bride Wore Size 12. I've been reading it for almost a week and a half. 

The books are really good too, but once I put them down it takes me forever to pick them up again. And I don't even know what I want to read next.

So, that's where you guys come in!!

I'm gonna list 5 books that are in my immediate TBR pile and you get to chose which one I'll read next. The choices are: 

The Heiress Effect by Courtney Milan

Her Favorite Rival by Sarah Mayberry

Persephone the Daring by Joan Holub and Suzanne Williams

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell

Promise Me Something by Sara Kocek 

Let me know your picks in comments!! And I'll round up the number in a couple of days :D 

Speed Date: The Temporary Wife by Jeannie Moon

The Plot: Meg Rossi was going through quite a few adjustments following the death of her best friend Grace and becoming the guardian to Grace's little daughter Molly, but they were making it through... until Molly's Grandparents, the Campbells, decided to fight the will and get their claws into Molly.

Meg has a long, painful story with the Campbells,and she knows them well enough to know that they are not going to stop until they get  what they want - be it Molly or her trustfund - and that Meg, with her kindergarden teacher salary can't fight them.

Enter Jason Campbell, middle son of the family and the asshat who broke Meg's heart many years ago. Now, a self-made billionaire he's aiming to right some wrongs - he really did screw Meg over all those years ago - and see that his sister's will is carried out. So he comes up with the crazy idea of  marrying Meg, providing her with the money and resources to fight his parents.

A marriage of convinience isn't exactly Meg's ideal plan, but she ends up agreeing to it... and soon she finds herself in a strange relationship with the only guy she has ever truly loved..

First Date: Okay, a few leaps of faith are being required here but nothing too bad. The set up is good and so far I like Meg and her family. The Campbells do suck though.

Second Date: Wow, Jason really is an asshole (and kudos to his friends for calling him on his shit), I don't like Harper, but I don't blame it on her but on Jason. He just keeps screwing up things with Meg. Meg should kick his ass, rather than keep lusting after him.

Third Date: Now, now, I didn't hate the ending... it wasn't all bad.It was a bit too neat and for a while there it read like the author didn't know how to end it but... well, it wasn't bad. Ended up liking Harper after all. 

Relatioship Status: It's not me, It's You.

Okay, so here is the thinga about The Temporary Wife: Jason is a Jerk, he does incredibly jerky things to Meg and it kind of galls at me that she just keeps on forgiving him. I would have cut his *beeep* after some of the stuff he pulls. The more I got to know what went down with Meg when they were in their teens the less I rooted for him. He pulls a 180 in the end, and he's not all that bad but I kind of don't buy it. 

Other than that, the writing was fun and easy, I'm intrigued about Jason's brother's Josh. Will I this author again? Maybe. Does Jason suck? yes, yes he does.

1/2

What's a Book Speed Date, you ask? It's a quickie review--about 150 words or so--of any genre book (variety is the spice of life, after all).

If you want to join in or just read other speed date reviews, check out The Book Swarm

Book Review: Stay by Allie Larkin

At First Sight: For the last six years, Savannah "Van" Leone has been in love with Peter Clarke, whom she meet during her first class at university... problem is that for about four of those years he has been in love with Van's best friend Janie and the two of them just got married. 

After having to serve as maid of honor in the blessed event, and after a row with Janie's mom Diane - for whom Van's mother worked - Van finds herself in possession of a sizable amount of money and trying to drown her pain in a few too many cocktails... which is how she ends up buying a dog on ebay.

But what she thought was a puppy turns out to be a huge, year old giant named Joe who only understands Slovak and has to have special food made for him. 

With entirely too much on her plate - including lingering, unresolved business and resentments with both Janie and Diane, and Peter suddenly needing to call her and talk to her all the time, even while at his honeymoon - Van does not want a giant mess of a dog... but, over time, she comes to realize that Joe might be just what she needed. That and Joe's handsome veterinarian.

Second Glance: I've had Stay in my TBR pile for almost two years and now I feel bad I didn't read it sooner because it was a really sweet story. Van was very likable - even if she needed to learn to say "No" when people where pushing her around - and I LOVED seeing her develop her relationship with Joe. I'm a dog person and the bond that grows between them made my dog-loving heart happy. 

And I loved Joe's vet, sure he could be a little thick headed sometimes but he was very nice and once his whole story was out in the open I went "Aww" a few times. 

Peter and Janie were very hard to like most of the time but even there, the author managed to pull things together in the end, in a way that felt really organic and appropriate as the two of them and Van had to re-learn how to be friends with each other again and find a more balanced relationship rather than just the two of them leaning on Van all the time. 

Peter's aunt - whom Van befriends - was a delight too.

Bottom Line: I really liked Stay. It had it's slow parts and sometimes the characters really pushed my buttons but I liked Ms Larkin's narrative and the story she told. It is more Chick Lit than Contemporary Romance, though, and the big love story here is between Van and Joe.