From Publishers WeeklySignatureReviewed by Molly Jong-FastMidway though Cabot's latest novel, Chaz (the boyfriend of protagonist Lizzie Nichols's best friend) tells Lizzie, Someday you're really going to have to describe to me in more detail what life is like on the planet you live on. Because it sounds really great, and I'd like to visit there one day. Ultimately, this is what is both problematic and enormously appealing about the work of Cabot, the woman who shot to fame selling the idea that fairy tales really do come true. Lizzie is the fairy tale heroine. She is the fat, awkward girl in all of us, profoundly Midwestern, from the Spanks (modern Spandex girdles) she wears to her indignation at subway rudeness to her insistence on paying her wealthy boyfriend rent for living in his mother's Fifth Avenue apartment. As the book opens, Lizzie has just moved to New York City with her best friend, Shari, and their boyfriends, Luke and Chaz. Lizzie is determined not to become like her acquaintance Kathy Pennebaker, the prototypical smalltown girl who fails in Manhattan and returns home to wander the aisles of the local grocery store loading up on cough syrup for a weekend meth-making session. Things quickly become perfect for Lizzie. Luke asks her to move into his mother's apartment. She finds an amusing though nonpaying job working as a wedding dress restorer with an insane French couple. Lizzie also takes a paying job as a receptionist at Chaz's father's law firm. There are slight problems in paradise: the wedding store where Lizzie works has fallen on hard times and is involved in a rivalry with another wedding dress restorer. Luckily, Lizzie stumbles on a wedding dress gold mine when she befriends a woman who takes cares of seals at the zoo. It turns out that the seal-keeper is about to marry into one of Manhattan's most prominent families; suddenly, the smart crowd is coming to Lizzie's store. But Lizzie's quest to become successful is sidetracked by Shari's relationship problems and Lizzie's conviction that Luke's mother is having an affair and her obsession with the idea that Luke will never marry her. There is something oddly affirming about Cabot's writing. After sitting down with Queen of Babble in the Big City, it is totally clear to me why her books are huge bestsellers. Meg Cabot is nice. She sees the world as a wonderful place, and you want to live in her world and be her best friend. Her characters are charming. There is a school of thought that says reading should be entertaining, and this is exactly what Meg Cabot produces for us: fun. She is the master of her genre; she is the George Bernard Shaw if not the George Eliot of chick lit. Molly Jong-Fast's third book,The Social Climbe's Handbook, will be published by Villard in 2009. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. About the AuthorMeg Cabot was born in Bloomington, Indiana. In addition to her adult contemporary fiction, she is the author of the bestselling young adult fiction series The Princess Diaries. She lives in Key West, Florida, with her husband. Views: 18
It all started when he came into my life. I was robbing a shop with my mates cos we were piss poor and there he was, watching us go about our business as if we were shopping or something. He told me that I had a choice, but what would he bloody know? My mum had stopped taken her meds and I came home to find her off her rocker. Carting her off to the looney bin wasn't something I enjoyed doing. My mates were my family and I'd never do anything to abandon them. We were gonna get a council house together, if only they'd get a bloody job. I was the only git who worked. That's where he found me. The weirdo with dark cropped hair and blue eyes called Scott. The goody two shoes kept talking to me about having the choice to change my life. Views: 18
Bestselling author Andrew Peterson is back with a heart-stopping fourth installment of his wildly popular Nathan McBride series. When a mysterious note referencing a top-secret US operation is tossed over the wall of the embassy in Nicaragua, Nathan McBride and his old pal Harv are called out of retirement by CIA Director Rebecca Cantrell and sent to Central America. Cantrell wants the situation resolved quickly and knows that Nathan is the man to do it; after all, he has a history with the place. The jungle he and Harv are about to land in is the same one that Nathan barely escaped with his life decades before, an ordeal that left him physically and psychologically scarred. To make it out alive a second time, Nathan will have to face down his own demons and square off with a ruthless killer who learned from the best, Nathan himself. ** Views: 18
This is a collection of Tales from the Athena Lee Universe. Athena Lee's Quirky AI. Wilson has his origin story revealed at long last. Discover why he wants a Cat. Ever wonder why Hannibal Lee is afraid of the Farm? Meet lots of new characters and visit a few of our friends. Follow Wilson's adventures as he has fun at the expense of others. Taking advantage of Humans is too easy. Plotting Galaxy Domination is more fun. Prepare to Get down and Get Funky as the Hits just keep on coming!
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The mystery and the magic intensifies in the fourth installment of the remarkable MAGISTERIUM series. Views: 18
The Freak Observer is rich in family drama, theoretical physics, and an unusual, tough young woman—Loa Lindgren.For eight years, Loa Sollilja's world ran like one of those mechanical models of the solar system, with her baby sister, Asta, as the sun. Asta suffered from a genetic disorder that left her a permanent infant, and caring for her was Loa's life. Everything spun neatly and regularly as the whole family orbited around Asta.But now Asta's dead, and 16-year-old Loa's clockwork galaxy has collapsed. As Loa spins off on her own, her mind ambushes her with vivid nightmares and sadistic flashbacks - a textbook case of PTSD. But there are no textbook fixes for Loa's short-circuiting brain. She must find her own way to pry her world from the clutches of death.The Freak Observer is a startling debut about death, life, astrophysics, and finding beauty in chaos. Views: 18
She was everything he had aspired to create within a Program. Emile was his prized possession, and he wasn’t going to let her go. Not without a fight, and certainly not without causalities. She was everything to him. And I was his ticket to getting her back. Views: 18
Felix out did herself with her first paranormal. The characters were likable and intriguing, the males were protective and dominant but not obnoxious and her lead female was truly an enjoyable character. She got it right, and there is nothing better when you finish a book and want to start it right back over because it was just that good. If that's your cup of tea then you need to read Burden by Lila Felix." Quinn Loftis, USA Today Bestselling Author of The Grey Wolves Series. In the depths of the Louisiana swamps, clans of bear shifters roam freely. Hawke Turnclaw, the Alpha over all of his kind, is drowning in the legacy left to him by the Alpha before him, his own father. When he goes on a rescue mission to save a rogue Black bear from the clutches of a Grizzly clan, he finds more than just a Black bear, he finds his mate. Echo has always been told she's an anomaly, a fluke. She's the only bear of her kind and that makes her a hindrance to her clan. She's tried to run away, but they keep her tethered through guilt and a shock collar around her neck. And then someone shows up claiming he's her mate. Now belonging to a new clan, will she ever be able to understand that she's so much more than just a burden? Views: 18
From bestselling author Kaitlyn Davis comes a series perfect for fans of Throne of Glass, Graceling, and Game of Thrones! As the shadow grows more aggressive, Jinji and Rhen search for the rest of the dragon riders. But with time running out, they must face the impossible decision between honor and love. Alliances are formed, promises are broken, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance... Views: 18
