"Lively, witty mystery with a bit of twisted humor."

By: Meg Cabot

Genres: Mystery Woman Sleuth | Contemporary Chick Lit

Posted: December 16, 2005

Heather Wells used to be a big singing star. Now she's an assistant director at a residence hall. When she's not dodging the crinkled brows and murmured, "Don't I know you from somewhere"s, she's trying to put her life back together after a much too public split from her boyfriend and the end of a sensational career. Of course, there's also that uncomfortable crush she has on her ex-boyfriend's brother -- who's currently letting her stay at his place.

Heather's job takes a turn for the interesting when she arrives at the dorm (excuse me, residence hall, as her boss constantly corrects) to find fire engines and a dead student in an elevator. The student was apparently trying elevator surfing, something more daring kids like to do. But the more she finds out about the dead student, the more concerned she becomes that the death wasn't accidental.

And Heather, being Heather, can't leave anything alone. Badgering her current crush, Cooper, into helping out, Heather investigates. She doesn't realize that doing so could put her own life in danger.

There's a true Meg Cabot tone to this book -- which makes it terrific. I like her lively writing style, the witty characters and the occasional snatch of twisted humor. (I mean, it's a little hard to get serious about the death by elevator scenario...) I really enjoyed this book and am sure anyone looking for some light, funny reading will like it, too.

Book Summary

HEATHER WELLS ROCKS!

Or, at least, she did. That was before she left the pop- idol life behind after she gained a dress size or two -- and lost a boyfriend, a recording contract, and her life savings (when Mom took the money and ran off to Argentina). Now that the glamour and glory days of endless mall appearances are in the past, Heather's perfectly happy with her new size 12 shape (the average for the American woman!) and her new job as an assistant dorm director at one of New York's top colleges. That is, until the dead body of a female student from Heather's residence hall is discovered at the bottom of an elevator shaft.

The cops and the college president are ready to chalk the death off as an accident, the result of reckless youthful mischief. But Heather knows teenage girls . . . and girls do not elevator surf. Yet no one wants to listen -- not the police, her colleagues, or the P.I. who owns the brownstone where she lives -- even when more students start turning up dead in equally ordinary and subtly sinister ways. So Heather makes the decision to take on yet another new career: as spunky girl detective!

But her new job comes with few benefits, no cheering crowds, and lots of liabilities, some of them potentially fatal. And nothing ticks off a killer more than a portly ex-pop star who's sticking her nose where it doesn't belong . . .

Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot

Size 12 Is Not Fat

by: Meg Cabot

A Heather Wells Mystery

Avon
January 1, 2006
Featuring: Heather Wells
368 pages
ISBN: 0060525118
Trade Size

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