Big Boned by Meg Cabot

I should mention now that my library habit causes me to frequently read books in a series completely out of order. In this case, the "Heather Wells mystery" series by Meg Cabot, I read book 1, then book 3, and now posses book 2 (it sits on my kitchen table waiting patiently with the rest of its library friends, but now that I have figured out that I managed to read them in that order, I'm not quite sure that I'm going to read book 2 in the end anyway). So, keep that in mind. Learn from my mistakes. 

I'm not really going to say much about the Heather Wells series...or Meg Cabot in general. That's not to say that Meg Cabot isn't worth commenting on, but in terms of level of seriousness, I'm going to put her at the bottom of the totem pole of authors I'm trying to build. Of the books I've read so far, I'm going to say Cabot is the least serious author, followed by Keyes, Lancaster, and Gregory (but keep in mind I'm only ranking fiction authors at this point). Anyway, that's immaterial. 

Cabot is a hugely successful author - most notably author of the Princess Diaries series - and I think it's because of her ability to create fun, lighthearted fiction with believable characters and creative story lines. 

The thing is, Cabot's writing isn't brilliant. She'll entertain you, but she won't transport you to a new time and/or place...she doesn't rank up there with JK Rowling or CS Lewis (did anyone else just realize that those two have two initials as their names? If I ever try to launch a career in fiction, I will officially write under the name of  BE Barry). 

I don't want to discount her talent, I'm just trying to tell you that it lies in a realm of the literary world inhabited by a number of other authors. Final thoughts? Entertaining and fun...but not the kind of book that will make you fall in love with reading, or with Cabot.