Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot: A Review

One of the more light-hearted books I've read in a while is Size 12 Is Not Fat by Meg Cabot. Don't get me wrong, Meg has people falling down elevator shafts in the comedic mystery but it was so easy to read and so non-dramatic that you weren't particularly hiding under the covers. In fact, I think I laughed more than is deemed appropriate for a murder mystery. It kind of reminded me of Janet Evonovich's Stephanie Plum series. I have no idea which came first but they both have relate-able female leads in a novel that is more funny than it is thrilling. Regardless, this is a book I'd definitely recommend for the summertime. It's light, fun and you do sort of get caught up in who did it. I wouldn't say I was blindsided but I was totally wrong. What Goodreads Says 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 . . .

What I Say Heather Wells is the kind of character you instantly connect with. It makes no sense though because in her short life, she's been a huge pop star, dated one of the hottest in Hollywood, made millions and had it all stolen by her parents to end up broke, working for a salary under $30k and living for free in her ex-boyfriend's brother's brownstone. Sound complicated? You don't even know the half of it. Heather is a 20-something who's had everything you could ever dream of and taken away in the blink of an eye. Instead of completely falling apart, she gets herself a job at a college where she plans to put herself through school and start over. Of course, her ex-boyfriend makes that impossible by constantly knocking down her door. Anyway, we follow Heather and her addiction to food loaded with sugar as she finds herself in the middle of murder by elevator shaft investigation. She pulls in her roommate, aka ex-boyfriend's brother, who she also has a huge crush on to help her out. Everyone is hesitant to give her the time of day until someone tries to murder her. Twice.

Size 12 Is Not Fat is funny, ridiculous and addicting. Cabot does a fantastic job narrating from Heather's perspective. Instead of finding her whiny and irritating, we find her ballsy and ambitious. It's a great start to what I hope is an even better series. I really want to read the following books in the Heather Wells series just to see what other shenanigans she gets herself into. I not-so-secretly want her to get back into the music world because that's just awesome but I also want to see if I can get the next murderer right. Heather has a knack for catching the bad guy so I can't wait to see what she gets herself into in the next book.