Book Review: Safe House by Meg Cabot

In the spirit of the Meg-A-Readers Blog Hop, I'm going to be reviewing one book by Meg Cabot every sunday for the duration of the event!  This week is a bit late because I didn't have the chance to do it yesterday! But here we are!

At First Sight: After a summer spent as a counselor at a music camp -and with a couple of missing kids thrown in the mix - Jess Mastriani is ready to start her Junior year of high school. And she's even trying to make an effort to stay out of trouble.

But on her first day back at school, Jess finds out that Amber, the perky cheerleader who sat in front of her in homeroom since the sixth grade, is dead. Oh, and that Amber's friends are blaming Jess for it since she wasn't around to use her psychic powers to find missing people - even if said powers are allegedly gone, in case the FBI comes asking. 

But then, Mark - Amber's boyfriend and all around king of Jess' school - starts noticing her. And sure, Jess' heart belongs to Rob Wilkins, but she still feels flattered so when he sort of asks her out, she accepts - mostly because Rob hasn't called since she has been back in town. 

Things seem to be looking up for Jess - even Rob eventually does show up - until another cheerleader goes missing, and it's up to Jess to find her before she has the same end as Amber. 

Second Glance: I decided to skip the review Code Name Cassandra because, after I re-read it, I realized that nothing much happens in the book - definitely, not enough Rob in it - so I jumped onto Safe House (Which you can find in Vanished, Volume 2, along with Sanctuary).  

I have to say that Safe House is one of my favorite books in the 1-800-Where-R-You series, I like that the plot is pretty straight forward and that Rob is around more - and he even has some cute moments with Jess. I still love how decent a guy he is. Jess is pretty fun, as usual and I love how she tries to do the right thing, specially when the problems caused by her "gift" start to hit a bit too-close-to home. 

Also, love Jess's brother Douglas, I have a soft spot for him and it's easy to see why he's Jess's favorite. 

Anyway, I generally love this book, I like the fast plot and the characters. Except for Ruth, Jess' best friend. I find Ruth to be a very unlikable and snobby person at times - calling Rob a Jerk for no good reason at all, her only problem with Rob is that he's a Grit (a kid who lives in a rural area) and not a Townie (kid who lives in the town proper), and that his mom doesn't have as much money as Ruth's own family does. 

We are told Jess likes Ruth because she's smart and interesting, but I would rather have a person who is kind as a friend. She's my second most disliked character out of all of Meg Cabot's books, beat only by Lily from The Princess Diaries. 

Bottom Line: I highly recommend Safe House, it's a very enjoyable, fun read. Characters are good and the plot is fast and interesting. Plus, it has Rob Wilkins.

Next week, I go into Mediator Territory by Re-reading Darkest Hour!

Movie Madness / Books So Far - May

Hello guys! I'm here to give a brief round up of the two only challenges I chose to accept this year. The first being: 

Movies/Series Watched: 10 - a slow month due to my Dad's stay at the hospital 

Favorites: The Avengers, In Pursuit of Honor and Downton Abbey (but only 'cause I wanna be Maggie Smith's Dowager Countess of Grantham when I'm in my dotage!).

Least Liked: My Week with Marilyn - it just went on for too long. Thought there were some fun lines. 

If you're doing the Movie Madness Challenge you can head off to The Talking Teacup to link up your update. 

-- 

On the book department and my quest to read 200 books in a year? 

Books Read: 20 

Re reads: 3 

Favorites: Welcome Caller, This is Chloe by Shelley Coriell, When Lighting Strikes by Meg Cabot and Everything and the Moon by Julia Quinn.

Young Adult: 8

Romance: 12 

Contemporary: 6 

Historical: 6 

Well, that's me! How's everyone doing so far?

Speed Date: Tiie Out by Jill Shalvis

The Deal: Mark Diego left Santa del Rey and became the youngest hockey coach in the NHL, but he never forgot his home town - even if he never wanted to go live there again - and so, when two of his players get in trouble and cause a PR nightmare, Mark decides he's going to take them back to Santa del Rey and teach them how to become role modals whether they want it or not.

On the other hand, Rainey never left Santa del Rey - a little town that has recently been hit hard by the fires and the economy - and now she helps run the North side recreation center along with her best friend Rick - who also happens to be Mark's brother.

She always had an unrequited crush on Mark - one that led her to the two most embarrassing moments of her life -so she's not exactly thrilled to have him back in town, and having  to work with him for the rest of the summer, particularly because he keeps invading her personal space and chasing off her dates. 

My Thoughts: Time Out was a really quick contemporary read, and though the characters weren't as developed as I would like, the story was very nice over all. Rainey and Mark are easily likable characters, and the fact that they have known each other forever helps to buy into the premise of the story - and the fact that they jump into bed fairly early on.

The story is a bit cliched - Rainey is really in love with Mark, has been for years, and Mark is a hot-shot guy who has never thought of settling down - but the writing was good and it didn't take that much time to read.

2/3

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: Hollyweird by Terri Clark

At First Sight: Aly King needs something good happening in her life, she just hasn't been the same since her mom died a couple of years ago. So when she wins a contest to meet Paranormal P.I. star Dakota Danvers - which includes an all-expense paid trip to L.A. - Aly is ready to jump on a plane with her best friend Desi and have some fun, even if her dad is making her take along her older sister Missy as a chaperon. 

In L.A. Jameson is trying to get back into God's good graces and get his wings back. As a fallen angel, he's willing to do whatever it takes to take the "Fallen" out of the equation, even if that means going undercover as Dakota's personal assistant and try to stop his evil plots, since Dakota is Satan's son and all. 

Jameson wasn't planning on having to deal with Aly and Co. or with liking Aly so much, but his handler Mikey (a.k.a. Archangel Michael) tells him it's all in God's plan and so he goes along with it.

Second Glance: All in all, Hollyweird was a fun book to read. I liked all the characters - specially Jameson, though I don't think he was as developed as he could have been, I loved his conversations with Mikey and the text messages he got from God. The angels in this story seemed to have a great sense of humor, which I appreciated because I'm tired of mopey angels suffering all over books lately. And  as Daisy @Between the Pages mentions, I'm glad Jameson was only 19, he made a lot more sense that way and it took away the creepy-Edward factor. 

I also really liked Desi and Aly's relationship, these are two girls who have stuck together through thick and thin, even though they are very different from each other. Missy was a little more of a plot-device for me, she was a standard Diva-esque mean girl for a big part of the book so I was a bit meh about her, but she didn't bother me overly much. 

The plot was simple enough, and I thought it was OK for the most part, only that it felt a little rushed, particularly toward the end. Also, I felt like Aly and Jameson fell for each other rather quickly. 

On the other hand, I didn't find this book to be offensive in the religious aspect, at least I was able to take it in the spirit of fun, the way angels are portrayed and all, and I was raised by a hard-core catholic Grandmother; so Hollyweird gets props for that. 

Bottom Line: A quick, fun read, not my favorite book ever, but it's fluffy and funny and not too angsty though still paranormal.  

Book Review: Believe it Or Not by Tawna Fenske

So Not Digging This Cover*

At First Sight: Accountant Violet never wanted anything to do with her mother Moonbeam's psychic business. But when Moonbeam suffers a fall, and only agrees to have surgery when Violet promises to look after the business and keep Moonbeam's appointments, Violet is stuck playing the psychic and listening to 80's glam rock, courtesy of the bar next door and it's owner Drew. 

Drew knows his business is a little unusual - much as he likes to say his bar is just like any other, the place is most well known for it's male strippers nights - and he hasn't always seen eye-to-eye with Moonbeam, though they get along ok enough. 

But, when Violet comes to take over the place next-door for a while, Drew feels instantly drawn to her, even as he tells himself that a girl as straitlaced and 'normal' like Violet won't be interested in a strip-bar owner like himself.

The attraction is there, though. 

Second Glance: Believe it Or Not was a really fun read! Within a few pages I was laughing. Sometimes it was because of Moonbeam's hippie friends and others because of Drew's strippers, but I had a laugh all through this book. 

It had a lovely romantic-comedy-made-for-TV-movie quality to it (and I mean this in a really good way) because it was just good, campy fun. 

I like Violet and her tendency to blurt out strange factoids over everything and I found it to be an endearing quality, and I really thought Drew was a nice guy (though I found his love of cherry Coke a little strange, I have to admit). 

Bottom Line: Believe it Or Not is a really funny contemporary story, where the pages just fly by an you keep a smile on your face all the way through. 

Favorite Scene: "What seems to be the problem, Jamie?" Drew said, coming to seat beside him.

Jamie looked up at him, his eyes red-rimmed and goopy. Jesus, Drew thought. And women throw their panties at this guy?

"It's Sid," Jamie sniffled. "He called me a wuss."

"Right. Remember what we talked about with the sticks and stones...?"

"But it really hurt my feelings, boss." Jamie said, his expression so wounded that Drew couldn't help but feel sorry for him. Wel, as sorry as he could feel for a man who'd been named Mr. Oregon Bodybuilder for three out of the last five years.

"You have to get through this, Jamie," Drew soothed. "Those guys just tease you to get a rise out of you. If you don't let them ge you, the'll stop."

"But dancing is my art." he sniffled. "They don't understand how it wounds me when they make a mockery of something that's so emotionally valuable to me." 

"Hey," Drew said. "Remember those pretty girls in the front row last week? They could have tucked that hundred in anyone's shorts, but whose did they choose?"

Jamie smiled a little at that, "Mine." (...)

Then he trotted away, leaving Drew to stand there staring after him. "I should have been a preschool teacher." he muttered. 

*Re: Cover - I'm sorry, but if you're going to put a shirtless man on the cover, put one with a six-pack. This one looks like it got a beer gut if you look at it a certain way.