Publisher: William Morrow
Where did you get the book: From Publisher
Release date: July 12th
Summer break . . . and the livin’ ain’t easy!
Just because the students at New York College have flown the coop doesn’t mean assistant residence hall director Heather Wells can relax. Fischer Hall is busier than ever, filled with squealing thirteen- and fourteen-year-old girls attending the first ever Tania Trace Teen Rock Camp, hosted by pop sensation Tania Trace herself—who just happens to be newly married to Heather’s ex-boyfriend, heartthrob Jordan Cartwright. But the real headache begins when the producer of a reality TV show starring Tania winds up dead . . . and it’s clear that the star was the intended victim.
Grant Cartwright, head of Cartwright Records, wants to keep his daughter-in-law (and his highest-earning performer) alive. So he hires his oldest son, black sheep of the family and private investigator Cooper Cartwright—who just happens to be Heather’s new fiancÉ. Heather should leave the detecting to Cooper. But with a dorm full of hysterical mini-divas-in-training, she can’t help but get involved. And after Tania shares a really shocking secret with her, this reality suddenly becomes more dangerously real than anyone ever anticipated.
*blurb taken from goodreads*
I was so stoked to see this available for review. I’ve been a big fan of the Heather Wells series, and a major fan of Meg Cabot’s books from when I was a teenger.
This book returns a couple of months after the last book, where Cooper and Heather finally got together. I must have re-read the ending of Big Boned so many times when Cooper finally tells Heather how he feels.
Heather and Cooper are secretly engaged, and that’s how Cooper wants it to stay. With how awkward things are with the Cartwright family, he wants to elope with Heather where none of the craziness of his family can ensure. Heather is still working as Assistant Director of Fischer Hall, and Cooper is still a Private Investigator.
One night, Heather is called from home to deal with a call about an unconscious woman. Things turn crazy when it turns out Jordan, superstar pop singer and Heather’s ex-boyfriend and Cooper’s younger brother (it was awkward writing that out) is there in Fischer Hall with his wife, Tania, who is also a superstar singer and who is currently pregnant. They’re there filming a reality series, and soon enough they’re given permission by Heather’s boss to film and to have Tania’s rock camp series played out in the Hall.
But of course, things turn grizzly after a murder and someone is after Tania from her past, so Cooper becomes Tania’s personal bodyguard which Heather is not very pleased about. Heather once again becomes embroiled in murder — and working with Cooper, they need to find out who the murderer is.
It was so fun returning to the world of Heather Wells again, and the first scenes in the book were pretty classic with Gavin acting like his usual dorky self. I did have a problem with the beginning in that I found it to be a little slow with long periods of dialogue between characters – and that kept up throughout the book with long dialogue passages that took up too much time. I loved seeing the closeness between Heather and Cooper as a couple, but I was disappointed that we didn’t get to see a lot of Heather and Cooper, and in that regard, the romance was quite weak.
There’s classic Meg Cabot humour, though, and once the story gets going we get to see the Cartwright family in full, and what a bunch of crazy pants people they are. There’s Cooper’s twin sisters, one who seems to be drunk most of the time, and the other sister who sings about her menstrual cycle.
I felt quite bad for Heather on Cooper’s insistence on keeping their engagement quiet from their family. Whilst on one hand I can see why he did that with how crazy his family are, but on the other hand, Cooper had never really given a shit about what his family thought, especially at their reaction to when he became a private investigator. Heather is still the same Heather but with a lot more sense drilled into her. She seems to be a lot more settled with Cooper, and it was lovely to see. Again, I wished we saw more of them as a couple because after the wait of them getting together, it would have been nice to see some depth and emotion to their relationship.
The suspense part runs true to theme like the other books in the series, and I admit I felt that the ending was a little weak with how it played out with the killer. I definitely think that Size 12 and Ready to Rock is a book that’s very much a read for fans of the Heather Wells series, and whilst it’s not the best book from the series, I don’t think fans should miss it.
I would love to see another book in the series showing concentrating on Cooper and Heather. As much as I love Fischer Hall, I think it’s had its iota of murders for a lifetime.
All in all, I despite some issues I had, this is a must read for fans of the series. I give it a B.
Thanks for the review Lou, I don’t remember if I ever read some of her books, but I know I do have several. I do think it a bit icky, to date the brother of your ex.
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