Insatiable [Hardcover]

Meg Cabot (Author)

Book Description

Release date: June 8, 2010 | Series: Insatiable

Sick of hearing about vampires? So is Meena Harper.

But her bosses are making her write about them anyway, even though Meena doesn't believe in them.

Not that Meena isn't familiar with the supernatural. See, Meena Harper knows how you're going to die. (Not that you're going to believe her. No one ever does.)

But not even Meena's precognition can prepare her for what happens when she meets—then makes the mistake of falling in love with—Lucien Antonescu, a modern-day prince with a bit of a dark side. It's a dark side a lot of people, like an ancient society of vampire hunters, would prefer to see him dead for.

The problem is, Lucien's already dead. Maybe that's why he's the first guy Meena's ever met whom she could see herself having a future with. See, while Meena's always been able to see everyone else's future, she's never been able look into her own.

And while Lucien seems like everything Meena has ever dreamed of in a boyfriend, he might turn out to be more like a nightmare.

Now might be a good time for Meena to start learning to predict her own future. . . .

If she even has one.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cabot (Princess Diaries) winningly applies her trademark likably fallible protagonists and breezy storytelling to a vampire war in New York City. TV writer Meena Harper creates fabulous plots for Insatiable, the second-highest–rated soap opera, thanks to her burdensome if lucrative psychic ability to see into the future and determine how people are going to die. And just as Insatiable is switching to a vampire theme to attract a younger demographic, a spate of chilling murders-by-exsanguination grips New York City. Enter Lucien Antonescu, a sexy, melancholic Romanian history professor/vampire who recognizes that the murders are the work of rogue vampires who have broken away from his order. (Lucien happens to be the son of Vlad the Impaler, whom Bram Stoker gave such a bad rep.) Lucien's opposition: Alaric Wulf, a sympathetic detective from the Palatine Guard, who hopes to use Meena and her prophetic gift to stop the murders and track down Lucien. Unfortunately for Alaric, Meena is a little in love with Lucien. Cabot is less concerned with creating a convincing family tree for Lucien than with creating sparks between her characters, who feel pleasantly natural even as they live alongside the vampires next door.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The author of the popular Princess Diaries series and Queen of Babble (2006) jumps on the vampire bandwagon. Meena Harper is a young soap opera writer who possesses the power to see how people are going to die. This ability has allowed her to save the lives of those she cares about, but it's also made her something of an outsider. Her dreams of becoming the head writer on her show, Insatiable, are dashed when the job is given to a well-connected rival who wants to add a vampire character to the sudser. Meena is dismayed by the turn of events at work until a mysterious stranger named Lucien rescues her from a bizarre bat attack. Their romance takes off, until a smoldering vampire hunter named Alaric breaks into Meena's apartment and tells her the man she's dating is the prince of darkness. Meena doesn't want to believe her lover is actually a vampire, but the gravity of the situation becomes apparent when she finds herself embroiled in a deadly vampire war. The vampire craze may be reaching the oversaturation point, but this novel's appealing love triangle and Cabot's popularity should draw plenty of readers. --Kristine Huntley

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 464 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow; 1 edition (June 8, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 006173506X
• ISBN-13: 978-0061735066
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (190 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #701,580 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I write! Books for you, your sister, your best friend, your mother . . . . even for men with good taste!

Most of my time is spent over at my website, http://megcabot.com, so be sure to stop by!

UK, New Zealand, and Australia fans, visit http://www.megcabot.co.uk.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#83 in Books > Teens

#83 in Books > Teens

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

104 of 120 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars What?!? How could ANYONE give this five stars?! June 15, 2010

By E. Champion

Format:Hardcover

I am a massive fan of Meg Cabot and her adult books... they're fantastic. I read "Boy Next Door" at least once a year, usually with a glass of wine and a bottle of nail polish. I am imploring you to take me seriously because I sincerely want to save you from reading this book, and lessening your opinion of Meg Cabot.

There are pop culture references that are dry and uninteresting. Mentioning characters like Sookie Stackhouse from True Blood and Edward from True Blood and Buffy doesn't lessen the painfully obvious rip-offs--Meg Cabot's characters are an awkward combination of those three. (And Jon, the funny, down on his luck brother? Jason Stackhouse, anybody?!?!)

Even worse, the plot gets SO RIDICULOUS--I won't spoil it, but please believe me! The plot starts promising and jumps off the deep end. Characters make massive personality changes without much explanation, and the main love interest, Lucien (arguably the only likeable character in the book, although it seems at times that he's BARELY IN IT--what kind of romance has an MIA hero?!) loses all of his appeal in the last few chapters.

Meg Cabot, I love your writing. I will continue to buy your books. Just don't sell out like this!! And if you do, please make the book not quite so stupid.

ALSO: if anyone is looking for a funny, romantic, guilty-pleasure romance writer...try Kerrelyn Sparks. She's wonderful and cheesy, but mostly wonderful.

32 of 37 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Meg Cabot joins the vampire bandwagon April 19, 2010

By M. Tanenbaum VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Best-selling young adult author Meg Cabot turns to vampires in this tongue-in-cheek romance novel, published for adults but suitable for her teenage fans as well. It might be a tiny bit racier than her YA novels, but not by much. The story revolves around New York resident and Soap-opera writer Meena Harper, who is sick of the vampire craze going on around us, and is not happy when the powers-that-be on her soap inform her that she's going to have to incorporate a plot line featuring vampires in order to jump-start their ratings. The character of Meena herself fits into the current craze for paranormal fiction, since she has a unique ability to see when people are going to die when she looks at them. This sometimes helps her warn her friends to escape danger, but sometimes nobody believes her warnings. Meena is content living a single life with her brother and her cute little dog, when who should visit her neighbors but a mysterious Romanian prince named Lucien, whom she falls in love with. He's the only one that she can't forsee when he's going to die, but she doesn't realize that it's because he's already dead! Not only is he a vampire, he is the son of the famous Dracula and is the leader of the vampire community--the supreme ruler of the vampires. Will she and Lucien live happily ever after? Cabot tells this story with a tongue-in-cheek sense of humor; for example, when Meena discovers Lucien's true identity, she decides she will write a book to save other women from what she was going through: "Women are from Venus, Vampires are from Hell." The publisher calls it a "modern day sequel to Dracula," although I think it is a book much more for romance readers and Cabot's teenaged fan girls and certainly not for fans of real horror fiction.... Recommended for a fun escape novel, perfect as a summer beach read. Read more ›

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Fangy Fun April 22, 2010

By K. Coombs VINE™ VOICE

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

I ordered this book thinking it was for teens, and it turns out to be for adults--although older teens might enjoy it, too. (There are a few racy passages.) Meg Cabot's books are always so cheery, whatever their genre, that I just get a kick out of them. Besides, I wanted to watch Cabot poke fun at Twilight and the current rage for vampire stories, which is what the book summary seemed to promise... And yep, Insatiable is pretty much "Buffy meets Bella," with some mind reading thrown in because why not? [Some spoilers below!]

Meena Harper writes for a daytime soap, and she is appalled when she is assigned to write a vampire storyline. "'Vampires,' Meena said. 'Real original, Metzenbaum.' Shoshona stood up, slinging her bag over her shoulder . 'Get over it, Harper. They're everywhere. You can't escape them.'"

Which just might explain why Cabot wrote this book! But Meena doesn't catch on for pages, not until a macho vampire slayer holds her hostage in her apartment, demanding the location of her new boyfriend's pad. That would be the gorgeous Romanian prince Meena thinks is just perfect--until she gets the scoop on his supernatural secret. It turns out Lucien is in New York because he's trying to track down the idiot who's been draining human girls and leaving their corpses around the city, stirring up trouble for the secretive vampire community.

Pretty soon Meena--another of Cabot's feisty heroines--is attracting a lot of vampire attention because of her own secret: when she meets someone, she knows when and how they're going to die. It seems odd to her that she doesn't know this about Lucien (who's already dead); think psychic Sookie Stackhouse and her attraction to seemingly blank-minded vampire Bill....

Of course, as in any Cabot book, we get a lot of humor, most of it clever enough to make readers smile. There's Meena's anxious dog, Jack Bauer, for example, who turns out to be more tuned in to vampires than his owner. Also characters like a vampire slayer with an anger management problem, a geeky boss, and a fondness for high-class hotels. Insatiable is a fairly predictable vampire romance/adventure story, which eventually leads to a love triangle and a big, climactic fight scene. There's definitely room for a sequel here.

You might get a sense, as I did, that the book starts out tongue-in-cheek, but ends up taking itself a little too seriously. After all, it's hard to tell the difference between spoof and non-spoof when the female lead is a super-magnet for every major hunk in sight. Exactly why is someone like Lucien so enthralled by a girl like Meena, who's not the deepest person you'll ever meet? (Eternal soulmates--again!) I realize this goes back to wish fulfillment for the Everywoman reader, but I would have liked to see a bit more richness to Meena's character just the same.

Still, Insatiable is a light romp through vampire territory, a nice beach book for anyone who's up for paranormal romance. Note that Meena, perhaps because she's a little older, does seem to have more common sense than Stephenie Meyer's Bella, at least in Book 1. Who knows what she'll do in Book 2? Read more ›

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointingly typical September 23, 2010

By DM

Format:Hardcover

With Meg Cabot's 1-800-WHERE-R-U young adult series high on my list of favorite books of all time (for its strong female character and entertaining humor), the only reason I was even tempted to pick up this vampire novel was because of her name on it. I don't trust such novels, because they're usually wish-fulfillment drivel over bloodsuckers that I've never been able to understand. And, at first, it seemed this novel would break the mold. Meena Harper's character started off witty, driven, sympathetic, and interesting, with a psychic gift for predicting the death of other people that had the potential to carry the story all by itself. Even better, her opinion of typical vampire stories in general was the same as mine.

Before, of course, she actually meets a hot vampire. Then she rips off her clothes so fast she probably gave herself rug burn.

This book seemed like it would try to be ironic, then it played out like every vampire novel I've had the joy of flinging against the wall. Meena falls for a (amazingly attractive, disgustingly rich, predictably cultured and tragic) vampire prince and all that fiddle-faddle about common sense, self-respect, and self-preservation go flying out the window, along with her panties. Falling for him, of course, brings a slew of problems, including a crazy vampire hunting zealot, to endanger her and her friends. Meena gets swept up in the mess because she's in love, never mind that the vampire keeps biting her against her will when they have sex, since love apparently means violating your beloved's physical reservations. And, of course, Meena has good reason to believe at several points in the book that her beloved is capable of killing her. He has a temper, you see, an entitlement complex, and very big teeth.... This is what passes for romance in vampire novels.

The cliches don't stop there. Think of every vampire stereotype you've ever seen in movies and books for the past ten years and you'll find it here. Are all vampires rich? Do they hang out in nightclubs? Is there a vampire war brewing? Are there a bunch of lunatics wielding swords dedicated to wiping them out? Are the sexiest examples of them pillars of virtue who would never kill a human, because that would make them less sexy? Is the heroine's blood the most special blood ever? Check, check, check.

Now, let's go down the list of characters: Meena's initial backbone never seems to do her any good while she's being yanked from one scene to the next by people forcing or convincing her to do what they want her to do, and she spends most of the novel alternately bursting into tears and being tenderly concerned for the welfare of people who disrespect her. Her brother is a blithering idiot much too stupid to live. Her vampire boyfriend is an utterly banal template for every mainstream bloodsucker there's ever been since Dracula (except for a big incident in the climax of the novel that was somewhere between awesome and ridiculous). The vampire hunter was a nutjob with very fine tastes in living and in desperate need of therapy (his own boss tells him as much), which was entertaining before I realized he was being set up as Meena's other love interest. Seriously? The bloodthirsty undead on one side and a homicidal maniac on the other? The only thing I could root for was Meena joining a convent.

All of these things would have been fantastic in a spoof, and in fact the book seemed like it was intended to be one - the names of the characters are a bit of a clue. But something went horribly awry in the writing process, since very little was funny after the vampire love interest swooped in on his bat wings. Moments that might have been hilarious fall flat because the romance and angst is all taken very seriously by the narrative. Of course we can't laugh at the prince of darkness, because he can't be sexy if we're snickering uncontrollably because his skin sparkles like cheap rhinestones in sunlight...oops, sorry, wrong novel.

I thought Meena's ability to predict death and her determination to save what people she could, even though they rarely believed her, was much more interesting than anything about the vampires, but her powers were just a minor plot point put there for extra drama, and didn't really matter in the end.

I finished the book, simply because I don't stop reading unless a story is truly unbearable, and this wasn't that bad. It was just appallingly typical (and sometimes stupid). I've read this same basic story so many times by now that I'm still incredulous when I run into it, because I can't quite believe anybody is still writing this stuff. Which is why I don't read vampire fiction anymore, unless it's by an author I expect to be interesting with it.

Cabot really disappointed me here. Frankly, you'd be better off with Stephanie Meyers' Twilight. I actually liked it better than this book, because I never expected it to be very smart and I could enjoy it for the indulgent fluff it was. This book's author and premise may trick you into thinking it's clever or ironic. Trust me: It isn't. Read more ›