Size 12 Is Not Fat: A Heather Wells Mystery (Paperback)

by Meg Cabot (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Bag the tiara and get out the gun: Heather Wells, former teen idol, turns detective in the cute debut of a new mystery series from bestseller Cabot (The Princess Project and other titles in her Princess Diaries series). After the 20-something Heather's rocker boyfriend dumps her, and her mother and manager flee with her earnings, she becomes an assistant director of an undergraduate residence hall at Manhattan's New York College (read: NYU) in hopes of free tuition. When students start to die mysteriously while "elevator surfing" in the building, weight-conscious, romance-obsessed Heather goes on a crazed hunt to uncover the truth—with an unwavering sense of style. As Magda, Heather's dorm cashier friend, says: "Even if the rest of your life is going down the toilet... at least your toes can still look pretty." Cabot delivers Heather's amateur sleuthing adventures in a rapid-fire narrative that may leave some readers begging for time-outs to control sudden laughing fits.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
At 28, former teen-pop-star Heather Wells feels as though she has lost everything: her family and fortune (her mom fled the country with Heather's earnings), her recording contract, her slender waistline, and her fiance, Jordan, a philandering, boy-band singer. Then Jordan's brother, Cooper, a dreamy private investigator and family black sheep, offers Heather room and board in exchange for clerical work, and she finds an additional job as a residence-hall director at a nearby Greenwich Village university. After several female students turn up dead at the dorm, Heather takes on her own stealthy investigation and finds herself the target of the killer. In the first title in her Heather Wells series, Cabot combines a fairly straightforward mystery with a single-girl-in-the-city plot in which Heather triumphs over cheating guys, bad luck, and a fattist society. Most of the characters are two-dimensional, but Heather's strong, amusing voice, the plot twists, and the possibility of romance will draw mystery and chick-lit readers alike. Gillian Engberg
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Avon A (December 27, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060525118
• ISBN-13: 978-0060525118
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (90 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #43,900 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 1 in The Heather Wells Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cabot Takes the Mystery World By Storm, January 5, 2006

By	Erika Sorocco (Southern California, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Twenty-eight-year-old Heather Wells rocked out when she was a teen, as a pop star that toured local malls with the boy band Easy Street. But once she stopped being a teenager, started packing on the pounds, and decided she wanted to write her own songs, Heather lost it all. Her recording contract was promptly taken away, her mother took off with her manager and all of her money to Argentina, and her boyfriend, Easy Street member, Jordan Cartwright, dumped her for the newest hot pop star, Tania Trace. But Heather is finally getting her life back on track. She's the Assistant Residence Hall Director at New York College, and she's even shacking up with one of the hottest guys on earth - okay, just as friends - Cooper Cartwright, Jordan's estranged, private eye brother. But when the body of a female co-ed from Heather's residence hall is discovered at the bottom of an elevator shaft, and everyone claims it's just an accident, Heather knows better, because she knows girls, and girls don't elevator surf. Then another body appears, and Heather knows that two accidents in two weeks is utterly impossible. So she begins investigating. The only problem, by the time she finds out who the killer is, it may be too late...for her.

Meg Cabot is one of the most colorful writers on the market right now. She can take any genre, and turn it into something marvelous. SIZE 12 IS NOT FAT is no exception. Meg takes three very unlikely subjects: pop stars, dorm directors, and detectives, and mixes them into one very intriguing book that is utterly impossible to put down. Heather Wells, like Meg's previous characters, is charming, with a witty sense of humor, and various complaints about her imperfections, that make her an easy character to relate to. A highly enjoyable, laugh-out-loud funny look into the life of an ex-pop star, that must be read while eating a Dove Bar. With just one book, Cabot has taken the mystery world by storm, and proves that there's a lot more Heather Wells where this came from. And I can't wait to get my hands on it.

Erika Sorocco
Book Review Columnist for The Community Bugle Newspaper

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Light, Fun Mystery!, January 4, 2006

By	Tamela Mccann "taminator1" (Nashville, TN USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Heather Wells is a former pop star who must now face an uncertain future after losing her fortune, her recording contract, and her fiance in a short period of time. Heather finds herself employed at a "residence hall" where 2 deaths in two weeks make her suspicious and that leads her to all sorts of adventures in her quest to determine whether or not murder has occurred. Written in first-person, Heather takes us through her sleuthing as well as her lusting for the brother of her ex-fiancee.

Heather is a bright, affable character who is readily relatable. The fact that she is not perfect is a joy; she's real and she means for you to understand that. I enjoyed the chatty style and the way each chapter began with the words to one of Heather's "songs" she sang as a pop star. I could easily envision her quirkiness and really enjoyed the humor as well.

This is definitely a chick-lit mystery and it doesn't pretend to be anything else, which is fine. The main place I had any problem was toward the end; the climax of the action just didn't have a realistic feel to it and it seemed a tad on the silly side. But overall I really enjoyed this one and look forward to more in the series.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Light, fun reading that's typical of Cabot, June 4, 2007

By	Bookphile (USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

While not a literary mystery or a particularly well-crafted one, Cabot has a casual and engaging style and Heather Wells is a very likable character in her puppy dog eagerness. What makes her characters so effective for me is how everyday they are. While I won't generalize and say that all women are like her somewhat neurotic characters, I think she does a good job of portraying the insecurities and worries with which women in general deal. Cabot's novels are light and effervescent and always make for a pleasant read.