Enchanting Review: Jinx

JINX
MEG CABOT
HarperTeen
Paranormal YA
ISBN# 0060837640
262 Pages
$16.99
Hardcover—Available Now

Rating: 4 Enchantments

Jean aka ‘JINX’ has been forced to move to NYC and stay with her well-off aunt and uncle to finish out the school year after something has gone horribly wrong at home. Jinx doesn’t like to talk about it, but her cousin Tory decides to out some of it during the first time they see each other again. Jinx is about to discover NYC is a whole new world, she has her own room, her own bathroom and apparently her built-in nemesis in her cousin Tory, or ‘Torrance’ as she prefers to be called. Torrance thinks she inherited the family’s witch powers and when Jinx saves Zach, Tory’s crush, she’s sure that Jinx is a witch too. But when Jinx tells her she wants nothing to do with magic or witchcraft, Tory takes it personally, and goes out full blast to destroy Jinx when she realizes that Jinx is truly the more powerful of the two.

I liked JINX. There were a few points that kind of bugged me, like how she didn’t realize that Zach liked her and kept playing off his nearness as his attempt to visit Petra, the au pair. I would have thought she’d have realized it sooner as it got a little grating as she kept doing it over and over again. But her cousin Tory is one truly devious character. I thought the one part where she ended up in the hospital was bad and an attention seeking move, but what she ended up doing to Jinx near the end of the book had my jaw dropping in awe.

Any fan of lighter paranormal and Meg Cabot will definitely enjoy JINX.

Ms. Cabot is the popular author of many books for young adults. Visit her online at her website www.megcabot.com

Lisa
Enchanting Reviews
June 2009

Enchanting Review: Being Nikki

BEING NIKKI
MEG CABOT
Contemporary Young Adult
Scholastic
ISBN#978-0-545-04056-3
352 Pages
$16.99
Hardcover--Available May 5, 2009

Rating: 4.5 Enchantments

BEING NIKKI is the highly anticipated sequel to ‘Airhead’ and doesn’t disappoint! Em’s desperate for her crush and former BFF Christopher to realize who she really is, that she’s still alive and trapped in Nikki Howard’s body. But he’s oblivious to everything it seems, except for McK, And as if she doesn’t have enough to deal with, Nikki’s older brother, Steven, arrives unexpectedly at her door, demanding her help in finding their mother. Suddenly Em finds herself struggling to keep her life together while helping Steven, keep her modeling career in line and deal with the fact she has to let go of who she used to be.

I totally enjoyed BEING NIKKI. Em Watts/Nikki Howard is one of my favorite YA characters and she doesn’t disappoint in the sequel to ‘Airhead’. Caught between trying to stay in contact with her family and play the part of Nikki in her new life, she’s forced to find a way to merge the two together, especially Christopher when Steven arrives and demands her help. It turns out her paranoia about Stark Enterprises may not be so far fetched after all when she finds bugs in her ceiling. So just what is going on and how is the disappearance of Nikki’s mother connected to everything?

The mystery element in BEING NIKKI is well done, creating a major jaw dropping moment that leaves readers wondering what will happen in the next book of the series, ‘Runaway’. The only bad thing about the book is its cliffhanger ending that left me demanding the next book in the series ASAP. The characters are just as great as they were in ‘Airhead’, Lulu is as fun as ever, Frida matures a little in this one and the addition of Steven is a great one.

Ms. Cabot is the popular author of many books for young adults, including the Princess Diaries series. Visit her online at her website, www.megcabot.com

Lisa
Enchanting Reviews
April 2009

Q and A with Meg Cabot

1) What led to the idea to have a tiara auction?

I wan ted to do something to help libraries--library use is up 30% right now with the recession, but funding for them has been slashed significantly!--and my publicist Rachel Breinin suggested doing an auction. Of course TIARAS seemed like a natural fit. We had tiara frames custom made, then set about asking designers, celebrities, authors, and illustrators decorate them. Truthfully, we got a lot of "I'm too busy's" and, adorably, from a few male stars, "I'm not sure it would fit my manly image," and one celebrity journalist we asked even accidentally threw hers away! But we got of yesses too. So it turned out great!

2) What inspired your design?

My design was inspired by "Forever Princess," which takes place in the springtime. Princess Mia really "blossoms" in the book, hence the tiara's floral theme, which also represents her gradu ation, going to prom, and, of course Greenpeace!

3) If you could have anyone in the world wear your tiara, who would you like to see it on?

Oh, my gosh! I guess the first person who springs to mind would be one of the Obama girls. Second would be Kathy Griffin.

4) What do you think Mia's tiara would look like if she were taking part in the auction?

A huge mess. She's not crafty at all. But you know what? Grandmere would come to the rescue and hire Martha Stewart to fix it, so in the end it would turn out BEAUTIFULLY.

Thanks Meg for taking the time to answer my questions!

Please check out the tiara auction at http://www.cmarket.com/auction/item/Browse.action?_sourcePage=/item/browseImage.jsp&sort=NAME_ASC&page=1&auctionId=73509724&view=IMAGE

Enchanting Review: Forever Princess

FOREVER PRINCESS

MEG CABOT

Contemporary Young Adult

HarperTeen

ISBN# 978-0-06-132292-3

416 Pages

$16.99

Hardcover--Available January 6, 2009

Rating: 4.5 Enchantments

In the tenth and final book in the Princess Diaries series, FOREVER PRINCESS fast forwards two years from the end of the last book. To catch you up, Mia and J.P. are a (seemingly) happy couple; Michael’s been busy in Japan, but he and Mia have been emailing occasionally and she still isn’t friends with Lily. But everything is about to change as the end of Mia’s senior year quickly approaches, as well as her eighteenth birthday and the fact she suddenly has to make a choice about which college she’ll end up going to. And in the biggest surprise event of all—Michael returns unexpectedly. Yep, her ex who she really isn’t a hundred percent over despite being happy with boyfriend J.P. is back in good old NYC and is happy to see her. Mia just isn’t so sure she’s as happy to see him.

In the midst of all this chaos, good old Dr. Knutz thinks Mia can make her life so much more simpler by just telling the truth, which honestly, is so much easier said than done. For example, she got in to every college she applied to, but she told everyone she didn’t. Why would she want to upset her friends who didn’t get into their first choice when she did?

FOREVER PRINCESS has quickly become one of my favorite books in the series. Mia’s struggling with a lot and even more when she finds out Michael’s back in town. I loved the scene where Mia finds herself pulled back to the press room by none other than Lily to say hello to him and then when she lies and tells him she was there to cover the event for the school paper, he offers to go out for coffee with her to do an interview, which leads to probably my favorite scene in the entire book. I have to say I was surprised by some of the revelations that pop up in the book about a certain person in Mia’s life, although its probably easy to see coming the deeper you get in FOREVER PRINCESS. But I loved the way things turn out for our favorite Princess of Genovia. Fans of the series will love the way Ms. Cabot wraps things up in this highly entertaining and pure fun read.

To celebrate the release of FOREVER PRINCESS, tiaras designed by Meg Cabot, fellow YA authors Sarah Dessen and Judy Blume and celebrities and designers such as Lauren Conrad, Vera Wang, Tommy Hilfiger, Bobbi Brown and Austin Scarlett from Project Runway, are being auctioned off to benefit the New York Public Library, Tiara Proceeds to Help Fund Tutoring & Book Groups for New York City’s Teens. The tiaras will be auctioned online at cMarket -- http://tiaras.cmarket.com -- from January 1-31 with all proceeds to benefit programs for teens at The New York Public Library’s 87 branches.

Lisa

Enchanting Reviews

December 2008

Enchanting Review: Airhead

AIRHEAD
MEG CABOT
Contemporary Young Adult
Point
ISBN# 978-0-545-04052-5
352 pages
$16.99
Hardcover - Available June 2008

Rating: 5 Enchantments

Sixteen year old Emerson Watts could never imagine that taking her younger sister to the grand opening of the new Stark mega store to see singer and heart throb Gabriel Luna would change her life forever. But when a plasma screen is about to come crashing down on her younger sister who’s too busy heading for teenage supermodel Nikki Howard to notice, Em rushes over to push her sister out of the way of the falling object. The next thing she knows, Em’s waking up in a hospital bed. And that’s when things really start to get odd, because as she’ll soon find out, Emerson Watts is dead.

I adored Em right from the start of the book; she’s your typical teenager, a bit of an outsider at her high school and sorta crushing on her geeky best friend who doesn’t seem to notice she’s a girl. But when the craziness starts, Em struggles to deal with the fact she’s now become part of something she saw on one of those Discovery channel surgery shows that people said was light years away from actually happening and that the only person outside of her family she cares about, thinks she’s dead. She can’t exactly tell him the truth either. Plus she has to try and fit into Nikki’s life, part of the conditions of her getting the surgery in the first place.

I loved the scene when Em is ‘kidnapped’ from the hospital by Nikki’s friends Lulu and Brandon, who think she’s really Nikki Howard. As Em tries to adjust to hanging out with people she’s only seen in magazines, she’s also trying to get them to believe what happened. That she really isn’t Nikki Howard, that she’s Emerson Watts trapped inside Nikki’s body.

AIRHEAD is a fabulous read by Ms. Cabot. Em’s predicament makes a humorous, page turning read. AIRHEAD is one of my must read novels of 2008. I can’t wait to read the sequel, BECOMING NIKKI. Check out Meg’s website at

Lisa
Enchanting Reviews
May 2008

Enchanting Review: Princess Mia

PRINCESS MIA
MEG CABOT
Contemporary YA
HarperTeen
ISBN 978-0-06-072461-0
274 pages
$16.99
Hardcover - Available Now

Rating: 4 Enchantments

Mia has a lot to deal with: her break up with Michael, the sudden silent treatment from her best friend Lilly, not to mention the continuing Princess Lessons. But now because of her depression over the break-up—doesn’t everyone just want to spend a week in bed?—Mia’s forced to go see a psychologist. And not just any psychologist either, Dr. Knutz (aptly named!) is supposed to be one of the best in the country, but the guy is beyond kooky!

And in the midst of all of this, Mia’s agreed to give a speech in front of several thousand of the top businesswomen in New York and stumbles onto a long lost family diary that could have serious repercussions, depending on what Mia decides to do with it.

In PRINCESS MIA, the ninth book of the Princess Diaries series, Mia’s growing up, in more ways than one. She’s grown another inch and weirdly enough, she’s also gained a bit of weight, which translated, means she’s now got boobs, which means she needs an entirely new wardrobe. Her grand-mère is thrilled! Now Mia can carry off a strapless gown. But Mia’s got real problems. Like her depression over the split with Michael, the fact that JP seems to be everywhere and Tina keeps saying he’s in love with her. As if right? But stranger things have happened.

My favorite scene is when Mia’s father has finally had enough of her week long stint of staying in bed and hiding out from all those who care about her, and carries her—Hello Kitty pajamas and all—into Dr. Knutz’s office, a psychologist who Mia thinks more than lives up to his name. The whole scene truly made me laugh out loud. One of the best in the whole series.

With a few shocking surprises in store, PRINCESS MIA won’t disappoint fans of this wonderful series. Another terrific read by Ms. Cabot.

Lisa
YA Director
Enchanting Reviews
February 2008