Wednesday, November 20, 2013

The Bride Wore Size 12 ~ Meg Cabot review


Meg Cabot will be at Miami Book Fair International this weekend - will you be there? 


** Synopsis/review contain spoilers for the first three books, should be spoiler free for Book 4. My reviews of those books:
Series' Reviews/Order:
#1 Size 12 is Not Fat
#2 Size 14 is Not Fat Either
#3 Big Boned
#4 Size 12 and Ready to Rock


The Bride Wore Size 12 (Heather Wells #5)
William Morrow Paperbacks
September 24, 2013
392 pages
add to Goodreads/buy from Book Depo/or Amazon


This was a great possible conclusion to the Heather Wells Mystery series.  Personally and romantically, Heather is now in a different place, in the final days before her wedding to Cooper Cartwright but she's still assistant director at Fischer Hall. Or Death Dorm as it's become to be known.

Determined that this year is going to be different - that none of her students are going to die; only it doesn't seem to matter what Heather's decided.

A dead girl, Heather and Cooper's impending wedding and Fischer Hall's VIR (Very Important Resident) and it seems that Heather has more than enough to deal with.

She certain doesn't need her estranged, long-gone mother to reappear as well. So, of course, that's just what happens.


In this fifth book in the series (possibly? not?) the last in the series, Meg Cabot did a fantastic job of moving Heather to a new place in her life. It brings a bit of a change to the feeling of the book - as compared to the four previous books. Yet, the mystery that is present in the student's death (with 'Death Dorm'), in Heather going above and beyond in trying to solve the mystery brings a continuity to The Bride Wore Size 12 that keeps what makes the series great.

We get fantastic character (and relationship) growth and development while the humor and mystery that have made the series great haven't gone anywhere. If anything, Cooper being a definite, defined part of Heather's life now brings out more of Heather's daring and adds humor to the story.

The Cartwright family is not as present in this installment as they were in Size 12 and Ready to Rock (#4) - where Jordan was a big part of the story, so it made sense - but they're there and it's good to see Heather's 'family' expanding. She's flying as solo as she was when the series started. It adds new elements to how she has to run her life, what she needs to consider and it was enjoyable seeing them become now only part of her thoughts but also part of the story.

I really loved that the mystery in this book worked as well as those in the previous novels. There's the main 'big' mystery of the death, but also the smaller side plots that Heather has to deal with and/or unravel. The addition of some new characters brought some interesting twists.

A few small points did not seem to be resolved or explained at the end, however. They could have simply been character traits, quirks that played into the story, but they did leave questions. I would have liked a few sentences or a paragraph here or there as answers.

With humor, emotion and a fun mystery The Bride Wore Size 12 is a great Heather Wells Mystery.


Tiny note: I listened to some of the audio of this and while it is a good audio listen, it's not one of my favorites. Gavin and Cooper sounded too similar for me to really love it.  It's a great read, though.


Rating: 9/10




received from publisher through LibraryThing's Early Reviewer's program






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