Book-o-Craze

Originally posted on Book-o-Craze


I've always liked the way Meg Cabot writes. The first of her books I tried were The Princess Diaries of course, but because they were translated into my native language, in Greek, I didn't really appreciate her writing style.

But, I clearly remember falling deeply in love with her Mediator series, when I was in my teens, which I still happen to miss reading at times. I even tried getting my hands on other of her books. Actually I have a whole list of books written by her in my TBR list. And, I'm really anxious to get around reading them, too.

So, that's why I picked Insatiable. When I found out she had written in the Adult genre, I absolutely had to take a taste. And, I did.

At first, I must admit that I quickly recalled why I always fall in love with her style. It's just the way she writes that makes you instantly comfortable with the heroine and her life. It never takes me long to adjust to her and start to actually feel the way she feels about things. The main character, Meena, was very likable right from the start. She has a special ability, which wasn't described as something completely unnatural and weird, like it happens in other books.

I actually liked a lot of the side characters, too. Leisha, Meena's best friend, who was mostly described through the heroine's flashbacks, or Jon, her brother, who was quite humorous, although a bit indifferent to me.

As far as the romantic interests are concerned, Lucien was okay, I guess. I really liked him mostly in the beginning. He was dark, he was brooding, he was mysterious. But, all this before he got together with Meena. After that, all this mushy love all the time made me quite estranged with the book. Generally, this is exactly what made the book less appealing to my eyes. But, I'll get back to it.

Previously, I mentioned the heroine's romantic interests, and not interest. This is why, almost right from the start, we were introduced to another character, Alaric, who was also very brooding and mysterious and all. He was the portrayal of a just fine vampire hunter to me!

But, to return back to the point, there is a huge, gigantic "but". All this information about the male characters refers only to the first half of the book. The rest of it is just about them both loving all of a sudden Meena. Both of them were just magically, instantly attracted to her. And not just that, they actually said all the time they loved her, especially Lucien. And, they knew her, what? About two days? Three days? If this was a Young Adult book I wouldn't really mind. Teens really do have a tendency to fall in love in an instant. But from an Adult book, I am sad to say, I expected a little more... maturity.

This applies to the heroine, too. There was no slow building of the characters' relationship. Meena was suddenly all girly and silly about Lucien. And, at first I presumed it was because she had been bitten. But, now I'm just not sure that is the case. Also, she was always so clear that she didn't want Lucien to bite her, but all of a sudden she ended up with new bites. And, right before the book ended it was made clear that he was seducing her, doing it against her will, something I really really disliked about him, especially considering that he was supposed to be all wise and stuff. And still, Meena was so in love with him, and then after an incident she became so afraid that she managed to push him away? Well, something just doesn't click. At least for me. I felt like it went way too fast in the end, with their separation being so quick, so seemingly effortless for the heroine, someone who was willing to give up her life to go with him just a few chapters ago.

Which leads me to my final objection to the book. In some instances the storyline was progressing so slowly, it felt like it was dragged from page to page (like the part where Alaric barged into her place and kept her a hostage), and in some others the pace was so quick, no sentiments were really able to be born, just like the scene I previously described and many many others. I would have preferred more emphasis to have been given in the characters' development, rather than so much trying to persuade us that everyone loves Meena and is ready to give their life for them - or take hers away in order to forever be with her.

All in all, this book gets 4 stars from me, just because it is written by Meg Cabot and I actually liked it in the beginning. If I could, I would have given it 3,5 stars, because of the bad taste it left me with, towards the end.