Size 12 is not fat by Meg Cabot

Original title: Size 12 is not fat
Year published: 2006
Published by: HarperCollins Publishers
Number of pages: 345 + my edition has some extra material
First sentence: "Um, hello."
Goodreads rating: 4/5

Plot:
Heather Wells rocks!
Or, at last, she did. That was before she left the pop-idol life behind after she gained a dress size or two - and lost a boyfriend, a recording contract, and her life savings (when Mom took the money and ran off to Argentina ). Now that the glamour and glory days of endless mall appearances are in the past. Heather's perfectly happy with ther new size 12 shape (the average for the American woman!) and her new job as an assistant dorm director at one of New Yorks's top colleges, That is, until the dead body of a female student from Heather's residence hall is discovered at the bottom of an elevator shaft.

The cops and the college president are ready to chalk the death off as an accident, the result of reckless youthful mischief. But Heather knows teenage girls ... and girls do not elevator surf. Yet no one wants to listen - not the police, her colleagues, or the P.I. who owns the brownstone where she lives - even when more students start turning up dead in equally ordinary and subtly sinister ways. So Heather makes the decision to take on yet another new career: as spunky girl detective!

My thoughts:
I bought this book mostly because it was cheap and because I really loved The Princess Diaries as a kid. This is a good book however, with funny and semi well-rounded characters.

The main-characther Heather is a fun one, She is quirky, determined and feels like a normal person despite her previous career as a pop-star. I think we all either have a friend like her or are her. Heather is really stubborn and although not overly intelligent (I mean like a genius), she is also smart and proper problem solver. However, she does make some bad choices during the course of the book, mistakes that I think many people would make in the same situation. Her roomate, and landlord, Cooper also happen to be her ex-boyfriend Jordans brother. To complicate things further she has feelings for both men.

You get an array of fun side characters in this book, which help carry the plot along and keep the book fun and entertaining.  This is a fun criminal feel good chick flick book. There are hints of romance in it, and gives insight into several complicated relationship but the focus on the plot stays right on course with the murders happening at the dormitory.

Do I recommend it?
If you, like me, don't like the dark criminal novels we are usually handed, but still want to read something that deals with crime and such, than this is the book for you. I really liked this book. It's easy to read, yet fun and entertaining. So yes, I do recommend it.