Insatiable

Meg Cabot is well known for writing the Princess Diaries series of books geared towards teens/tweens. She also has written a number of adult fiction books. None of it has been particularly popular, at least not in comparison to her teen fiction. But now she has also jumped on the vampire bandwagon that seems to have swept through our entire culture.

I must admit to being a fan of the whole vampire lore. It started with Dracula, which I read when I was far too young to deal with the book, and has been fed steadily in the past three years with the glut of vampire books currently being pumped out by authors and publishers.

I have read the Twilight series, and admit to enjoying it quite a bit. In fact, I really enjoyed the growth of the characters in the books as they matured through adolescence and into adulthood. I was very pleased with the strength that Bella developed as a woman by the end of the series, which made up for her Juliet-type sighs that made me want to barf my way through the first book. So far, I have not found the movies to come close to the books in dealing with character development or providing adequate background details (not that many movies ever do). But that is a topic for another post.

Meg Cabot has now joined the vampire club. This afternoon I finished her lastest book, Insatiable. I really enjoyed it. It's light, at least as light as a book with this subject can be, and has a protagonist that I like. I am not a fan of the damsel-in-distress who needs to be rescued. I prefer my protagonists to have some strength of their own; taking delight in their battles to deal with the less-than-perfect situations in which they find themselves. Insatiable's protagonist is a girl I enjoy reading about. She doesn't wait around for a man to fix things. And, after years wasted reading happily-ever-after fairy tales, I really enjoyed the not quite perfect ending which set us up nicely for a sequel. I think that this is a series I will look for in the future.