Brief Thoughts: Big Boned

Big Boned

by Meg Cabot
Book 3 of Heather Wells series

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  3.5 Stars

Life is reasonably rosy for plus-size ex-pop star turned Assistant Dormitory Director and sometime sleuth Heather Wells. Her freeloading ex-con dad is finally moving out. She still yearns for her hot landlord, Cooper Cartwright, but her relationship with "rebound beau," vigorous vegan math professor Tad Tocco, is more than satisfactory. Best of all, nobody has died lately in "Death Dorm," the aptly nicknamed student residence that Heather assistant-directs. 

Of course every silver lining ultimately has some black cloud attached. And when the latest murdered corpse to clutter up her jurisdiction turns out to be her exceedingly unlovable boss, Heather finds herself on the shortlist of prime suspects—along with the rabble-rousing boyfriend of her high-strung student assistant and an indecently handsome young campus minister who's been accused of taking liberties with certain girls' choir members.

With fame beckoning her back into show business (as the star of a new kids' show!) it's a really bad time to get wrapped up in another homicide. Plus Tad's been working himself up to ask her a Big Question, which Heather's not sure she has an answer for . . .

Big Boned was not as fun or as well outlined as the previous book in the Heather Wells series, but still enjoyable, just the same. One thing I can be sure of, these books have become fun to read--coupled with them being easy reads, as well as how readily Heather has grown on me, I find myself liking the series more than I thought I would have.

This book was entertaining with some good humor, even in spite of some of the tackier humor. But, as I'd stated somewhere before, I found Heather can be quite charming and very easy to relate with.

While Cooper doesn't ever seem to have much of a presence in any of the books, I still find that I love his every single appearance, no matter in what capacity.  There's a little bit more romance in this book than the previous two, even if part of it is due to Heather's rebound guy, Tad Tocco.

The murder mystery wasn't entirely hard to predict and actually seemed a little forced, honestly.  But the bit of investigating that Heather does was fun to follow nonetheless.

There is a specific scene I keep mentioning to anyone in my real life who cares--a scene I found quite relatable and interesting:

Heather is questioning one of her students about what she might know about the murder.  And while the two are talking, they find themselves digging into the little apple crumble dish that said student's mother specifically told them not to touch.  They continue to talk and spoon more apple crumble into their mouths.  And it's just the most natural, banal, daily activity.  Afterwards, Heather leans back in her chair and pops open the button of her jeans.

And I'm thinking:  "Ha!  I totally do that too after overindulging in good food!"

It was just such a "That is SO me!" moment that I loved it!


Some Final Thoughts:
This series and Heather are definitely growing on me and I'm finding it very highly enjoyable.  I also like the new addition of Gavin and Jamie in the series.  Oh, and Tom.  Tom's pretty awesome when he's not being annoying.


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2016 Reading Challenges:
• Goodreads Reading Challenge
• BookLikes Reading Challenge
• Bookish Resolutions Challenge