Review: Insatiable by Meg Cabot

Title: Insatiable
Author: Meg Cabot
Series: Insatiable
Book #: 1
Pages: 451
Reading Level: Adult
Book Rating: .5
Published: June 22nd, 2011
by William Morrow
Meg Cabot's Official Website

Sick of vampires? So is Meena Harper.

But her boss is making her write about them anyway, even though Meena doesn’t believe in them.

Not that Meena isn’t familiar with the supernatural. See, Meena Harper knows how you’re going to die (not that you’re going to believe her; no one ever does).

But not even Meena’s precognition can prepare her for what happens when she meets—then makes the mistake of falling in love with—Lucien Antonescu, a modern-day prince with a bit of a dark side . . . a dark side a lot of people, like an ancient society of vampire-hunters, would prefer to see him dead for.

The problem is, he already is dead. Maybe that’s why he’s the first guy Meena’s ever met that she could see herself having a future with. See, while Meena’s always been able to see everyone else’s future, she’s never been able look into her own.

And while Lucien seems like everything Meena has ever dreamed of in a boyfriend, he might turn out to be more like a nightmare.

Now might be a good time for Meena to start learning to predict her own future . . .  

If she even has one.

Taschima's POV:

I love vampires. They amaze me, and the many ways authors try to make their own creatures of the night stand out only adds to my fun and delight. I think Ive never read a vampire book that disappointed me... well, until now that is.

Meena is a girl woman with a special gift. She can see dead people O.o Well, actually, she can see alive people but knows when they are going to die. Alive-walking-dead-people if you may. She does alright despite this, and once in a while she tries to help people who she sees are going to die soon for whatever reason. Thing is, not everybody believes her so she just talks to them and gives them her business card so they can contact her in case anything happens. In her normal day to day life she lives with her brother, or rather her unemployed brother lives with her, and she is a writer who works for a soap called Insatiable. She has these great ideas for the soap, but then her boss drops a bomb on her, they are going to start a new plot line, and it involves vampires. You're right to think Meena doesn't take this too well...

While on the other side of the world Lucien, the prince of darkness, is having trouble keeping his line of real vampires straight in New York, so he has to travel all the way over to the USA to take care of this lil problem, not knowing at all about how this little trip has the possibility of re awakening his heart. Side characters include: The devastating handsome vampire hunter with a chip on his shoulder, the unemployed brother that can't seem to see reason, the energetic pregnant best friend, and the pale noisy neighbor.

I don't know what exactly went wrong with this novel. It had so much potential! I mean Meena is pretty cool, a little neurotic but that's the charm of her character. It had the whole vampire thing set up, a whole war looming, and yet, it fell short.

The whole romance still has me a bit confuse. I don't know if its even real. Because supposedly if a vampire bites you in this novel it makes you some kind of little dog to them, your emotions go all out of whack and you cant see reason when it comes to them. Meena and Lucien's relationship seemed to be all kinds of hot and heavy on the surface, but deep inside I still question if this is real or not. I may be looking too much into it, but if you set an example of this master and servant kind of attitude with another vampire don't you think I may continue to think this is true of all vampire/human relationships? Maybe Meena's powers cancels all that, but the thing is I don't know. I'm confused and I don't like it. To be fair to the relationship Lucie seemed pretty really into it.

Another thing about this novel, it has multiple points of view (3 to be exact). I don't think this was necessary, and most of the time it seemed that one or most of the characters didn't really had much to add. It was like "oh right you haven't been in the picture for a while, let's add something from your POV".

As to the characters and plot I thought it could have been better all around. The characters didn't seem to connect. If I were reading about Meena and Lucien in different novels I think it would have worked better. Meena's side of the story was reality, and Lucien's was the "fantasy" which becomes reality, each of them would have worked better left separated.  I just felt like their relationship was thrown in for good measure, because it was expected.

Not to say I hated this novel because it certainly had its moments and elements that worked. I like the characters, well I didn't like the vampire hunter too much. Meena is a very nice girl who is always in her own world and getting to experience that was great, plus Lucien had his moments too. The neighbors were also a hoot and a half.

Young Adult readers should be able to read this piece even though its considered adult. It has some sex scenes in it but they aren't too graphic nor do they last long as far as the reader is concerned.

Oh and this is a series?! I thought it was a stand alone! I was surprised beyond belief that this book had a sequel. I may read it, then again I may not. I am really interested in what is going to happen next and how everyone is going to go about it.

Meg Cabot seems to be a big author in the chick lit department, so I am not doubting her writing skills. Still sometimes you just have to stick to your guns and not jump on the vampire wagon because everyone else is.