Review: Insatiable

Insatiable

By Meg Cabot

Publication date: June 8, 2010

My review:

Meena Harper has the strange ability to know how people will die. She has even saved the life of her best friend by convincing her not to go on a date when they were teens. Mostly though, people don't believe her but that doesn't stop her from trying to save lives. Meena is also a screenwriter for the soap opera, Insatiable. When she is passed over for a promotion and the producers decide to add vampires to the plot line, Meena is horrified. She couldn't have imagined that vampires are all too real and that she would soon be meeting one in the form of Lucien Antonescu. Meena finds Lucien to be charming and intelligent. He also appears to have saved her life but Meena doesn't realize what he is until it is too late and she is already in love. This encounter and her unusual gift of precognition puts Meena right in the middle of a war between Lucien, enemy vampires, and vampire hunters.

Most of the time I liked Meena's character. She can be strong and she looks out for her brother, her friends, and even strangers that she meets. Unfortunately she has a serious weakness in her feelings for Lucien. Lucien's character is contradictory. At times he is kind but he is also very controlling and he bites Meena against her will. Thankfully, vampire hunter Alaric Wulf helps Meena to understand that her new boyfriend isn't the greatest. I really liked Alaric and his cocky attitude. He is my favorite character from the book. I have a feeling I will like Meena more in book two as she moves away from Lucien. She has spunk and she is smart so I am hopeful that she will make the right choice in the end.

Insatiable is inspired by the classic novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. Even Meena's real name is Wilhelmina, the same as the heroine from Dracula. While Meena may have fallen in love with a guy she didn't know was a vampire, Insatiable does poke a little fun at the vampire craze in popular culture. It also pays tribute to Sookie Stackhouse. Meg Cabot has found a fresh new way to write about vampires in an already saturated market of vampire paranormal romance. I enjoyed Insatiable and I am looking forward to the next book.

Readalikes: The Sookie Stackhouse series by Charlaine Harris, The Parasol Protectorate series by Gail Carriger, Truly, Madly by Heather Webber