Runaway - Meg Cabot

Runaway is the final novel in the Airhead trilogy, which revolves around Em Watts, a normal girl whose brain, after an "accident" at the Stark Megastore which leaves Em with her body broken but her brain intact, is transplanted into the body of supermodel Nikki Howard (who, incidentally, works for Stark Corporation). As the series progresses, Em begins to suspect that this surgery did not occur because Nikki was left brain dead by the accident, but because Nikki knew something Stark didn't want her to know. In Runaway, Em is on the run from school, work, and her family, trying to find out what Nikki knew.

I have enjoyed all three of the Airhead novels--Meg Cabot is one of my favorite "guilty pleasure" novelists--but I have to say that Runaway is my favorite of the three. By the third novel, all the characters are very well-developed and easier to relate to; also, the rising action of the entire series is coming to a point, and I found it very difficult to put Runaway down, even the very few times I absolutely had to. I especially like the title of this book, with it's sort of double meaning--runway, runaway--and the cover is absolutely gorgeous.

In comparison to Meg Cabot's other novels (I haven't read all of them; I've read neither the Mediator books nor the Size 12 is Not Fat series), Runaway and the Airhead books still stand out. Though I didn't like the characters as well as those in The Princess Diaries and its sequels, I found the plot to be much more interesting, though that could be just because it was slightly science fiction-y. While predictable in parts, the Mediator books are definitely worth a read (and it will be a quick read) if you enjoy "girly" books. ("Girly" is in quotation marks because while I don't really think Cabot's books are all that girly compared to some, they are definitely not "guy books.")

Airhead Series - Airhead and Being Nikki - Meg Cabot

The Airhead books are about a girl named Emerson Watts who reluctantly takes her sister to the opening of the new SoHo Stark Megastore. An accident occurs, and Em's body is destroyed by a falling flat-screen television at the same moment supermodel Nikki Howard has an aneurysm. With Em's parent's consent, surgeons paid by Stark Enterprises transfer Em's brain to Nikki's body in order to save her life. But when Em wakes up, she is no longer herself, and how she deals with this is the premise of the series.

In the first book, Airhead, Em Watts begins trying to figure out how to live Nikki Howard's life--a life thousands of girls would die for, but that she doesn't want. In Being Nikki, Em/Nikki begins discovering how Stark manipulated her unfortunate accident in order to cover up facts that would ruin the company, and is forced to do what the company wants. In Runaway, she decides to make a run for it in order to save her and her family.

While I haven't read Runaway yet, as it comes out on April 20, so far I like Airhead best. This is probably because I enjoyed and empathized more with Em as Em and not Nikki, and as Em spends more time in Nikki's body, she becomes more like the "real" Nikki. However, all three books were full of surprises and kept me glued to their pages through the end, and I can't wait until Runaway arrives!