Love You To Death (The Mediator #1) by Meg Cabot

Light, breezy and entertaining

Title: Love You To Death
Author: Meg Cabot
Series: The Mediator
Publisher: Clipper DL
My ratings: 4 out of 5 stars
Released: 17th May, 2007
I picked Love you to Death on whim. In fact I just picked it up because I have read Meg Cabot before and found her light style of writing just right to pass by a day. I was ill and plagued with debilitating migraines and I decided to shut the world and just listen to an audio book and this was what was available from my library.

This was my first experience of listening to an audio book and I can gladly say I made a wise choice. I have always had misgiving about Audio books and had never tried them before. I have to say the narrator, Johanna Parker, was really good. She has just the right type of voice, mature for a teenager but young for an adult. There were a host of other side characters and she managed to sound different with every one of them.

Moving on to the story line, Susannah has to move to California from New York due to her mother's new family. The change is a big deal for a New Yorker like Susannah, who is not used to the beach, the sun and the sand. She is new to the family and her Mom's new husband comes with a family of 3 boys to boot. But that is just the start of her problems. You see, she is a mediator. Souls/ghosts stuck in this world, who are able to cross over with her help. So when she is new in town, she concerned over how she is going to adjust with new ghosts hounding her. Her new school is strange and with it comes a bevy of other problems least of all is the ghost residing in her bedroom, who refuses to leave.

I found Susannah endearing and real. I understood her, felt her, and knew her. Even now I can predict how she will react to certain situations. I give it to Meg Cabot to writing a character who was not only unique but loveable, brave, funny, and a little naive. She is not memorable but she does not grate on my nerves nor did I feel I had to shake her awake. The plot was simple and not too convoluted but it was the setting which made an impression on me. It was the combination or the narrator and the writing which made me picture small beaches, palm trees, sun beating down on me and the smell of fresh sea air. I want to retire in a place like that.

My favourite character had to be Jesse. He added the extra oomph to a slightly predictable plot. I was more curious about him than I was about the evil ghost lurking at school. With his Spanish accent every time the narrator did his voice I swooned a little.

Overall, Love you to Death was light and breezy. It is amazing how a story can be made interesting in the right hands. In the end Meg Cabot made me love each character is the book including Susannah's brothers.

Recommended for fans of ghost busters, seaside and gorgeous ghosts inhabiting bedrooms.