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chrystalo's review against another edition
2.0
Again, too tired to write a real review. This is the last book in the trilogy. I probably read it in like 3 hours when I was supposed to be working. I mean, it was entertaining, don't get me wrong. But I expect better from Meg Cabot. If you like quick fun flirty beach reads, then this is your book. Just don't expect an instant classic.
shorty_320's review against another edition
3.0
This series has not been my favorite of Meg Cabot, but I'm glad it had a happy ending.
stephxsu's review against another edition
3.0
At long last comes the final book in the AIRHEAD trilogy, and it closes this series with a satisfactory bang. Everything you love about Meg Cabot is here—the voice, the boys, the romance, the misunderstandings—and the ending is clever without being seeming overly plotted, shocking yet unforced.
As is typical of Meg Cabot’s books, everything is wrapped up nicely without overexcessive drama and writing. Em’s down-to-earth attitude paired with Cabot’s usual “teen girl” voice—y’know, the tangents? the silly yet sweet assumptions and misunderstandings?—provides for a great narrator. As this is the last of a trilogy, I have to say that the ending was good, if not, perhaps, worth getting through two books of mostly drivel to get to this point. It’s shocking, it’s smart, and it’s totally plausible within the realm of Em’s world.
The biggest problem that remains with me after reading this trilogy is that this could’ve easily been a one-book storyline, and RUNAWAY does give the impression that Cabot intentionally stretched it into a trilogy for financial reasons. Still, fans of the AIRHEAD series will love the way the plot develops throughout the course of these three books. If you’ve made it through BEING NIKKI, then you should definitely read RUNAWAY: it’ll satisfy all your questions and leave you content.
As is typical of Meg Cabot’s books, everything is wrapped up nicely without overexcessive drama and writing. Em’s down-to-earth attitude paired with Cabot’s usual “teen girl” voice—y’know, the tangents? the silly yet sweet assumptions and misunderstandings?—provides for a great narrator. As this is the last of a trilogy, I have to say that the ending was good, if not, perhaps, worth getting through two books of mostly drivel to get to this point. It’s shocking, it’s smart, and it’s totally plausible within the realm of Em’s world.
The biggest problem that remains with me after reading this trilogy is that this could’ve easily been a one-book storyline, and RUNAWAY does give the impression that Cabot intentionally stretched it into a trilogy for financial reasons. Still, fans of the AIRHEAD series will love the way the plot develops throughout the course of these three books. If you’ve made it through BEING NIKKI, then you should definitely read RUNAWAY: it’ll satisfy all your questions and leave you content.
saltysnails's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
startingviolence's review against another edition
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
whoisrois's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Jordan Peele writing Get Out: can I copy ur homework
Meg Cabot: ok just don’t make it obvious
kelsey3's review against another edition
2.0
Overall: 2.5
Book Breakdown —
Characters: I hated Em (the protagonist) so much in this book. She was tolerable, if not a wee annoying, in the first two books, but this one? She was straight up unbearable 70% of the way through. As in the last books, I stuck around reading because of the supporting characters. Mainly Christopher, Lulu, and Steven. Past these three characters, I disliked them all so much. It bordered on hate majority of the book.
Pacing/ length: the beginning was slow but the end was just right.
Cover design: this is also my least favorite cover design of the series.
Plot: this book redeemed itself a bit actually as far as the plot goes. The characters (Em and her dumb parents) made me want to scream, but the plot itself was interesting and I actually found it enjoyable. This books overall plot was more interesting than its counterparts, but it was a slow burn getting there.
Reading Medium: audiobook. The narrator did a decent job.
Summary with MAJOR SPOILERS—
Emerson Watts continues her fight against the twisted Stark Enterprises while her brain remains trapped inside the body of super model Nikki Howard. Whisked away to Brandon Stark’s secluded love nest, Em has alienated her true love Christopher and her parents, while hoping to learn the terrifying secret Nikki—in her own new body—harbors. Brandon wants this secret too, so he can use the information to take over his dad’s corporate empire. Now with everyone upset with her, Em struggles to find a way out of her situation—and winds up alienating herself from her biggest supporters. She eventually discovers the secret that Nikki knew and blackmailed Mr. Stark with. He and his share holders plan on murdering young and healthy men and women to transplant their brains into so they can be young again. Em records this and has Christopher and Felix leak it to the world. Once Stark is arrested and charged for his crimes, Brandon takes over and revitalizes Stark Enterprises, creating a better company. He hires Christopher and Felix to be the heads of the IT department and fix the technical spyware his father had put on all the computers. Christopher and Em end up together, finally. Frida seems to be starting a relationship with Felix. The original Nikki Howard - now known as Diana Prince - is with Gabriel Luna and has become Em Watts’ - now known as Nikki Howard - agent for modeling. Nikki gets a cut off of all of ems earnings and is attending business school while living with Gabriel Luna. Lulu ends up with Steven, though he returns to duty aboard the ship.
Detailed Review—
First, let’s start with the glaringly obvious plot hole of the ages of the young women in this book. Em is supposed to a junior or senior in high school so around 17 yet she is somehow a model for lingerie? She somehow is chosen to become a knock off Victoria secret model? How is that possible? If all of the characters had been young college students, this would’ve been a much better series, nay, it would’ve been a better and more interesting story. It would’ve made more sense and Cabot could’ve played around with the storylines more.
That aside, let’s talk about Em. She was dumb. For a self proclaimed smart young woman who was college bound, she was so dumb. She consistently made terrible decisions, judged everyone around her for their terrible decisions, and basically bit the hand of anyone who was trying to help her. I think the worst part about her character though was how she kind of backpedaled in her character development and she certainly was incredibly, intolerably immature. She continuously called Christopher a “villain“ even though he was realistically and justifiably angry at the Stark corporation. I hated how she kept dismissing him and thinking that he was insane. She also seemed to be dramatically confused about other people all the time. Christopher always risks his life and saves her and actively works to avenge her? Well that must mean he hates her because he implied so in anger one time. Frida is pondering the possibility of dating Felix? Well, that’s simply unacceptable. She might *gasp* kiss him! Never mind that Em herself has made out with almost every eligible guy in this series. Lulu finally gets Steven to admit that he loves her just as she loves him? Well, that’s just sickening and unreasonable and gross, according to our simple minded Em. These were some of the many examples where her immaturity and naivety and dumbness collided and made for a catastrophe of a character.
Oh, and I despised Ems parents, specifically her mother. She was so judgmental throughout the entire series. She believed that when she and her husband signed the contracts to give Em a brain transplant and perform Nikkis model duties and live her life that her parents would still be able to, well be the same type of parents.
I expected Steven to be a bigger part of this book as well. I thought that he would come to Ems aide and help her solve the problems she was in. I thought he would even team up with Christopher and they would become her allies against stark enterprises as friends, but it was a giant letdown because he wasn’t even in the book most of the time; nor was he in the final scene when stark enterprises was finally taken down which I was disappointed in.
Most of the beginning of this book and most of the middle was so unnecessary and it did drag on a lot. It didn’t even get interesting until the last few chapters. Plus, the beginning and middle of the book were almost unbearable. I almost DNF’d it. I only stuck around because I wanted to see if the characters I liked were going to get their happy endings.
This brings me to another point, as I read reviews and mulled over what I thought about this book, I realized that the entire series could’ve been consolidated into one larger book. I think that would’ve worked out much better.
Cabot also chooses to repeat herself a lot in this series. Through inner monologues of Em mostly. Em repeats the same thoughts over and over and over again, only pages apart sometimes. It’s exhausting and by the third and final book, you are ready to be done with this series.
I have to admit though, I didn’t see the Stark reveal coming. I mean, I knew that they were data mining people’s laptops for something but I thought he was selling their data or trying to procure more models for his brand, but I certainly didn’t expect brain transplants and murder so that some older, unethical, and immoral folks could literally buy their way to eternal youth. I enjoyed that reveal a lot and it helped redeem this book overall. It was also a very plausible reveal within the confines of Ems world.
Em confronting her old high school bully, Whitney, at the end of the book soured the nice ending and minuscule character development that Cabot had built. I wish that had been omitted. It was just so out of place after all of the other events took place.
Speaking of the ending, I did laugh a little bit when it was revealed that Christopher and Felix were hired at Stark Enterprises to lead the IT department… While they were still in high school… I mean come on, it was laughable. As was the idea that shallow, irresponsible, and manipulative Brandon stark would just swoop in and take over stark enterprises in lieu of his father. It was absurd. Along with the fact that he somehow made the company better, even though he showed the same tendencies that his father did earlier in this book. Not to mention the fact that Brandon‘s inexperience and hollow promises were just widely accepted by the public and he was able to save the family company after all. But the rest of the book was just as unrealistic so I digress.
I did enjoy the ending overall, however. It was wrapped up nicely with the bow on top which is exactly what I was expecting from the series so it didn’t bother me. This ending was literally the reason that I continued reading the book because there were so many times in the beginning and middle that I wanted to stop. It’s also the reason I rounded my rating up from 2 starts to 2.5.
P.S. - What does the title have to do with anything anyway? No one ever runs away in this book…
Book Breakdown —
Characters: I hated Em (the protagonist) so much in this book. She was tolerable, if not a wee annoying, in the first two books, but this one? She was straight up unbearable 70% of the way through. As in the last books, I stuck around reading because of the supporting characters. Mainly Christopher, Lulu, and Steven. Past these three characters, I disliked them all so much. It bordered on hate majority of the book.
Pacing/ length: the beginning was slow but the end was just right.
Cover design: this is also my least favorite cover design of the series.
Plot: this book redeemed itself a bit actually as far as the plot goes. The characters (Em and her dumb parents) made me want to scream, but the plot itself was interesting and I actually found it enjoyable. This books overall plot was more interesting than its counterparts, but it was a slow burn getting there.
Reading Medium: audiobook. The narrator did a decent job.
Summary with MAJOR SPOILERS—
Emerson Watts continues her fight against the twisted Stark Enterprises while her brain remains trapped inside the body of super model Nikki Howard. Whisked away to Brandon Stark’s secluded love nest, Em has alienated her true love Christopher and her parents, while hoping to learn the terrifying secret Nikki—in her own new body—harbors. Brandon wants this secret too, so he can use the information to take over his dad’s corporate empire. Now with everyone upset with her, Em struggles to find a way out of her situation—and winds up alienating herself from her biggest supporters. She eventually discovers the secret that Nikki knew and blackmailed Mr. Stark with. He and his share holders plan on murdering young and healthy men and women to transplant their brains into so they can be young again. Em records this and has Christopher and Felix leak it to the world. Once Stark is arrested and charged for his crimes, Brandon takes over and revitalizes Stark Enterprises, creating a better company. He hires Christopher and Felix to be the heads of the IT department and fix the technical spyware his father had put on all the computers. Christopher and Em end up together, finally. Frida seems to be starting a relationship with Felix. The original Nikki Howard - now known as Diana Prince - is with Gabriel Luna and has become Em Watts’ - now known as Nikki Howard - agent for modeling. Nikki gets a cut off of all of ems earnings and is attending business school while living with Gabriel Luna. Lulu ends up with Steven, though he returns to duty aboard the ship.
Detailed Review—
First, let’s start with the glaringly obvious plot hole of the ages of the young women in this book. Em is supposed to a junior or senior in high school so around 17 yet she is somehow a model for lingerie? She somehow is chosen to become a knock off Victoria secret model? How is that possible? If all of the characters had been young college students, this would’ve been a much better series, nay, it would’ve been a better and more interesting story. It would’ve made more sense and Cabot could’ve played around with the storylines more.
That aside, let’s talk about Em. She was dumb. For a self proclaimed smart young woman who was college bound, she was so dumb. She consistently made terrible decisions, judged everyone around her for their terrible decisions, and basically bit the hand of anyone who was trying to help her. I think the worst part about her character though was how she kind of backpedaled in her character development and she certainly was incredibly, intolerably immature. She continuously called Christopher a “villain“ even though he was realistically and justifiably angry at the Stark corporation. I hated how she kept dismissing him and thinking that he was insane. She also seemed to be dramatically confused about other people all the time. Christopher always risks his life and saves her and actively works to avenge her? Well that must mean he hates her because he implied so in anger one time. Frida is pondering the possibility of dating Felix? Well, that’s simply unacceptable. She might *gasp* kiss him! Never mind that Em herself has made out with almost every eligible guy in this series. Lulu finally gets Steven to admit that he loves her just as she loves him? Well, that’s just sickening and unreasonable and gross, according to our simple minded Em. These were some of the many examples where her immaturity and naivety and dumbness collided and made for a catastrophe of a character.
Oh, and I despised Ems parents, specifically her mother. She was so judgmental throughout the entire series. She believed that when she and her husband signed the contracts to give Em a brain transplant and perform Nikkis model duties and live her life that her parents would still be able to, well be the same type of parents.
I expected Steven to be a bigger part of this book as well. I thought that he would come to Ems aide and help her solve the problems she was in. I thought he would even team up with Christopher and they would become her allies against stark enterprises as friends, but it was a giant letdown because he wasn’t even in the book most of the time; nor was he in the final scene when stark enterprises was finally taken down which I was disappointed in.
Most of the beginning of this book and most of the middle was so unnecessary and it did drag on a lot. It didn’t even get interesting until the last few chapters. Plus, the beginning and middle of the book were almost unbearable. I almost DNF’d it. I only stuck around because I wanted to see if the characters I liked were going to get their happy endings.
This brings me to another point, as I read reviews and mulled over what I thought about this book, I realized that the entire series could’ve been consolidated into one larger book. I think that would’ve worked out much better.
Cabot also chooses to repeat herself a lot in this series. Through inner monologues of Em mostly. Em repeats the same thoughts over and over and over again, only pages apart sometimes. It’s exhausting and by the third and final book, you are ready to be done with this series.
I have to admit though, I didn’t see the Stark reveal coming. I mean, I knew that they were data mining people’s laptops for something but I thought he was selling their data or trying to procure more models for his brand, but I certainly didn’t expect brain transplants and murder so that some older, unethical, and immoral folks could literally buy their way to eternal youth. I enjoyed that reveal a lot and it helped redeem this book overall. It was also a very plausible reveal within the confines of Ems world.
Em confronting her old high school bully, Whitney, at the end of the book soured the nice ending and minuscule character development that Cabot had built. I wish that had been omitted. It was just so out of place after all of the other events took place.
Speaking of the ending, I did laugh a little bit when it was revealed that Christopher and Felix were hired at Stark Enterprises to lead the IT department… While they were still in high school… I mean come on, it was laughable. As was the idea that shallow, irresponsible, and manipulative Brandon stark would just swoop in and take over stark enterprises in lieu of his father. It was absurd. Along with the fact that he somehow made the company better, even though he showed the same tendencies that his father did earlier in this book. Not to mention the fact that Brandon‘s inexperience and hollow promises were just widely accepted by the public and he was able to save the family company after all. But the rest of the book was just as unrealistic so I digress.
I did enjoy the ending overall, however. It was wrapped up nicely with the bow on top which is exactly what I was expecting from the series so it didn’t bother me. This ending was literally the reason that I continued reading the book because there were so many times in the beginning and middle that I wanted to stop. It’s also the reason I rounded my rating up from 2 starts to 2.5.
P.S. - What does the title have to do with anything anyway? No one ever runs away in this book…