Runaway by Meg Cabot

Em Watts is hiding. Even though she’s become more adept at dodging the paparazzi, she can’t keep running away from her family, friends, obligations, and most of all, herself. Forced into an unhappy alliance with her not-boyfriend who just happens to be the power hungry son of her evil employer, Em has just about had it. Now she’s just biding her time, waiting for the live Stark Angel fashion show and for the real Nikki to reveal what she found out about Stark Enterprises and what led to this whole predicament. Stuck between the desire to protect those she cares about and he determination to expose Stark’s misdeeds, Em will have to decide if she can take a stand, or if she’s better of running.

Runaway, the highly anticipated, or at least by me, conclusion to Cabot’s fantastic Airhead trilogy was precisely that. Whether it was the anticipation that set me up for disappointment or the fact that I pretty much knew the general outcome of the story before I picked up the book, Runaway just wasn’t nearly as exciting as its prequels, Airhead and Being Nikki. This doesn’t go to say that the story wasn’t interesting; Cabot still managed to surprise me with many of the details. I usually hate revealing anything substantial about book endings, but this one is a little too happily ever after for me not to. It’s kind of unrealistic how the good guy wins after all the characters in the book are put through, and even though I wanted them to win, it still felt a little too easy. Despite that, I enjoyed Em’s character growth, and the discussion of morals and business ethics gave depth to Cabot’s entertaining writing. So even if the ending was very predictable, Runaway was still an enjoyable novel.

Fans of the Airhead series will not want to miss its conclusion, and neither will those who enjoyed And Then Everything Unraveled by Jennifer Sturman and Violet on the Runway by Melissa Walker.

Rating: 4.25

Review copy from publisher Scholastic