Sooo... It's Heather Wells Series! Books 1 - 5.

By Meg Cabot.

Size 12 Is Not Fat (Heather Wells #1)

Size 14 Is Not Fat Either (Heather Wells #2) 

Big Boned (Heather Wells #3)

Size 12 and Ready to Rock (Heather Wells #4)

The Bride Wore Size 12 (Heather Wells #5)

I decided to review all five (so far there are five out, but according to the official Meg Cabot website, she is not ruling out the possibility of writing more Heather Wells books) as they kind of run together quite nicely. You can actually read them separately as well, as in each book there's a small synopsis of the previous events always given. And it is done quite well, no repetitive passages. Just a quick recap woven into the plot. 

So we have Heather Wells, former pop star, whose career finished rather as she did not get along with her record label and to add insult to injury Heather's mother took off with her fortune to look for happy life for herself away with a new lover. Add to that Heather's dad who is in prison. Heather's ex-boyfriend,  who simultaneously happens to be the son of the record company Boss, and  has rather immature attitude. That leads to the episodes of his reappearance in Heather's life. She is not interested though. What else? Ah, yes, Heather used to be slim and perfectly pretty. Nowadays, it's all money and fame in minus, yet plus the kilos and dress size.
Heather now has a job. An ordinary job. She works in a students' dorm/residence hall in NY College.

Bunch of students, Heather's secret crush on her ex-boyfriend's older brother who works as a P.I., and we have a perfect mix for fun, mystery, love triangles and occasional murder.

What I like best about this series is that Heather is your "girl next door", yet there's a bit of room for extra ordinary events, as she, after all, used to be a pop star and Cooper Cartwright, Heather's crush and landlord, is a P.I. 

Yes, there were still murders, chases, intrigues and all that, but it kind of felt real.
Heather's character is very likable, because she is not perfect, and her life is not perfect. Dysfunctional family, strained relationships, dress size that you are not that happy about... In Heather's life things go wrong but eventually they get sorted. Heather is not Superwoman from a block buster. She is just Heather, who likes her coffee and bagel with cream cheese in the mornings. But she has her friends and NYPD come handy to sort things out and of course Cooper, being a PI is a bit of helping hand...

I enjoyed all five books, it was fun to read. The kind of books that make you smile and see life in a brighter light :)))
 
The only downfall of the series was in the last book. I expected slightly more action from the fifth book, some sort of culmination not just in the wedding, but maybe something unforeseen. An appearance of a completely new character. Or one of the old characters could have turned out to be not what we thought he/she was... Or maybe something could have started but did not quite come to an end, sort of left as a cliff hanger.... But no, nothing like that. It did not quite live up to my expectations, but it was still as enjoyable as the rest of the books in the series.