Mini-ish Review--The Proposal by Meg Cabot

The last place Suze Simon expects to find herself during Valentine’s Day is a cemetery. But that’s what happens when you’re a mediator – cursed with the “gift” of communicating with the dead.

That’s how Suze has ended up at the graves of a pair of NCDPs - Non-Compliant Deceased Persons – whose drama didn’t end with death. It’s Suze’s job to make sure they move on—for good.

But the NCDPs aren’t the only ones with problems. The reason Suze is spending her Valentine’s Day with the undead instead of her boyfriend, Jesse, is because he’s having so much trouble adjusting to life after death . . . not surprising, considering the fact that he used to be an NCDP himself, and now his girlfriend busts his former kind for a living, while he tries to cure his kind of what used to ail him.

Can Suze use her mediating skills to propose a mutual resolution, and bring all these young lovers together - including Jesse and herself - especially on the night Saint Valentine declared sacred to romance?

Or will she end up alone—and possibly undead—herself?

As it tends to happen, I picked up this novella that takes place before the upcoming novel, and since I devoured Remembrance last month, I had to enjoy this one after all that! But no matter, because there was no way I could not read yet another Mediator tale!! And The Proposal was sooo worth it! Because who wouldn't want to see how Jesse and Susannah got engaged? Meg Cabot gives her readers yet another romantic and ghost-bustingly awesome take of our favorite mediator, Susannah Simon.

It's Valentine's Day and Suze and Jesse have agreed not to celebrate the day, because they don't need an overly commercialized holiday to let the other know the depths of their feelings for one another. So Susannah is spending the holiday in a graveyard, waiting for a ghost, to tell him to stop ripping apart the flowers on his girlfriend's grave. It should be a clear cut case, get him to stop, and move on. But Susannah is about to learn that there is more to the deaths of him and his girlfriend than what was reported in the papers.

And so, Susannah finds herself dealing with yet another ghost who's gone postal. This one seeks revenge on the real killer of him and his beloved. Then she learns that this ghost just might be right.

It shouldn't be surprising that Jesse does in fact show up to celebrate this day with Susannah, only to find that she's working on a case. Especially since he was working on a special surprise for her. The title of the book pretty much lets you know what's going to happen anyway, so this shouldn't be a surprise at all! But naturally, Suze isn't thrilled with the idea of being proposed to on Valentine's Day because it's too cliche. But the whole proposing takes a backseat to the story as now Suze and Jesse are off to find themselves a killer.

Since it was a short story, we pretty much know the whodunit right away. But there's still awesome storytelling going on here and if you're like me and a fan of this series, every moment is precious! This was my most favorite series to read as a teen, in a time when Paranormal YA didn't exist to the full extent yet--for I have the Mediator series in their Jenny Carroll format! The series will always be dear to me, so I ate up this novella!

It takes place a few years after book 6 and a few years still, before Remembrance. And I tend to find it interesting when these series get revitalized that things change. Such as the time period, for Suze is a young adult in the now...not the early-mid 2000s. But it's such a small thing really, I've noticed other "revitalized" series doing this as well.

This was a quick read and it was most delightful! Of course, I might be biased as I am a such a fan of this series. This novella is truly for the fans who want to see how Jesse and Susannah got engaged, and of course to see Suze do what she does best!


Overall Rating 5/5 stars