Spotlight Wednesdays: 1-800-Where-R-You

Info
Series title: 1-800-Where-R-You
Title of First Book: When Lightning Strikes
Author: Meg Cabot
Genre: YA
Rating: 4/5

Why you should read it
For those of you who didn't know this, if my childhood from age 6 up was all about Harry Potter, my preteens were filled of Meg Cabot. I basically read every book she ever wrote - and that's a heck of a lot of books, by the way (my Mum was ready to write a letter to her and beg her to stop writing, I bought so may books of hers haha) - between the ages of 12-15. And one of my all-time favourites will always be her least-known YA series: 1-800-Where-R-You. I'm not sure why it never caught like The Princess Diaries and The Mediator; maybe it was just the slightly long name of the series, who knows.

I honestly blame Rob Wilkins for my obsession with bad boys with dark hair and blue eyes. He started all this trouble, and now look where it's landed me. Plus, there's something just so sexy about how he only ever calls her by her surname... *dreamy sigh*
But I'm getting ahead of myself. Basically, though, when you read it, do it in order, instead of the weird mix I ended up reading. Having grown up in Brazil, books in English were hard to come across, so I just had to make do with what I had. Which basically meant I started with #1, When Lightning Strikes (at least I started at the beginning!), then bought the fourth, Sanctuary, bought the second one, Codename Cassandra, on my kindle, found the fifth, Missing You, in the bookshop, and then finally read the third one, Safe House. And despite that massive mess of sequence, I enjoyed every single second spent with the characters, which I think speaks for itself really.
Most importantly, though, looking back on the series years after finishing it, is how inclusive Cabot was with it. She's never been one to shy from controversial topics, with Lilly Moscowitz heading that particular chart. The 1-800 books have their own amazing characters, though, because Jess Mastriani (the main character) has an older brother who's schizophrenic, and Cabot's portrayal of Douglas was so important for me, growing up, to understand that a condition like that doesn't make a person less capable or less intelligent.
Basically, though, amazing characters, swoon-worthy guy, and awesome plot lines filled with mysteries, action and danger. What's not to love?

Covers for the first and last book respectively.