Light, Funny, Enjoyable Book, February 23, 2006


When Melissa Fuller's elderly next door neighbor, Helen Friedlander, is brutally attacked and left in a coma, Mel contacts Mrs. Friedlander's nephew, Max, so he can take care of his aunt's dog and two cats. But Max, a photographer, has better things to do, like vacation with a supermodel, so, unbeknownst to Mel, he sends his cold college buddy, John Trent, to pretend that he is Max in order to stay in his aunt's good graces. John reluctantly agrees but when he meets Mel and falls in love with her, he realizes he needs to tell her the truth before she finds out and hates him for lying to her. But will he find the right time to tell her before she finds out all the lies he's been telling her?

Told entirely in email format, "The Boy Next Door" is a light, fluffy, funny and enjoyable romance novel, with a touch of mystery. The email format could have been constraining, but Meggin Cabot makes all the characters - Mel, John, Max, his supermodel girlfriend Vivica, Mel's best friend Nadine, Nadine's fiancé Tony, and Mel's various coworkers (especially Dolly) come alive to the point where you can picture them. Especially wonderful is the correspondence between Mel and her mother and John and his grandmother, brother and sister-in-law. The romance between Mel and John is very believable and readers will root for the two of them to stay together at the end. There are some extremely funny moments, especially when Mel learns the truth about John and gets revenge.

Since this is Chick Lit, it isn't a deep read, but it's perfect reading when you need to take a break from the real world and lose yourself in a light, funny, romantic book. Well done. ( )

I can't believe I read this, but I had two hours to kill waiting for someone and I was bored, so bored. This is such light-reading that I'm sure if you left it down on a table, it would float away. Not as funny as it thinks it is, more than a little implausible, and the format (written entirely in e-mails) is intensely irritating. Reading this is like eating a McDonald's - filling a hole at the time, but leaving you with a sickened, sickly feeling afterwards. ( )

I read this last in the series - but the series is so loosely connected that it didn't really make much difference, although if I could have remembered these characters from book number 2 I could have found out "what happened next". Also written in epistolary style, which contributes to the humor factor. Just goes to show that you really never should lie! ( )

Cute and funny, and incredibly fast read. ( )

Ah, the modern epistolary romance*! This one is conducted entirely via email and is quite charming. As with all epistolary stories, there's a certain level of incredulity that people would sit around typing all this stuff up, though every romance comes with a certain incredulity threshold so this isn't particularly an obstacle. I like the email style, in part, because it takes so much less time to write a quick little email (say an hour) than long rambling letters (staying up all night) and the book takes place over a span of -months- so you don't have to imagine that they're writing all night, every night, like, for instance, Richardson's "Pamela".

The problems I had with the email style were that A) the subject lines were frequently the first half of the first sentence of the email. That's not how I write emails, that's not how the people with whom I correspond write emails, and, quite frankly, I usually didn't read the subject line until I realized I'd missed half the sentence and had to go back; B) one of the minor characters kept overhearing the protagonist and her best friend discussing things in the bathroom (they all work together) except we, the readers, know what they were discussing because they'd just exchanged detailed emails about it. Who writes an email, writing out everything in detail, and then runs off to the bathroom to repeat all the same information? One of those two exchanges should be scarce on details, either a shorter "meet me in the bathroom so I can tell you everything" email or a bathroom conversation that doesn't bother to repeat everything all over again. Also, wouldn't you, eventually, start looking to see if any of the stalls are occupied?

But I did enjoy the story, and I believed that the characters got to know each other over a span of time and fell in love. This is as opposed to the subsequent novels :o)

*Part of me really wants to write an essay comparing modern epistolary romances to those of the late 18th century (Richardson, Burney, et al). I should possibly track down more modern examples, by other authors. ( )