womens fiction

The Boy Next Door is written by New York Times bestselling author, Meggin Cabot, who also wrote The Princess Diaries. In this book, Cabot replaces the traditional letter by e-mailing between characters throughout the whole book. There are no chapters in the book, but instead the book consists of series of e-mails that give new information about the characters every time.

In The Boy Next Door, Melissa Fuller is a redheaded reporter who serves for the gossip column on page 10 from The New York Journal, knowing that she could do better than a gossip columnist. During her plain and dull life living in an apartment in New York City, her 82 year-old next door neighbor, Mrs. Helen Friedlander, went into a coma (which Mel believed that it was caused by a ¡§so-called Transvestite Killer¡¨) and that was the start of the best part of her life. Although she has to help walk the neighbor¡¦s dog that threatens her job, after she found the neighbor¡¦s nephew, Maxwell Friedlander, to walk the dog, her career was saved temporarily; they also begin a romance. Just when Mel thought Max was the guy she wanted to marry, she found out about his true identity and who the real attacker of the ¡§brutal assault¡¨ of Mrs. Friedlander is.

Even though fiction novels seem unrealistic sometimes, events in The Boy Next Door could actually happen. The characters are well developed, and through the e-mailing process, it is an easier way to read. Since there are no chapters in this book, you don¡¦t know when to stop and it makes it impossible to keep track of time! This is a good entertainment book to put away all the stress from work with its humor between the characters and the romance between Mel and ¡§Max."

While the idea of telling novels entirely through e-mail is becoming more common, this is the first novel I had read using this style. The main character, Melissa Fuller, who works at New York Journal as the gossip columnist seems like a fun, genuinely nice person. Her main problem is she can't find a man, a good man that is. Then, one of her elderly neighbors is found in her apartment unconscious, apparently the victim of an attempted murder. Her only living relative is a playboy photographer named Max, who has MUCH better things to do they come to his aunt's apartment and watch after her animals. So what does he do? He asks an old college buddy John Trent, to fill in for him. John agrees, until he meets Melissa, and realizes she's the girl he's been looking for. Although a bit predictable in some spots, I found the novel pretty cute, and I liked how lesser characters, like Melissa's parents and John's sister-in-law were included. The only thing that really bothered me what the fact that sometimes the style of e-mail to tell a story made me feel like I didn't get to know the characters as well as I liked. However, for a cute, quick read, it was only a minor problem.

I read "Boy Meets Girl" before this one, so I enjoyed reading about the characters that reapper in "Boy Meets..." However, I still couldn't get past the fact that this was written in emails. I wish it had been written in novel form. Also, the story line is repeated in "Boy Meets Girl." It was entertaining enough, but not entertaining enough for a second read.