Meg Cabot - Boy Next Door

I have been a fan of Megan Cabot since I read her The Princess Diaries. I like her quirky style and sense of humor. Thus when while browsing at my local Border's Bookstore I found a book by her in the grown-up section, I was delighted. The title of the book is The Boy Next Door.

The Boy Next Door is written entirely in emails. The correspondences fly between friends and family members. The main story revolves around Mel (short for Melissa) Fuller.

The story centers around Melissa "Mel" Fuller who works as a page-10 gossip columnist for the New York Journal. One day, she hears her next door neighbor's dog barking up a storm and goes over there only to find the elderly woman face down in her living room. It appears she was brutally attacked. With the elderly and wealthy Mrs. Friedlander in a coma, Mel takes over the responsibility for the dog and two cats until she can reach the woman's nephew Max.

Max is a photographer. She finally gets in touch with him and he says he'll come and take care of things. Max, however, is too busy having fun with a supermodel. He cons a friend of his into going there and pretending to be him. His aunt, he reasons, is in a coma and won't know the difference. If she comes out, he can always fly to her bedside.

Enter John Trent (pretending to be Max Friedlander.) John owes Max a favor so he agrees to do this. He moves into Mrs. Friedlander's apartment and takes over pet care duties. Everything would be fine except he and Mel fall in love. This wouldn't have been a problem if he had been honest from the beginning about who he is, but he isn't. It gets harder and harder to tell her the truth. Of course, things eventually unravel.

The Boy Next Door is full of wit and humor. The story is not as straightforward as it sounds. As we read through emails, we find that everyone at Mel's work gets involved in advising her. The grapevine passes along details of her personal life and we get to read all the snide, helpful and inane comments made by her coworkers.
We also get to see the correspondence between John and his family, the real Max and his friends. As in real life, everyone loves to gossip about everyone and everyone has a suggestion what everyone else should do.

The book also contains a bit of a mystery. John's real job is as a crime reporter for the Chronicle (a competing newspaper to the Journal). Through his connections, John is working to try and find out what happened to Mrs. Friedlander. When the perpetrator is finally revealed, it's quite a revelation.

I really enjoyed this book and will definitely be keeping my eyes open for more of Megan Cabbot's works. I enjoyed The Princess Diaries and its journal format. I enjoyed The Boy Next Door and its all email format even more. A definite thumbs up.