The Boy Next Door: An All-Email Gossipfest

I have been a big fan of Patricia Cabot since I read her historical romance Educating Caroline a year ago. Since then, I have read all of her historical romances. While I have mixed feelings about her earlier novels, her last three are very good. When I found out that she was releasing a contemporary novel, I just had to read it.

The actual title of this book is The Boy Next Door (not the Boyfriend Next Door). It is by Meggin Cabot, who is the same person as Patricia Cabot. I think she writes under different names because she works with several different publishing houses. Nevertheless, I thoroughly enjoyed The Boy Next Door and I look forward to reading more novels by her.

I spent the first paragraph talking about how much I enjoyed Cabot's historical romances. I would like to state that The Boy Next Door is not a romance novel. I am not quite sure what it is exactly, but reading it is quite an experience.

To begin with, the book is told entirely through emails. Therefore, both narrative passages and dialogue between characters do not take place like they would in a traditional novel. Naturally, dialogue is achieved by characters responding to what other characters have said in previous emails and descriptive passages depict the events from the point of view of the character writing the email.

The story centers around Melissa "Mel" Fuller who works as a gossip columnist for the New York Journal. One day, she finds her elderly neighbor brutally attacked and in a coma. Mel takes responsibility for feeding the neighbor's pets-and walking the Great Dane. This frustrates Mel's boss who tells her that she (Mel) can't come an hour late to work every day. Mel tracks down her neighbor's nephew, Max Friedlander, who is a famous photographer. Max is about to leave for an extended vacation with Vivica, who is Victoria's Secret Next Big Thing. Max enlists his friend John Trent (whose family is synonymous with the Rockefellers or the Vanderbilts) to take his place and deal with pesky Mel. John does so, but he and Mel immediately click and as they spend time together, they begin to fall in love. But, the problem is that he hasn't told her who he really is!

I found The Boy Next Door to be full of humor. For example, Mel will e-mail her best friend (who works at the paper too) and remind her not to tell any of their co-workers about what has been going on between her and Max/John. The next three emails are all between various co-workers gossiping about Mel's love life. I also enjoyed the email exchanges between Mel and her mother, who thinks that Mel needs to move back to the bucolic Midwest and take a job at the local paper.

There is also an element of mystery- John works as a crime reporter and becomes determined to find out what happened to Mel's neighbor Mrs. Friedlander. Apparently, there is a criminal roaming around the city attacking young women and stealing clothes from their closet. John attempts to link this criminal to the attack and when the perpetrator is finally revealed, it is quite a surprise.

When reviewing a novel, I tend to examine the novel's merits based on how I felt about the plot and characterization. I liked the plot a lot, mostly because of the unusual way in which the story unfolded. It did tend to drag at some points because Cabot allows several characters to give their opinion of a situation but for the most part, I really liked this solid combination of romance, mystery and humor all wrapped up in a neat little user-friendly package.

As for characterization, this is where Cabot really shines. Because the book is told through e-mails, the reader gets to experience the story from many perspectives which allows even the most minor characters have developed personalities because we get to read their thoughts. Do you remember Vivica, the young supermodel? She makes an appearance in the story and takes Mel to her favorite restaurant that she just discovered- Applebees (a chain dinner house)! Despite her vapid nature, Vivica proved to be one of my favorite characters- when she first e-mails Mel, she sends the letter in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS because she has never used e-mail and does not know that doing that is considered polite. The reader is right there in the middle of things as Max/John agonizes about how he should tell Mel the truth in e-mail exchanges between his brother and very pregnant sister-in-law. As much as I didn't like Max/John's deception, I think that we have all been in situations where one little lie grew and grew and telling the truth becomes very difficult. I enjoyed watching the principal characters stumble through New York, but since we are truly a wired and global community, I must admit that Mel and Max/John were not nearly the most exciting characters.

As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, I do not consider The Boy Next Door to be a romance novel but it could be an appropriate avenue in which to delve into romance novels. Even if you have no interest in romance novels, this is still a charming story with a lot to offer- there is a lot of humor and mystery and romance definitely takes a backseat.

I highly recommend The Boy Next Door and I think it would make a great book to read if you are going to be traveling for the upcoming holidays. Airplane delays? Stuck in traffic? The time will fly by as you delve into the story. Unlike Cabot's historical romance novels, there is very little sexual content in this book, so I would consider this novel appropriate for older teens.