'The Boy Next Door' a charming date

Gentlemen, you may stop reading this now. I don't want to waste any of your time, and I honestly would be shocked to see a man read "The Boy Next Door," a delightfully campy trip through the mind of a single gossip columnist and her quest to find love in the big city with, you guessed it, the boy next door. A book written by a woman for women, it is an extraordinary example of Meggin Cabot's ability to write a novel in an unusual format and still keep the reader wildly entertained. "The Boy Next Door" is Cabot's first attempt at an adult novel; she is best known for writing the "Princess Diaries" series under the nom de plum Meg Cabot.\n"The Boy Next Door" introduces the reader to Melissa Fuller, a gossip columnist for The New York Journal, via an e-mail about her apparent problem with arriving to work on time. However, in a series of e-mails to her boss and coworkers, she reveals that her elderly neighbor Mrs. Friedlander was attacked during the night and is now in a coma. Melissa, being the Midwestern transplant and quite neighborly, volunteered to walk the animal-loving Mrs. Friedlander's Great Dane until her only living relative, her nephew Max, can come to her aid.\nEnter the problem. Max, being the selfish boor he's reputed to be, decides to put his friend John Trent (of the Park Avenue Trents) up to the task of caring for the animals, while he's too busy with a supermodel in Key West to be bothered with caring for his wealthy aunt, but still doesn't want to be written out of her will. John, playing his part, moves into Mrs. Friedlander's apartment and immediately is taken with Mel. \nWith her friends and family opining at every available juncture, the plot thickens to reveal a sinister plot and some unsightly details about Max. But revealing the ending would spoil the surprise ending.\nWhat made this book so charming was the format; the entire narrative is written in e-mails back and forth between the characters. It took the tired plot of girl meets boy in big city and breathed new life into it. The e-mails allowed enough characterization, but left a little mystery. The conversational tone of the e-mails allowed for a voyeuristic look into Melissa Fuller's world, from her broken dates to breaking hearts. The plot turned quickly this way and that, making for an enrapturing read that is easily read in one sitting. \nBy no means a substantial book, "The Boy Next Door" is a bit of delightful fluff that should be taken as such. I highly recommend the book for anyone who has a few hours to kill and a few laughs to spare.