The Guy Next Door

Rating:
Summary: The Boy Next Door
Review: My mom got this book for me after she saw people talking about it on a show. I really liked reading this book. It was very different from other books I've read because the entire story is told through emails. I thought that the author was very clever to write a story like this. This book has some romance in it, and I think that you should be 10 and older to read it. Another reason I liked this book was because I couldn't put it down! I also think that this is a very good young adult book. I think that whoever reads this book will really like it, and I recommend it to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: A voyeur's dream book
Review: Reading Meggin Cabot's The Boy Next Door is a voyeur's dream. Comprised solely of e-mails, this novel offers the reader a peek into the lives of a group of friends and colleagues of reporter Mellissa Fuller, who's gossip column titled Page Ten is loosely based on the New York Post's legendary Page 6.
While I recommend this book and marvel at the author's ability to clearly tell this "girl unknowingly meets soulmate/millionaire" story and to allow it to unfold naturally in a series of often hilarious e-mails, it does lack the authenticity of some of the more popular first person fictionalized accounts of life in New York City.
I would doubt strongly that Ms. Cabot has ever worked as a gossip reporter and consequently this book lacks the rich details that The Devil Wears Prada and the Nanny Diaries provide. Still The Boy Next Door is a worthwhile read with enough character development to keep you happily occupied for the ten hours or so that it takes to read it.
Where Cabot's book far exceeds Prada Devil and Nanny Diaries is that this is a classic story with a beginning, a middle and an end. It's compelling from the start, suspenseful in the middle and all the loose ends are tied up at the conclusion.
While most readers between 15 and 50 would find this book enjoyable, I strongly recommend it to teenage girls looking for a fun look into the lives of 20-somethings finding their way in the world.

Rating:
Summary: Book Review: The Boy Next Door
Review: The book The Boy Next Door by Meg Cabot is about a girl named Mel, who had a neighbor who was an old lady. The old lady was knocked on the head by an anonymous person and she went into a coma. This old lady, named Helen Friedlander had two cats and a dog. Somebody had to take care of the animals so Mel had to do the job but it interfered with her life and her work. Helen's only relative is her nephew Max Friendlander. Mel e-mailed Max and asked him to come and stay with the animals. He said yes, but he secretly sent one of his friends in his place, John. Mel and John fell in love, and there are even more hardships and conflicts from there on. It was a fun book to read. The author, Meg Cabot used very great details.The whole book is e-mails back and forth among different people. Meg Cabot always kept me wanting to keep turning the pages; this book was never boring. I felt like I was actually there in the book it was so real. I think teenage girls would like this book, and maybe even women in their twenties or thirties.

Rating:
Summary: Entertaining, but unnecessarily long
Review: This book has its share of cute and humorous moments, but in my opinion it was at least 75 pages too long. Since the plot isn't exactly hard to figure out and the writing isn't exactly Pulitzer-worthy, I found myself skimming through the last 1/3 of the book. At that point I was over the humor and banter between the characters and I just wanted it to end already.

Rating:
Summary: Redheads Rise to Good-looking Rich Guys Standards
Review: This book is one of the best Meg Cabot books I have read in a while. Her main character, Mel Fuller, a redhead is a genuine girl who needs a boyfriend badly. Then one day, her luck changes, when her neighbor has to go to the hospital after getting attacked. And she has to take care of her pets until the neighbor's nephew comes. The neighbor's nephew comes but as a photographer Mel finds him a little odd. Soon though, they are spending a lot of time together, falling in love. Through the books e-mails you hear from a person named John Trent who's family and friends comment on the details of the novel. You also learn of the nephew, Max Friedlander's dirty little secret. Its a bit of romantic comedy mixed with mystery, that suits every teenage girl and any woman. Meg Cabot brings her winning Princess Diaries style to this wonderful beach book.

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Summary: Next Door Lives Boy
Review: To: Mel Fuller [e-mail]
From: Nadine Wilcock [e-mail]

Girl, where are you? I'm really starting to get worried. Why haven't you called me, at the very least? I hope you didn't get hit by a bus or something. But I suppose if you did, they'd call us. Assuming you had your press pass with you, that is.
All right, I'm not really worried that you're dead. I'm really worried you're going to get fired, and I'm going to have to eat lunch with Dolly again. I was forced to order in with her since you're MIA, and it nearly killed me. The woman had a salad with no dressing. Do you get where I'm coming from here? NO DRESSING.
And then she felt compelled to comment on every single little thing I put in my mouth. "Do you know how many grams of fat are in that fry?" "A good substitute for mayonnaise, you know, Nadine, is low-fat yogurt."
I'd like to tell her what she can do with her low-fat yogurt.
By the way, I think you should know that Aaron's going around saying you're doing this because of whatever went down between the two of you last night.
If that doesn't get you in here, and pronto, I don't know what will.

Nad :-)

The Boy Next Door is a book about a girl named Melissa, a.k.a Mel who gets stuck in an awful situation. Her next-door neighbor, Mrs. Friedlander, was struck from behind by an anonymus visitor. While Mrs. Friedlander is in a coma, Mel has to take care of her Great Dane and her two pesky cats.
Meggin Cabot (a.k.a. Meg Cabot) has written lots of books for teenage girls. She has written the Princess Diaries series, All-American Girl, Victoria, and the Rogue, Nicola and the Viscount, Teen Idol and of course, The Boy Next Door. She has also written a series called Haunted which she wrote under a pseudonym, Jenny Carroll. Cabot also writes books for adults. She lives, currently, in New York with her husband and one-eyed cat named Henrietta.
The Boy Next Door is ultimetly my favorite book of all time. Girls (13 or over) or women who like love stories would love The Boy Next Door. This book will make you laugh and even make you cry, but overall it's a book that should be read over and over again.


Rating:
Summary: A cute idea and a cute story¿
Review: 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.