The Boy Next Door by Meg Cabot

The author of the popular Princess Diaries young adult books, Meg Cabot broke into adult fiction with She Went All the Way and The Boy Next Door. Cabot’s newest adult book, Boy Meets Girl, follows nearly the same course as The Boy Next Door. Not only is the premise similar (two goody-goody single young people meet up and fall in love), but it also follows a non-traditional format. While The Boy Next Door was made up completely of emails sent back and forth between the characters, Boy Meets Girl incorporates not only emails but phone messages, notes, memos and, most annoyingly, journal entries by the main character. Unfortunately, while The Boy Next Door was fresh, original and altogether heartwarming, Boy Meets Girl comes across as a bad imitation of it.

Kate Mackenzie is a young woman from Kentucky who has moved to New York City with her best friend, Jen. After working as a social worker for a few years, Kate (with Jen's help) a job in human resources for the New York Journal, working under their awful boss, Amy, whom they refer to as the Tyrannical Office Despot (or T.O.D. for short). Shortly after scoring this position, Kate is told by her boyfriend of ten years, the wannabe rock star Dale, that he doesn’t want to marry her. Kate moves out and takes up residence on Jen’s couch. After an incident with someone she has to fire, Kate finds herself in the office of lawyer Mitch Hertzog and the attraction is instant. Unfortunately, Mitch is not only a lawyer (a group of people Kate has always hated), but he is also the brother of the T.O.D.’s fiancee, a man everyone in the office despises.