New York City isn’t
exactly the place a modern young woman wants to find herself homeless.
Kate Mackenzie
works in a Human Resources department at one of New York City’s leading
photo-newspaper. Her boss, Amy Jenkins, otherwise known as T.O.D.—Tyrannical Office
Despot—is the boss from hell. Kate’s longtime live-in boyfriend, Dale, has
refused to commit to a permanent relationship. Desperate for marriage, Kate moves out of
his apartment and into the apartment of her best friend and co-worker, Jen Sables. She
promises Jen it’ll be only temporary because Jen and her husband are trying to get
pregnant. But Kate can’t find an affordable studio apartment anywhere! And then the
T.O.D. makes Kate fire the most popular employee in the senior dining room—who then
countersues for wrongful termination.
Mitch Hertzog, zion
of one of Manhattan’s wealthiest law families, is the lawyer assigned to represent
the photo-newspaper since the head boss feels he’s too close to the case. He calls
Kate in for a pre-case deposition but then his brother, Stuart, gets angry because Kate
was called in alone, without her boss or Stuart present. Mitch insists he knows how to do
his job, but this starts a humorous exchange of e-mails among the members of the large
family about how Mitch is doing his job—rightly or wrongly—depending on who
wrote the email.
Kate didn’t
want to fire the pastry chief, Ida Lopez.
After all, Kate liked Ida and thought she was doing a good job, even if she did refuse to
serve pie to people she didn’t think deserved it. Kate tells Mitch that she thinks
Ida’s termination was done wrong, but then she backtracks because she’s worried
that she’ll be fired in addition to being homeless. Will Kate be able to find a home?
Will she be able to help Ida get her job back? And how on earth can she handle her
attraction to gorgeous Mitch when her boss refuses to allow her to see him without either
her or Stuart present?
Kate is an adorable
heroine going through a lot of the same trials as most single women in today’s large
cities. She’s devastated that she seems to be the only woman among her acquaintance
who isn’t married or engaged. Even her T.O.D., Amy, is engaged! Kate is kind to
everyone, even those who don’t deserve it.
BOY MEETS GIRL is
written in an unusual format. It’s the only book I’ve ever read that is written
entirely as emails, instant messages, journal entries, or answering machine recording. At
first glance, I thought it was a play and wasn’t sure how readable it’d be. But
BOY MEETS GIRL grabbed my attention and I had to keep reading to find out what would
happen next. This is Ms. Cabot’s second book written in this format. The first is
last year’s THE BOY NEXT DOOR. There are a lot of unexpected twists and turns in BOY
MEETS GIRL. Watch for it in your favorite bookstore. 400 pages, $13.95.
Reviewed by Laura
V. Hilton for The Road to Romance
December 6, 2003 |
