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In Every Boy’s Got One, Meg Cabot tells the story of Holly Caputo, Mark Levine, Jane Harris and Cal Langdon. Holly and Mark are going to elope to Italy because it’s romantic. As a bonus, eloping avoids all the family issues at home. Holly is an Italian Catholic, Mark is Jewish. Both mothers are desperate to keep them from marrying.
Jane Harris is going along because she and Holly have been best friends since first grade. Cal is Mark’s best friend and hopes to persuade him not to get married. Cal knows first-hand that marriage is nothing but disappointment. Jane and Cal take an immediate dislike to each other when he’s behind her in line at the duty free shop at JFK and he rolls his eyes over how many bottles of water she’s buying. He thinks she’s a nut, she thinks he’s a jerk. And then they get seated next to each other in coach.
Jane is the creator of Wondercat, a wildly popular comic strip. To her dismay, Cal has no idea what she’s talking about. Jane is emotional, extravagant, and wants to be sure Holly’s wedding is the best ever. She has to keep Cal away from Mark because she refuses to let him ruin Holly’s life with his disdain. So, she decides to stay close to Cal as a noble sacrifice for Holly’s happiness. The fact that Cal is one hot guy just makes it more difficult but Jane will do anything for Holly.
Cal was a foreign correspondent for the NY Journal and recently published a book, Sweeping Sands. He is the prototypical love-‘em-and-leave-‘em guy. He has a girl in every port, as Mark puts it. His marriage has left him cynical toward the very idea of happily ever after. He wants to spare Mark the pain he went through after his marriage dissolved. He notices that Jane is eager to argue the point with him, and is frustrated that he can’t get through to her. Her looks don’t help him ignore her either.
The entire novel is written in diary entries, e-mails, notes and PDA entries. Included are several clever illustrations of the action depicted by Wondercat. Despite, or perhaps because of, the unusual format, the story is charming, the characters very well drawn and this reader was pulled into the story from the very beginning. It was a fun, light-hearted story. Meg Cabot is a very talented writer. She is the author of The Princess Diaries, as well as several other chick-lit books. This book is a keeper.
Reviewed by Nancy Riggins-Hume
for The Road to Romance
November 15, 2004
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