THE BOY NEXT DOOR centers on Melissa Fuller. And she's having a busy week. Aside from having just received her thirty-seventh tardy notice from the Human Resources department of the New York Journal, the newspaper where she works, she's just broken up with her boyfriend Aaron (by clobbering him in the head with her handbag) and found her elderly neighbor, Mrs. Friedlander, facedown on the floor, the victim of an assault. Now she finds herself caring for her neighbor's pets while Mrs. Friedlander lies in a coma. Between her occasional forays into the office, Mel tries to get in touch with her neighbor's nephew, Max Friedlander, to let him know about his aunt's condition, but Max is a selfish playboy who's too busy with a supermodel in Key West to come to her side. Max, however, doesn't want his filthy rich aunt to write him out of her will, so he gets his college friend John Trent to pretending to be him until his aunt either wakes up out of her coma or dies. John is a good-looking heir to a sizable family fortune. In order to prove he can make it without his grandmother's money, however, he has "shed the shackles of the family fortune" and works at the New York Chronicle, the rival to the Mel's paper. Consequently he goes through life dressed in Grateful Dead T-shirts instead of Armani tuxes, and deck shoes instead of Gucci loafers. He moves into Max's grandmother's apartment and is immediately taken with Mel. For her part, Mel is immediately impressed by his broad shoulders. She, of course, believes he's Max and he does nothing to disabuse her of that idea. What will happen when Mel discovers his true identity?

Strictly speaking, this book is neither a contemporary romance nor chick lit. The format isn't conventional enough for genre romance, and the characters aren't hip and shallow enough for chick lit. And while the plot is obviously not wildly original, the way it's told entirely through e-mails serves to provide a certain freshness it would likely lack if told in conventional narrative form. However, the e-mail structure is both extremely clever and limiting. E-mails can only tell so much about a person's life, and one eventually begins to wonder if these people have ever heard of the telephone. Another problem is that the reader can't experience the characters' lives directly; we have to learn about the important events they experience after they occur. It's to Cabot's credit that the characters are pretty darn well depicted, given the limitations of the form she's chosen. Mel and John in particular are nicely portrayed characters. Despite her inability to get to work on time, Mel isn't dumb, and she's eventually able to put two and two together to figure out who assaulted the elderly Ms. Friedlander. Furthermore, the vengeance she wreaks on John near the end of the book is simply brilliant. For his part, John is a nice guy who's gotten himself into a jam by impersonating Max, and who's doing his utmost to get himself out of the mess. He relies heavily on his brother for advice and support. Mel depends on her friend Nadine, who's worried about Mel, but who also worries that Mel will be too stressed out to be maid of honor at her upcoming wedding.

THE BOY NEXT DOOR is a funny, engrossing and quick read. Recommended.

"The Boy Next Door" was absolutely one of the funniest, cutest books I've read in quite some time! I really enjoyed the format of having the book entirely written through emails, and unlike some other reviewers, I found I got to know the characters quite well by how they wrote and responded to their emails. The interplay between Mel and John, between Mel and her co-workers, and the various family members, all were priceless! They were all larger than life, without being over-the-top. Nadine was the perfect best friend, and I loved that she was a size 16! All the pieces and subplots fit well together, and even when I could see how certain things would end up, I still enjoyed watching the pieces come together. This was a light, fun read, and very, very enjoyable. I caan't wait to see what else Meggin Cabot comes up with next!

Melissa Fuller is a journalist in New York City. She is single, and has little hope of finding a perfect man. When her neighbor, Helen Friedlander, is attacked, things become interesting. Mrs. Friedlander's only living relative, Max, comes to take over her apartment and care for her pets. Mel gets to know Max, and soon they fall in love. Yet something about Max is different. Is he really what he claims to be, or is Mel in for a major heartache?

I have read several of Meggin Cabot's other novels, and when I heard The Boy Next Door was completely written in e-mail format, it intrigued me. The characters are completely likeable, and the story is funny and romantic at the same time. This novel is like a more sophisticated version of the author's The Princess Diaries series. The Boy Next Door is definitely a worthwhile read!

This was my first Cabot book and although it has gotten raves by many readers I was not terribly impressed.

Lou Calabreze (sp) wrote an academy winning screenplay for a boyfriend actor who later thanks her by dumping her and eloping with his co-star. To make matters worse, the helicopter she's riding in on her way to a movie set with America's hottest actor Jack Townsend crashes in the Alaskan wilderness. Lou is now stranded with a man whom she loathes (because he's an actor, among other things) and to make matters worse someone is hell bent on killing Jack and Lou by association. Lou is determined she will get out of this situation with her life and her heart intact. However, this is easier said than done with a man like Jack Townsed around. What's a girl to do?

Th best part about this book is the heroine. Lou is an independent, modern woman who will not take ... from anyone including Jack. Her smart mouth and her witty retorts are the reason I give this book 2 stars. However, in this case the bad outweighs the good by a long shot.The worst thing about this book is the generic suspense plot. It dragged the whole book down for me. It seems that the trend now in romance novels is to throw in a few faceless baddies and a cartoonish villain, a love scene here and there and voila you have a romance novel. This book is a perfect example of this type of lazy writing. For example,the reasoning behind the murder attempts is laughable and the casual way in which everyone in the story handles the fact that there is an apparent madman among them is not realistic. Also, I felt that the only character that was fully fleshed out was Lou's. Jack and the rest were caricatures of real life Hollywood types. In short, this book is not a keeper but if you are in the mood for a bit of fluff then I recommend that you check it out of the library.
:)

Since I love The Boy Next Door, I wanted to read other books by this author, so I read this book it was an enjoyable read, I love Lou and Jack's character, here they didn't know it in the beginning they belong to together. I love the way Lou kept saying that she would not fall in love with another actor the more she kept pushing Jack away the more he was getting closer to her. I loved there parents they are so cute you can't help but cheer for them too :) Cute book!
Happy Reading Lisa

This was a first time read for me by this author and I found it to be not only a fast read but fun and sexy as well. The two main characters are great. The character development was done real well so you understood where the characters were coming from.

Lou is a screenwriter who has several hit movies under her belt. She has just been dumped by her long-term boyfriend (10 years) for someone else he can commit to. She is now on location in Alaska for the last of her screenplays "Copkiller IV". The problem is she finds herself with Hollywood badboy Jack Townsend after an incident involving a gun, helicopter, and a man off of his rocker lost on Mt. Kinley. Apparently she not the only one that wants him dead. Actually not dead maybe maimed. Not only is he an actor (the horror of that) but he also broke her best friends heart and this is the reason behind her thinking.

Jack is not what the tabloids or Hollywood has portrayed him to be. In fact he would be glad to give up the glitter for a normal life and a chance to find the perfect someone. Little does he know he is about to be trapped on a snowy mountain with that someone.

It was fun to read how theys two opposits come together and the laughs are plentiful. Jack's mom and Lou's dad not to mention Alssandro the Yorkie add plenty of laughs as secondary characters. This is a real treat that you don't want to miss.