Boy Meets Girl [Paperback]

Meg Cabot (Author)

Book Description

Release date: January 6, 2004

Meet Kate Mackenzie. She:

• works for the T.O.D. (short for TyrannicalOffice Despot, also known as Amy Jenkins,Director of the Human Resources Divisionat the New York Journal)
• is sleeping on the couch because herboyfriend of ten years refuses to commit
• can't find an affordable studio apartmentanywhere in New York City
• thinks things can't get any worse.

They can. Because:

• the T.O.D. is making her fire the most popularemployee in the paper's senior staff dining room
• that employee is now suing Kate for wrongfultermination, and
• now Kate has to give a deposition in front ofMitch Hertzog, the scion of one of Manhattan's wealthiest law families,who embraces everything Kate most despises ... but also happens to have a nice smile and a killer bod.

The last thing anybody -- least of all Kate Mackenzie -- expects to findin a legal arbitration is love. But that's the kind of thing that canhappen when ... Boy Meets Girl.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This latest adult novel by the prolific Cabot (she's responsible for the ever-popular Princess Diaries franchise) unfolds, like 2002's The Boy Next Door, entirely through e-mails, journals, instant messages, phone mail, deposition transcripts, notes scribbled on menus, to-do lists and other hallmarks of a modern girl's life. Kate Mackenzie, an idealistic HR representative at the New York Journal, has just been forced by her evil boss, Amy Jenkins, to fire Ida Lopez, the wildly popular dessert cart lady at the company cafeteria. Ida bakes delectable goodies, but she won't serve them to priggish Stuart Hertzog, the paper's legal counsel, who happens to be engaged to Amy, known as the T.O.D. (tyrannical office despot) to Kate and her best friend and co-worker Jen. Sweet Ida sues for wrongful termination, and Stuart charges his younger brother, Mitch, with handling this delicate matter. But Mitch actually cares about justice more than his brother's bitchy fiancee (he's only working at the family firm at his sick father's request), and he quickly confounds Kate's expectations with his Rocky and Bullwinkle tie and "tie-him-to-the-bed" good looks. When the T.O.D. tries to lay the blame for her HR blunder on Kate, Mitch goes to the furthest reaches of lawyerly chivalry to save his ladylove. Studded with humorous details poking fun at social climbers and corporate drones, this book is less a novel than a collection of lighthearted barbs, gleeful cliches and panicky (but comic and brief) freakouts. Cabot's 20-something fans will likely devour this fluffy, fun urban fairy tale.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Kate, an earnest young human resources representative at the New York Journal, must handle a dreadful case. Her evil boss, Amy, is forcing her to fire the beloved Ida Lopez, whose desserts are famous in the senior staff room, just because Ida refused a second dessert to the detestable Stuart Hertzog, Amy's beau and the paper's lawyer. When Ida Lopez sues the paper for wrongful termination, the case goes to Mitchell, Stuart's handsome, unconventional brother. Kate is charmed by Mitch, despite the fact that she is sure he is just like his brother. He is certainly nothing like her ex-boyfriend, Dale, who is still trying to get her back though he still doesn't want to get married. Despite the forces standing in their way, Mitch and Kate are falling for each other until Mitch tries to catch Amy in a lie during a deposition, which has disastrous consequences for Kate. Told in a series of e-mails, phone messages, instant messages, and journal entries, Cabot's novel is delightfully fun to read. Kristine Huntley
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; 1 edition (January 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060085452
• ISBN-13: 978-0060085452
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.4 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (89 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #94,540 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I write! Books for you, your sister, your best friend, your mother . . . . even for men with good taste!

Most of my time is spent over at my website, http://megcabot.com, so be sure to stop by!

UK, New Zealand, and Australia fans, visit http://www.megcabot.co.uk.

Amazon Author Rankbeta 

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#69 in Books > Teens

#69 in Books > Teens

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Laugh-Out-Loud Fun January 21, 2004

By Riley Merrick

Format:Paperback

BOY MEETS GIRL is the follow-up to the wildly popular THE BOY NEXT DOOR. In BOY MEETS GIRL, Meg Cabot introduces us to Kate Mackenzie and Mitchell Hertzog via emails, voicemails, diary entries, and various other pieces of modern communication. Newly single and crashing on her best friend's sofa while she apartment-hunts, Kate is an employee in the Human Resources department of the New York Journal, bossed around and undermined by the Tyrannical Office Despot at every corner. When the T.O.D. orders her to fire Ida Lopez, a very popular cafeteria employee, Ida turns around and sues for breach of contract. The attorney on the case is Mitchell Hertzog, and something about Kate clicks with him, despite the fact that every time they meet, his dry cleaner makes money from the disasters that occur - oh, and the fact that his crusading on the Lopez case, intended to impress Kate and show her that he's not a soulless corporate drone, actually gets Kate fired.

Complicating matters for Mitch is the fact that his brother Stuart is engaged to the T.O.D., his younger sister is in a crisis, his older sister wants him to get married, his mother nags him at every turn, and his father, the firm's senior partner, is incommunicado on a never-ending golfing holiday. As for Kate, besides being homeless and jobless, she's covering up for the office vamp's affair with a German ski instructor and being pestered by her ex, first to move back in, then to provide a "recommendation" for him as a boyfriend to a ditzy supermodel whose idea of foreign food is the Olive Garden.

It never ceases to amaze me how well a story can be told in this format. I loved THE BOY NEXT DOOR for its novelty, and BOY MEETS GIRL delivers more of the same. Because many of the same characters appear in both books, I felt like I was revisiting old friends as well as making new ones. Dolly Vargas is as wild as ever, Tim Grabowski is still a huge gossip, George Sanchez is still complaining about the lack of Mountain Dew in the vending machines, and Stacy Trent continues to try to find a life for herself and her husband once the kids are glued to Spongebob Squarepants. Mitch, Kate, and Kate's best friend Jen fit into the setting perfectly. They're great characters, people I'd love to know in real life.

If I have one quibble about BOY MEETS GIRL, it's the fact that the off-screen action can undermine the credibility of the love story. We only know what we are told through email. In THE BOY NEXT DOOR, Mel and John exchanged a lot of email, but in BOY MEETS GIRL, Kate and Mitch rarely communicate this way - everything we know is from Kate's emails to Jen. Readers can feel the chemistry between Kate and Mitch in the deposition transcripts, but there's not a lot of follow-through, so their relationship felt a little rushed to me. On the other hand, Cabot completely nailed the girlfriend vibe - Kate's emails and IM's with Jen read like some of my chats with friends.

The characters were so engaging that my minor complaint was barely a blip on the radar; I enjoyed the book as a whole - and I recommend it to others. Read it - it will raise your spirits, I promise you.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious Sequel January 7, 2004

By Erika Sorocco

Format:Paperback

Kate Mackenzie never thought her life would fall apart so quickly. She's working for Amy Jenkins, the Tyrannical Office Despot (T.O.D.), who just happens to be the Director of the New York Journal's Division of Human Resources, and she's sleeping on the couch in her best friend's apartment, as she makes nowhere near enough to afford decent housing in New York City. But things get even worse when the T.O.D. forces Kate to fire Ida Lopez, the dessert cart lady for the New York Journal, for refusing people pie, and, in turn, Ida sues them, saying it was a breach of contract. Now Kate is slowly losing her mind. Her ex-boyfriend is stalking her, she's living with crazy Dolly Vargas (from THE BOY NEXT DOOR), and she's falling for the lawyer, Mitchell Hertzog, handling the Ida Lopez case for the New York Journal, even though she hates corporate lawyers, and hates Mitch's brother, Stuart, even more, for causing this entire mess.

Cabot has done it again. I was doubtful that BOY MEETS GIRL would be able to compare to THE BOY NEXT DOOR, but I was wrong. BOY MEETS GIRL is just as good, if not better than it's prequel. The commentary is snappy and exciting, and the characters are funnier than ever. While the main characters are different than those featured in THE BOY NEXT DOOR, Mel Fuller (the main character in the prequel) is mentioned numerous times, and you are able to see what's happened in her life since the last book. Overall this was a fantastic book. I hope Cabot decides to write a third addition to this series, as I'd like to follow the character's lives even more. All fans of Cabot will be deeply impressed with this new work of literature, and be left craving more. A must-have.

Erika Sorocco

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars :-) March 14, 2004

By Kiersten Harvey

Format:Paperback

I love books like this one. These are the books that make you sad when you are done reading it because you don't want it to end; you want to know what happens after that. Meg Cabot is by far my favorite author and I enjoy all of her books. This book is my favorite so far. I loved the characters and how everything tied in. The format of it was perfect. Her books make you fall in love with reading.