Back Cover of Boy Meets Girl

Meet Kate Mackenzie. She:

• works for the T.O.D. (short for Tyrannical Office Despot, also known as Amy Jenkins, Director of the Human Resources Division at the New York Journal)
• is sleeping on the couch because her boyfriend of ten years refuses to commit
• can’t find an affordable studio apartment anywhere in New York City
• thinks things can’t get any worse.

They can. Because:

• the T.O.D. is making her fire the most popular employee in the paper’s senior staff dining room
• that employee is now suing Kate for wrongful termination, and
• now Kate has to give a deposition in front of Mitch 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 find in a legal arbitration is love. But that’s the kidno f thing that can happen when…BOY MEETS GIRL.

Three Quick Points About Boy Meets Girl

• Point 1: Voyeurism on a whole new level. The entire story unfolds via correspondence such as office emails, forms, IMs, phone messages, lists, and journal entries. Very clever.
• Point 2: Where’d the time go? Since the story unfolds via correspondence, it’s difficult (if not completely impossible) to track how much time has passed. That also contributes to the disingenuous evolution of Kate and Mitch’s relationship.
• Point 3: Predictable ending with a nifty twist. This being the type of book that it is, it won’t be a surprise that girl ends up with prince charming, but it’s the twist at the end that makes it worthwhile.

Full Review of Boy Meets Girl

Before reading the full review, please note that there may be some spoilers. I tried to keep it vague enough not to spoil the entire story, but be warned. If you’d rather not take any chances, skip the synopsis and go straight to the final thoughts.

Boy Meets Girl Synopsis

Boy Meets Girl opens with Kate Mackenzie working on a warning letter for an employee named Ida Lopez, the company’s dessert lady, because she sometimes refuses to serve dessert to certain people whom she deems to be undeserving. These people, of course, find it necessary to complain.

Kate, however, does not get a chance to finish this letter of reprimand because Ida decides she will not serve another piece of pie to Stuart Hertzog, part of the company’s legal staff. Stuart happens to be dating Amy Jenkins (aka the Tyrannical Office Despot, Kate’s boss) and he requests that Ida be fired. Wanting to be a good girlfriend, Amy complies and tells Kate to stop working on the letter and terminate Ida.

After Ida is let go, she files suit against the company and names both Amy and Kate as part of the suit. In the course of the suit, Kate meets Mitch Hertzog, who has been assigned to the case because Stuart, his brother, has a conflict of interest (seeing as how it was his fault Ida lost her job in the first place).

Kate expected Mitch to be as shifty as his brother Stuart, but was pleasantly surprised to find out that he was nothing like she expected. Unfortunately, due to one of his chivalrous acts, Kate ends up losing her job. Luckily, with a bit of help from Kate’s friends, he’s able to set things right again and sweep Kate off of her feet.

Final Thoughts On Boy Meets Girl

This book was infectious. I thought I would pick it up to pass a couple hours, but ended up reading it straight through. First, the fact that this book evolves through correspondence and journal entries was clever and well done. There are so many ways I could have seen such a format crashing and burning, but in this story, it worked. One quirk I did happen to catch, however, is that sometimes individual personalities weren’t completely respected.

For instance, Kate often clarifies who she’s talking about by tacking on a fragmented sentence, such as “Mitch, I mean” and as the story continued, I caught other people doing the same thing, even when their previous correspondence wouldn’t have suggested that it wasn’t one of their idiosyncrasies. It didn’t detracted greatly from the story or the reading though.

The handling of Ida was beautifully done (until the end). If you’re just breezing through the book, it would be easy to miss, but aside from making delectable treats, she’s also a bit psychic. And the whole reason Kate and Mitch were able to find each other was because of Ida. Another clever aspect of the book was the recipes sprinkled throughout. I haven’t tried any of them yet, but they actually do look like recipes you can use. My only quarrel was with Ida’s ending. I understand why and was glad for her, but I just didn’t like the how.

But you’re probably wondering about the juicy bits, the actual romance that unfolds through the story. What I liked about this particular romance is that it was cute and seemed like a natural unfolding. What made it unnatural, however, was the lack of time transpiring. Love was declared, but it seems odd considering Kate and Mitch could not have known each other very long—or it just seemed as though it wasn’t very long. In essence, it seemed rushed.

For the most part, each of the characters were very well drawn. What I found surprising (and pleasantly so) was the depth of evil that dwelled within some of the characters’ hearts and that they were rendered without censure onto the page. Kind of like getting to peer in the minds of people when they think no one is looking.

On a final note, this book may cause hysterical laughter.

Rating: Worth Every Penny [TPB] (?)

Get Boy Meets Girl by Meg Cabot at Amazon