Boy Meets Girl by Meg Cabot

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The Barnes & Noble Review
Meg Cabot, a New York Times bestseller known for her historical romances and her popular Princess Diaries series, turns her attention to the challenges of the modern age in this humorous tale of life and love gone wrong. Kate Mackenzie, human resources representative at a big New York photo-newspaper, has hit rock bottom. Her boyfriend of ten years has announced he cannot commit; she can't find an affordable studio on her measly salary; and her loathsome boss has asked her to fire Ida Lopez, the creator of the best chocolate chip cookie on the planet and the most popular employee in the staff dining room. When Ida sues the paper, Kate is forced to give a deposition in front of Ida's lawyer, Mitch Herzog, who just happens to be the brother of the man her tyrannical boss is about to marry. But if Mitch is against her, why does he keep asking her out? Cabot employs the formats of emails, phone messages, instant messages, to-do lists, and internal memos to deliver the plot, along with a big dash of contemporary office culture. Ginger Curwen

From the Publisher

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 kind of thing that can happen when ... Boy Meets Girl.

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 clich s and panicky (but comic and brief) freakouts. Cabot's 20-something fans will likely devour this fluffy, fun urban fairy tale. (Jan.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Sophie Brookover - VOYA

Kate McKenzie, a left-leaning Kentuckian social worker transplanted to the New York Journal's HR department, struggles to do right by her employees, but it is not easy. Her "Tyrannical Office Despot" of a boss, Amy Jenkins, forces Kate to fire Ida Lopez, the paper's beloved but eccentric pastry chef, who then sues the Journal for breach of contract. In addition, Kate has just left her boyfriend of ten years, a commitment-phobic wannabe rock star, so she is staying with her best friend, Jen Sadler. But Kate's workplace, relationship, and housing woes are nothing compared to the wackiness that ensues after she meets Mitch Hertzog, the Journal's seemingly soulless corporate drone of an attorney in Ida's case against the paper. Readers will know instantly that Mitch is a total catch—he wears superhero neckties given to him by his nieces, after all—but it takes Kate nearly the entire book to get it. And that is just as well, because half the fun of Cabot's books is following her heroines from initial cluelessness to rapturous true love. A breezy Pride and Prejudice for the digital age, this novel boasts a soap operatic plot full of entertainingly convoluted twists, double- and triple-crosses, and a huge chorus of tertiary characters. The speedy pacing never falters, every character's voice is sharply defined, and the all e-mail format imbues the story with an immediate, conversational tone. This towering confection of a novel will please fans of Cabot's previous Journal-set novel, Boy Next Door (Avon, 2002), and will leave them clamoring for more. VOYA Codes 3Q 4P S A/YA (Readable without serious defects; Broad general YA appeal; Senior High, defined as grades 10 to 12;Adult-marketed book recommended for Young Adults). 2004, Avon/HarperCollins, 383p., Trade pb. Ages 15 to Adult.

Library Journal

Twentysomething Kate Mackenzie, who works and lives in New York City, is a typical chick-lit heroine: she hates her boss and has just broken up with her longtime boyfriend because he can't commit. Her job as a human resources representative at the New York Journal brings her to the center of controversy when her boss makes her fire the popular Dessert Cart Lady, Ida Lopez, whose desserts are so divine that she decides she can withhold them from anyone she pleases. When she refuses to serve pie to Kate's boss's boyfriend, the Dessert Lady is done for. The grievance suit that ensues brings Kate in contact with the perfect guy, but he's a lawyer, so it takes Kate a while to realize that they're meant to be together. The creative way the story is told-exclusively through email, office communication, answering machine messages, and other inventive means-makes this otherwise typical tale a fun, quick read from the author of the "Princess Diaries" series. Recommended for all public libraries.-Karen Core, Enoch Pratt Free Lib., Baltimore Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.

Product Details

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Kathleen A. Mackenzie
Personnel Representative
Human Resources
The New York Journal
216 W. 57th Street
New York, NY 10019
212-555-6891

Ida D. Lopez
Craft Food Services
The New York Journal
216 W. 57th Street
New York, NY 10019

Dear Mrs. Lopez:

Last week, we met to address your continuing job-performance problems related to the giving out of dissemination of serving of items from the dessert cart you operate in the newspaper's senior staff dining room. These problems have persisted despite repeated counseling sessions with me my boss Amy Jenkins supervisors as well as staff training programs. Specifically, your refusal to give disseminate serve dessert to certain members of the senior staff has resulted in several written complaints from administrators at this establishment paper company.

Mrs. Lopez, your refusal to serve dessert to certain members of the paper's staff is disruptive to food service operations, and the explanations that you have provided for your behavior are not satisfactory wholly believable inexplicable acceptable. This letter is being issued as a written warning with the expectation that there will be an immediate and sustained improvement in your work attitude food service dissemination job performance. Failure to comply will result in further disciplinary action.

On a more personal note, Mrs. Lopez, please stop refusing to give senior staff members dessert, even if you feel, as you explained to me last week, that they don't "deserve it." Which members of the paper's staff do or do not deserve dessert is not your decision to make! And I would hate to see you asked to leave the food craft services department over something so silly! I would really miss you -- and your chocolate chip cookies!

Damn it.

From the Desk of
Kate Mackenzie

To do:

1. Laundry!!!!!!!!!
2. Finish disciplinary warning letter to Ida Lopez.
3. Pick up prescriptions -- Allegra, Imitrex, Levlen.
4. Get new Almay pressed powder compact.
5. Find new apartment.
6. Find new boyfriend.
7. Get better job.
8. Get married.
9. Have successful career.
10. Have children/grandchildren/big retirement party.
11. Die in sleep at age 100.
12. Pick up dry cleaning!!!!!!!!!

Kathleen A. Mackenzie
Personnel Representative, L–Z
Human Resources
The New York Journal
216 W. 57th Street
New York, NY 10019
212-555-6891
kathleen.mackenzie@thenyjournal.com

Sleaterkinneyfan: What are you doing?

Katydid: WORKING. Stop IM-ing me, you know the T.O.D. doesn't like it when we IM during office hours.

Sleaterkinneyfan: The T.O.D. can bite me. And you are not working. I can see your desk from here. You're making another one of those To Do lists, aren't you?

Katydid: It may look like I'm making a To Do list, but really I am reflecting on the series of failures and bad judgment calls that have made up my life.

Sleaterkinneyfan: Oh my God, you are twenty-five years old. You have not even had a life yet.

Katydid: Then why am I in such mental and emotional anguish?

Sleaterkinneyfan: Because you stayed up too late last night watching Charmed reruns. Don't try to deny it, I heard you salivating over Cole.

Katydid: Oh my God, I'm so sorry!!!!!!!! Did I keep you and Craig awake?

Sleaterkinneyfan: Please. Craig would sleep through a nuclear blast. And I only heard you because I got up to use the bathroom. These hormones make me have to go every five minutes.

Katydid: I am so, so sorry. I swear I will be off your couch and out of your place just as soon as I get a line on a studio I can afford. Paula's taking me to look at one tomorrow night in Hoboken. $1100/month, third-floor walk-up.

Sleaterkinneyfan: Would you stop? I told you, we like having you stay with us.

Katydid: Jen, you and Craig are trying to have a BABY. You do not need an old college roommate sacking out on your living room couch while you are trying to procreate. You did enough just getting me this job in the first place.

Sleaterkinneyfan: You more than earn your keep with all the cleaning you do. Don't think I haven't noticed. Craig even pointed out this morning that you had dusted the top of the refrigerator. Obsessive much, by the way? Who even looks at the top of the refrigerator?

Katydid: Well, Craig, OBVIOUSLY.

Sleaterkinneyfan: Whatever. You can't afford $1100/month on your salary. I know how much you make, remember?

Katydid: It's the cheapest place Paula's found me so far. That isn't on the same block as a methadone clinic.

Sleaterkinneyfan: I don't understand why YOU are the one who had to move out. Why didn't you kick HIM out?

Katydid: I can't stay in that apartment. Not with the memories of all the happy times Dale and I shared.

Sleaterkinneyfan: Oh, you mean like all those times you came home from work to find that, like, one of his bandmates had mistaken the closet for the bathroom and peed on your suede boots?

Katydid: WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BRING THAT UP AT WORK? You know it always makes me want to cry. I really loved those boots. They were perfect Coach knockoffs.

Sleaterkinneyfan: You should have thrown his stuff out onto the fire escape and changed the locks. "I don't know if I can marry you after all, I have to take things one day at a time." I mean, what kind of thing is that for a guy to say?????

Katydid: Um, the kind of thing an ex-pothead who is about to land a million-dollar recording contract would say to the girl he has dated since high school. I mean, come on, Jen. Dale can get anyone now. Why would he stay with his girlfriend from high school?