Readers first met Amy Jenkins, Personnel Director for the New York Journal, in The Boy Next Door, when she sent the heroine snippy e-mails about her tardiness The fact that Amy’s staff call her T.O.D. (Tyrannical Office Despot) behind her back should give you some idea of her personality. This time she’s making life miserable for her employee, Kate Mackenzie, by insisting she fire Ida Lopez, the dessert cart operator who sells delicious pastries to the staff – but only to those people she likes. When Ida refuses to serve Stuart Hertzog, legal counsel to the Journal and Amy’s fiancé, her job is doomed.

But Ida quickly files a grievance against the newspaper for wrongful termination, setting up Kate’s introduction to Stuart’s brother, Mitch, who despite being a soulless corporate attorney is very cute and remarkably decent. Kate has sworn off men, however, after a recent breakup with her longtime boyfriend Dale, a musician who isn’t into commitment. Breaking up with Dale has left Kate without a home, so she is currently camping out on the couch of her best friend and co-worker Jen. Considering that Jen and her husband are busy trying to get pregnant, it’s not an ideal situation.  

Mitch thinks Kate is pretty adorable, but his attempts to defend her against Ida Lopez’s suit end up getting her fired. Now homeless and jobless, Kate starts wondering why she ever left her hometown of Luxor, Kentucky. Will Mitch ride to the rescue, vanquish the back-stabbing Amy and the overly pompous Stuart, and convince Kate to take another chance on love?  

Boy Meets Girl zips along at break-neck speed on its way to the inevitable conclusion. Cabot’s characters communicate through Instant Messaging (e-mail is so 2002), voice mail and fax. Kate also keeps a journal and occasionally scribbles notes to herself on restaurant menus and art exhibit programs, so we know more about what’s going on in her head than we did about Cabot’s previous heroine, Melissa Fuller (now Melissa Fuller-Trent and a mom as well).  

Having insight into Kate’s thought process is not necessarily a good thing, however, because she is truly an annoying heroine. “I wish I were dead!” is her favorite melodramatic exclamation, followed closely by “I hate my life!” When she loses her job (I’m not telling you anything you can’t find out from glancing at the book cover), she wallows in self-pity and passivity, getting drunk and crying until Mitch bails her out of her predicament. I couldn’t help comparing her to The Boy Next Door’s heroine; Melissa was occasionally whiny and overly dramatic, but when she discovered she had been deceived, she took action in a very decisive way.  

If you ignore Kate, you’ll still swoon over Mitch, a former public defender who wears funny ties, works out by practicing wheelchair basketball and genuinely wants to help people. You’ll also have a great time with Cabot’s digs at urban corporate life, especially the snobs who populate its upper echelons. Amy and Stuart are completely self-absorbed and ultra-conservative, so their battles with Mitch are full of fireworks. Readers are also treated to the return of outrageous Journal Style Editor Dolly Vargas and dim but warmhearted supermodel Vivica. Kate’s ex-boyfriend Dale is also good for numerous laughs, starting with the unique name of his band (I won’t spoil it for you). Boy Meets Girl also benefits from several tantalizing recipes from Ida Lopez, including one for a chocolate bundt cake with chocolate chips that I’m eager to try out.  

While Cabot sometimes seems to forget that she’s writing for adults, not adolescents, Boy Meets Girl is nonetheless quite the giggle. I’ll cheerfully keep reading her epistolary novels as long as she keeps writing them; they’re cheerful, hip and just plain fun – the perfect antidote to the winter blahs.  

--Susan Scribner