  I picked up The Boy Next Door by Meg(gin) Cabot at Half-Price Books for a dollar. What's a dollar? I figured, if I didn't like it, I'd give it away via urlLink bookcrossing. By no means is this a deep book. It's not even a serious book, really. I did, though, find it somewhat entertaining. Initially, I was skeptical about the book's e-mail format. I mean, would I learn enough about the characters to make them seem like much more than characters in a book?
No. One of the characters, Dolly, seemed way over the top. Granted, I've never been to New York City, so I may not be familiar with citified ways of modern, young, liberated women such as Dolly. Is Sex and the City a true portrayal of the life some women (and men) lead? Bev Fuller, Melissa's unsophisticated Mom from the Midwest, was a complete stereotype. I grew up in a small Midwestern town, and unless one's occupation was a farmer, no business had the word 'Barn' in its name.
Especially not the "Beauty Barn. " The "Hair Affair", yes, but the "Beauty Barn", never. Here is an actual quote from the book: And I don't want you to think we aren't cosmopolitan, because you know just the other day they opened up a Wal-Mart! Can you believe that? A Wal-Mart, right here in Lansing. Although the Wal-Mart Super Center in Princeton, Illinois is a novelty, believe me, we Midwesterners know better than to classify Wal-Mart as cosmopolitan. Hmmmph! 
