Every Boy’s Got One
by Meg Cabot
So, what’s your weather like?
It’s a question I always like to ask this time of year, as most areas begin their transition from winter into spring. Whether the groundhog saw didn’t see his shadow or decided to get all snuggled up in his home for six more weeks of winter, March is a month of renewal and budding blossoms. I live in Texas where we are lucky to see all four seasons in a year, although never at a normal speed. We can experience snow with its frigid temperatures and sunshine with its balmy affections all in the span of a 7-day week. As the saying goes, if you don’t like the weather – wait an hour.
It’s curious, how it all works. I have a friend in Colorado (hi Kat!) who is experiencing snow at the same moment I’m spending my day with my hair pulled up in a ponytail as I try in vain to find relief from the humid 80 degree temps. I can’t complain too much though; 80 degrees is considered a pretty decent spring around here, especially considering our conditions will quickly ramp up to 100+ degree days with dry, abominable heat indexes the closer it gets to May.
And as spring makes its graceful slide into summer via swollen rainstorms and blooming flowers, we will all begin gathering up those novels we love to take poolside, on road trips, on cruises into the aquamarine waters of the Caribbean, or for those quiet moments that we get to escape into while the children sleep in late on those lazy summer mornings-into-afternoons. One reason I always look forward to summer (besides the long nights and break from the obnoxious affair that is middle school homework) is the easy reading I choose for myself. Books that are fun and quick, full of flirty romance and humor, and something that can be easily put up and put back down again when I decide to take a dip in the pool to cool off – these are my best friends from May until August, and these are just a few of the reasons that Meg Cabot is always at the top of my summer reading list.
Every Boy’s Got One is part of Cabot’s engaging and hilarious Boy series. While you don’t have to read these books in any particular order, it does help a tiny bit when it comes to character reference, as they all sort of belong to the same world via mild cross pollination. I’ve read them all out of order and it made no difference to me, but I know others who like doing things by the book (no pun intended . . . okay, I lie – that was a good pun).
The series in its “order” is:
The Boy Next Door
Boy Meets Girl
Every Boy’s Got One
The Boy Is Back
Again, they are so loosely connected that you can consider them stand-alone if you like.
In Every Boy’s Got One, we meet Jane Harris, a cartoonist who cannot be more delighted to accompany her very favorite girlfriend (and best friend since the first grade, thankyouverymuch, not to mention long-standing roommate since college) on an exotic and romantic vacation to the Italian Rivera; a vacation that just so happens to include an carefully planned elopement. In Jane’s eyes, Holly and Mark are beautifully suited for one another, and she could not be more happy for the couple to tie the knot, despite the fact that it means Jane must spend time with Mark’s best man – the arrogant and self-serving Cal Langdon.
The feelings of animosity are certainly mutual, and the both Jane and Cal loathe the fact that they must spend their vacation retreat in the same small Italian villa, no matter how quaint and charming it is. Things get even harrier as the husband-and-wife-to-be find obstacle after obstacle in residence in Italy, all of which are making it very difficult to get legally married. When word of the impending nuptials migrates back to Holly and Mark’s parents, the situation becomes nearly impossible, threatening to send the happy couple over the edge and into Splitsville.
Will Jane and Cal be able to overcome their own feelings of malcontent and come together to lead their best friends into happily ever after? Told through a series of journal entries, plane tickets, receipts, emails, and other hilarious avenues of communication, readers will watch a romance unfold before them in one of the most exotic destinations on the planet. And it couldn’t have happened for two nicer people.
I give Every Boy’s Got One 4.5 out of 5 stars, and I highly recommend it to those who love a fun chick-lit experience. I have enjoyed Meg Cabot so much over the years, from her Heather Mills crime stories to her Princess Diaries series, she always brings the humor and the relatable characters. This series in particular is full of the lightness that is suited so well for the breaks in the spring storms and the lazy haze of summer.