The Boy Is Back by Meg Cabot

Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks

Publication Date: October 18, 2016

One of the great things about being a book blogger is that sometimes you get to read and review a book by one of your favorite writers and then share your love with everyone you know.

When I requested The Boy Is Back, I checked to see how many Meg Cabot books I’d read. 32. 32 Meg Cabot books! She’s never let me down. She writes romance, young adult, new adult before it became new adult, tween, regency, paranormal, mystery, romantic comedy, and she just does it all amazingly well.

The Boy Is Back is the fourth book in her “Boy” series—and yes, as a matter of fact, this may be one of the rare times in this blog when I can tell you that I have read the other three (unfortunately prior to this blog and reviews). Like the other books in the series, The Boy Is Back is a current day homage to the epistolary novel, told completely in the form of journal entries, text messages, chat messages, newspaper articles, emails, and advertisements.

Reed and Becky were the perfect high school senior couple until an occurrence on prom night shooed Reed out the door and out of the town of Bloomville, Indiana for the past ten years. In that time, he’s become a famous golfer while Becky has become a successful business woman, running a moving company that specializes in senior moves. When a scandal involving Reed’s parents forces him to return to Bloomville, will Becky manage to avoid him and carry on with her life as usual?

The blurb says: “sweetly humorous.” I don’t know about you, but when I read that I get this “awe, isn’t that sweet” kind of feeling, maybe there will be a smile, the faintest chuckle. Well, no, my dears. This book is laugh-out-loud funny; sometimes guffaws were even involved.

“But not as drunk as Nicole, who of course was knocking back the ice wines Graham had put out as if they were shots. Nicole will not get it through her head that just because something is served in a small glass does NOT mean it’s a shot.”

As I mentioned, The Boy Is Back is told in messages, emails, etc., which are sent by different characters to tell the story. The diction of each character is unique and fitting to that character. The teenagers don’t sound like the characters in their twenties who don’t sound like the characters in their sixties or seventies. Cabot obviously has an ear for how people speak. This is such a pleasure to read, because a lot of writers just don’t seem to have the ability to differentiate speech patterns or word choices with their characters.

The story was well-paced and I found myself at the end even before I wanted it, smiling all the way through.

While The Boy Is Back is part of a series, it can very much be read as a standalone.

Thanks, Ms. Cabot, for providing me with several hours of laughing and reading pleasure. I may now have to go back and re-read the other books in the series.

I received an ARC from Edelweiss and William Morrow in exchange for an honest review.

The Boy Is Back is on sale today!! From Amazon: The Boy Is Back.

rating:  (5 out of 5 butterflies)