Meg Cabot: Every Boy's Got One

Avon Trade (Trade Paperback), ISBN 0-06-008546-0

Invited to serve as the maid-of-honor for her best Holly's pending elopement, Jane Harris (creator of the Wundercat cartoon) heads to Le Marche, Italy. At the airport, Jane buys a travel journal, which she intends to fill with her impressions of the trip and present to the bride and Marc, her groom.

But the journal becomes increasingly less suitable as a wedding present as Jane scribbles thoughts about a fellow traveler -- an abrasive man who talks loudly on his cell phone and makes negative comments about bottled water. When the entire travel party meets at the gate, Holly introduces Jane to the best man, Cal Langdon -- good-looking, successful, worldly, full of himself AND "cell-phone man!" Even worse, Jane faces an eight-hour plane trip and a cramped, four-hour car ride with Cal Langdon sitting right beside her!

During transit, Cal Langdon shares the scientific basis for his belief that true love does not exist, infuriating the romantic Jane. He proclaims a mission to stop his friend Mark from making a mistake in marrying Holly. But Holly (Italian Catholic) and Marc (Jewish) face bigger problems than Cal -- their mothers!

Jane tries to do everything she can to stop Cal (and Holly's mother) from sabotaging the wedding. All the while, she records her thoughts and efforts in the travel journal. When Cal Langdon gets hold of the book, Jane shows him, as well as herself, a thing or two about love.

Two explosively delicious leading characters, a hilarious plot and a wacky cast of supporting characters make this romantic comedy a must-read. The cast features not just two, but four battling moms. Jane's tries to convince her daughter that she needs to marry. Holly's -- a devout, meddling Catholic -- doesn't want her daughter to marry a Jew. Marc's -- a strict, meddling Jew -- doesn't want her son to marry a Catholic. Cal's mother -- a lint sculpture artist -- doesn't feel her son shows proper respect for her profession. Adding to the madness: a German housekeeper who worked for the SS; the President of the Wundercat fan club and others, and a breathtaking excursion via Rome to La Marche. Told through a variety of methods including journal entries, PDA accounts, emails, menus and paper notes, this delightful story unfolds in quick, captivating and entertaining installments.

This is one of those exceptional books that you can read straight through, but if you absolutely don't have the time, you'll carry it around with you every single minute of the day, hoping to steal enough time to read another page!

Lynne Marie Pisano

Lynne Marie Pisano is a freelance writer, poet, book reviewer, SCBWI Metro New York LI Critique Group Coordinator and Co-Chair of the Long Island Children's Writers and Illustrators. She lives in New York with her husband Michael, her son Kevin and a daughter named Kayla, and Dante, a Schipperke.

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