Every Boy's Got One

By Meg Cabot

   Jane Harris is a 30-year-old cartoonist of the famed Wondercat and at the beginning of Every Boy's Got One, she is sitting in an airport, waiting to board an airplane to Italy. She begins a travel journal to record the elopement of her friends, Holly and Mark, who are traveling with Jane and the best man, Cal, to Italy to get married. The couple is eloping because Mark is Jewish and Holly is Catholic and their respective mothers would each have a fit.

   Jane's travel journal for Holly and Mark quickly becomes Jane's personal journal, as she records her uncensored thoughts about the trip. Of particular annoyance and simultaneous interest to Jane is Cal, who sports a big ego to match his good looks. Cal has never heard of Wondercat and does not think that Holly and Mark should marry. He questions the validity of love itself, much to Jane's annoyance and dismay.

    Cal is divorced after being unceremoniously dumped by his wife, a model. Jane has secretly dubbed Cal as a "modelizer," due to his taste in partners. Basically, Cal unintentionally infuriates Jane and Jane in turn frustrates Cal, although an attraction is developing between the two. Jane believes in true love and someday wants to settle down and marry. At the moment her only true love is her cat (hilariously named The Dude). As Mark and Holly plan their nuptials, the question is, what will happen between Cal and Jane?

     This is the first book that I have read by Meg Cabot and I enjoyed the format: a group of E-mail messages, PDA entries, telegrams, and journal entries, which makes it a quick, entertaining read. Interestingly, Holly and Mark's story of elopement and marrying in Italy is semi-autobiographical, for Cabot as she and her husband did the same (notes at the end of the book compare Cabot's real-life experience to the book). I loved the characters and I laughed out loud several times. She now has a new fan. I am looking forward to reading more by this author in the future.