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Literary Friday: The Boy Is Back

Friday, November 4, 2016

Happy Literary Friday, My Lovelies!  Yes, I actually did a little reading in between being fixated on the World Series.  Go Cubbies Go!!!  Yay, I'm so happy.  This week I read The Boy is Back by Meg Cabot.  







About The Boy is Back

• Hardcover: 368 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (October 18, 2016)

In this brand-new novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Meg Cabot, a scandal brings a young man back home to the small town, crazy family, and first love he left behind. Reed Stewart thought he’d left all his small town troubles—including a broken heart—behind when he ditched tiny Bloomville, Indiana, ten years ago to become rich and famous on the professional golf circuit. Then one tiny post on the Internet causes all of those troubles to return . . . with a vengeance. Becky Flowers has worked hard to build her successful senior relocation business, but she’s worked even harder to forget Reed Stewart ever existed. She has absolutely no intention of seeing him when he returns—until his family hires her to save his parents. Now Reed and Becky can’t avoid one another—or the memories of that one fateful night. And soon everything they thought they knew about themselves (and each other) has been turned upside down, and they—and the entire town of Bloomville—might never be the same, all because The Boy Is Back.


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Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble


Photo by Ali Smith Photo by Ali Smith

About Meg Cabot

Meg Cabot was born in Bloomington, Indiana. In addition to her award-winning adult contemporary fiction, she is the author of bestselling young adult fiction, including The Princess Diaries and the Mediator series. More than twenty-five million copies of her novels for children and adults have sold worldwide. Meg lives in Key West, Florida, with her husband. Find out more about Meg at her website, follow her blog, and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.



My Review

Meg Cabot's books are always fun.  This one was a bit challenging due to the fact that it's a collection of text messages, chat apps dialogue, newspaper articles, Facebook Page posts, and even Amazon reviews just to name a few.  Cabot was very creative in her presentation of this story, and I had to really focus on the social media sections in particular.  For example, Reed's brother Marshall has serious spell correct issues on his text app: I think it might be possessed.  I found myself laughing out loud at his frustration with it.  Props to Cabot for revealing so much about the characters through product reviews of all things.  As I said before, I was challenged to stay on task when reading this story (a very cute one, by the way) but when I showed it to my daughters (one in college and the other in graduate school) they both loved it.  One has my copy and the other one has ordered one for herself.

As cutesy as the book may seem on the surface, I can't help but wonder if Cabot's intent is to spotlight how social media has hindered us in our relationships rather than helping us.  The Stewart family certainly know how to keep the "fun" in dysfunctional, and I so badly wanted them to put their freaking devices down and cooperate with each other.  The antics of the Stewart siblings' parents provide entertainment for the entire town if not the nation ("good news" tends to travel fast via social media these days), and the novel's portrayal of eccentric elderly parents and how to deal with them is engrossing.  Becky comes to the rescue to help the Stewarts before they become featured on a reality TV show no one wants to be on. I love Becky.  I love her spirit, work ethic, and loyalty.  I also love her and Reed together!  She's the perfect chick lit heroine, and this is a fantastic chick lit story.  I highly recommend it if you enjoy the genre.  Just get over the format!


Disclosure:

I received a copy of The Boy Is Back from the publisher via TLC Book Tours in exchange for a fair and honest review.



Put down your devices and read this weekend!  Umm....unless you prefer reading on a device!  ;P

Until next time...

Happy reading!
Ricki Jill


6 comments

  1. sounds good, I'll add this to my list! Thank you!

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  2. Hmmm...not sure if I would enjoy this as much as I have enjoyed some of the ones you have told us about. The social media end of it is kind of a "no" to me. Thanks for reading and reviewing though. xo Diana

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  3. Sounds like a fun book Ricki Jill, however the format does sound challenging! Congrats to your Cubbies! We stayed up late both nights watching, so exciting!!! I was thinking of you :)
    Jenna

    ReplyDelete
  4. I hear ya regarding the format.

    We are still smiling about the Cubs. :-) What a great last game. Baseball at it's best.

    ReplyDelete

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I'm Ricki Jill. Welcome! I'm honored that you're reading my blog. I enjoy sharing my creative lifestyle @ The Bookish Dilettante. For more information about my blog, please read the Start Here page. Thank-you for stopping by, and I hope you'll consider following me via email.

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