Book Review: The Boy Is Back by Meg Cabot

Title: The Boy Is Back

Series: Boy (#4)

Author: Meg Cabot

Publisher: William Morrow

Date: October 18th, 2016

Pages: 400

Format: eARC

Source: from Publisher for a review

 

Synopsis (from Goodreads): From New York Times bestselling author Meg Cabot comes the sweetly humorous story of a man who has to face his past in order to find his future.

Sometimes to move forward, you have to go back…

One post. That’s all it took to destroy the care free, glamorous life of pro golfer Reed Stewart. One tiny post on the Internet.

Then again, it’s not like Reed’s been winning many tournaments lately, and his uncle isn’t the only one who says it’s because of the unfinished business he left behind back home in Bloomville, Indiana—namely Reed’s father, the Honorable Judge Richard P. Stewart, and the only girl Reed ever loved, Becky Flowers.

But Reed hasn’t spoken to either his father or Becky in over a decade.

Until that post on the Internet. Suddenly, Reed’s family has become a national laughingstock, his publicist won’t stop calling, his siblings are begging for help, and Reed realizes he has no other choice: He’s got to go home to face his past . . . the Judge and the girl he left behind.

Becky’s worked hard to build her successful senior relocation business, but she’s worked even harder to forget Reed Stewart ever existed—which hasn’t been easy, considering he’s their hometown’s golden boy, and all anyone ever talks about. It was fine while they were thousands of miles apart, but now he’s back in Bloomville. She has absolutely no intention of seeing him—until his family hires her to help save his parents.

Now Reed and Becky can’t avoid one another…or the memories of that one fateful night.

Can the quirky residents of Bloomville bring these two young people back together, or will Reed and Becky continue to allow their pasts to deny them the future they deserve?

This warm, thought-provoking book, told entirely in texts, emails, and journal entries, is as much about the enduring bond of families as it is about second chances at love, and will delight as much as it entertains.

Review:

When I found out Meg Cabot was coming out with another book in her Boy series, I was so excited!
I was fan of hers for years. In fact, her Princess Diaries were first books that made me care for characters so much I wanted to know them. I was crazy about Mia Thermopolis and she was my role model in a way.

When I got a bit older, I read her Boy series and really, really loved it.
I loved the concept of books, how Cabot told us the story by only writing emails.
It was a new thing for me and I welcomed it with both hands open.

So, when I first heard about The Boy Is Back the first thing that came to my mind was “OmG, I can’t wait to read it!!!”and the second thing was “I wonder how the story’s going to be told today when emails are so ancient and we live in era of social media?”.

There are still emails included as tool that brings the story to life, but the main part of story is told as screen shots from characters’ phones.
There are chat rooms, messages and even products reviews.

I really liked the “look” of the book and how it was adjusted to today life.

Unfortunatelly, this was the only thing I liked about this book (oh wait, I’m lying! I also like the cover).

Drama, drama, drama – that was what this book is all about.

And characters that are so nosy!
They were just plain annoying and every single one of them made me nervous.
I can’t always connect with characters, I get that. But there’s a huge difference between the situation when you don’t or can’t understand someone, and the situation when you actually can’t stand characters.
And the second is what happened with this book.

I couldn’t like anyone from main characters.
I didn’t like family drama, I didn’t like how family members pushed Becky and Reed to be together, I thought how the main problem that caused all the drama and Reed’s comeback to little town was uninteresting and plain stupid.
I just couldn’t like the story no matter how hard I wanted to.

I wanted to DNF it so badly. I can’t even remember when was the last time I just wanted to stop reading. For sake of having good memories about book series that’s dear to me, for sake of not being able to say that one of my favorite authors wrote a book I didn’t like at all.
But, I had an obligation to review the book, and it was only fair from me to finish the book and write honestly about my reading experience.

When browsing through other reviews, I realized I am in huge minority when it comes to disliking this novel.
Please keep in mind that many book reviewers enjoyed reading The Boy Is Back and if you liked Cabot’s other books, maybe giving it a try wouldn’t be the bad idea.
However, telling you that I recommend this book would be a lie.
The only suggestion I can give you is to borrow it from the library. That way, you won’t be crying over 20$ spent on book if you end up not enjoying it, and in case you end up loving it, you can always purchase it later.