Time for an impromptu reread! One of my very first written reviews was way back in the day, an old favourite, Kate Brian's standalone novel Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys.



When she was nine, Megan Meade met a group of terrible, mean, Popsicle-goo-covered boys, the sons of her father's friend -- the McGowan boys. Now, seven years later, Megan's army doctor parents are shipping off to Korea and Megan is being sent to live with the little monsters, who are older now and quite different than she remembered them. 

Living in a house with seven boys will give Megan, who has never even been kissed, the perfect opportunity to learn everything there is to know about boys. And she'll send all her notes to her best friend, Tracy, in...

Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys

Observation #1: Being an army brat sucks. Except that this is definitely a better alternative to moving to Korea. Observation #2: Forget evil, laughing, little monsters. These guys have been touched by the Abercrombie gods. They are a blur of toned, suntanned perfection.
Observation #3: I need a lock on my door. STAT.
Observation #4: Three words: six-pack abs.
Observation #5: Do not even get me started on the state of the bathroom. I'm thinking of calling in a hazmat team. Seriously.
Observation #6: These boys know how to make enemies. Big time.
Megan Meade will have to juggle a new school, a new family, a new crush -- on the boy next door, as in next bedroom door -- and a new life. Will she survive the McGowan boys

Hang on, this book is HOW OLD? I'm in shock. Me vs. the passage of time, round three thousand and forty two. Listen, back in the day, Kate Brian was IT for me. Along with Cecily von Ziegesar and Melissa de la Cruz. I was a STAN and owned (ahem, I still own a lot of their works) pretty much every book I could get my hand on. There's not a single doubt in my mind that I owe a lot of my love of reading to Brian.

While Lucky T and Private were my absolute ride or die favourites from Brian, I can vividly remember curling up in bed during high school and devouring this novel. No joke, I probably read it a dozen times one summer. A. DOZEN. It was just pure warm-and-fuzzy magic and a total easy, slip-under-the-covers and lose yourself for a few hours read. Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys was probably one of my first YA rom-com loves.

On a whim, I decided to reread it to see how it's held up through the years. And while it's aged fairly well since, it's lost a bit of its magic for me. Whether this is because of all that I've read since, or merely because I burned myself out on it a decade ago, is anyone's guess.

Brian's writing is still as charming and full of spark as it was then. There's romance, humor and general fluffy moments that keep the pages turning. I found that I liked the story and the many characters featured a lot less than I did as a teenager, but there was still this indulgent and sickly sweet feeling that came with reading it. Megan Meade's Guide to the McGowan Boys isn't necessarily my cup of tea any longer, and I had some issues with it that are common when looking back on this era, but it was still enjoyable and fun.

One thing I know is that I'll always look fondly back on Kate Brian and her backlist. It takes me back to summertime and my teenage years.. It's easy to fall back into it and is not unlike stopping by to say hello to an old friend.