Beth and Jennifer are coworkers at a newspaper. Their company, worried about productivity, hired Lincoln to read flagged emails and send people warnings. But he doesn't warn Beth and Jennifer. Instead, he closely follows their exploits as the friends deal with family and romantic issues. Lincoln finds himself falling in love with Beth. She doesn't know who he is, but she has seen him around the office and thinks he's cute. Lincoln has his own issues to deal with and feeling like a peeping tom isn't helping, but he can't stop reading their emails. 
 You'd think the situation would be kind of creepy, but Lincoln comes across as a caring and lonely man. The story's told in third person, but you get mostly Lincoln's take on things. Very rarely do Beth or Jennifer figure into the story outside of their emails, which are written in the first person, until the end. 
 All in all, there's kind of an innocence to the story. People are calling it "witty", and it is smart and funny. It reminds me of Sex as a Second Language: A Novel (which isn't quite as innocent, but not as racy as the title might suggest). Consider it a "coming of age" story for today's almost-30-somethings.