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haileybartolomeu's review against another edition
4.0
This story is so sweet and it made me want a lobster roll. It's a little cheesy and the characters are a little dramatic, but in a way that made me laugh.
challonea's review against another edition
4.0
This was such an amazing heartfelt book. I truly fell in love with Iris and Jude’s story. Through the lost Jude went through to all the things life throws your way there’s always a brighter tomorrow. I adored Iris so much she was kind, loving, and patient. She was exactly what Jude needed and the missing piece to the puzzle. One of my fav quotes stated in this book was when piglet asked Pooh how to you spell love? Pooh responded you don’t spell it, you feel it! Chelsea thanks for this gem of a book!
judeinthestars's review against another edition
3.5* – At twenty-two, Iris is reluctantly coming back to live with her parents in Salty Cove, Maine, the small town she couldn’t wait to escape when she finished high school. While she loves her parents and is very grateful for their support, she feels like a failure for not having been able to find a job that would have allowed her to stay in Boston. The good news is, her next-door neighbour is uber hot and seems open to some sort of friendship.
Jude was a few years ahead of Iris at school so they never had any kind of relationship at the time. She’s the last person Iris expected to see in Salty Cove, especially as she now works as a lobsterman, or rather a lobsterwoman. The attraction is instant and mutual, but both fight it, if only because Iris makes it clear from the start that she’s only back temporarily and will run to Boston as soon as she can. Jude is also hiding a dark secret, the reason why she’s lived a very lonely and isolated life for the past two years.
The problem with trigger warnings is that they are also spoilers. In this case, what Jude went through didn’t come out as such a surprise because of it. The author did a good job of bringing it up gradually, which makes it all the more unfortunate.
I often wonder why book people think you can stop yourself from falling in love, like that’s something you have any power over. I’m also glad they do, since if they didn’t, there would be a whole lot fewer romance novels around.
I found Jude interesting from the start, not only for her name (duh). I had a little more trouble figuring Iris out, so I decided to trust Jude, who very quickly seems to think she’s bright and shiny and wonderful. Also, her dog is called Dolly Parton, so that helped. I liked the way the relationship evolves, a little too fast but not in an artificial way. There were a few issues with the timeline, as if some paragraphs had been moved around, which added to the feeling of things moving a tad too quickly.
This was my third book by Chelsea M. Cameron and, while I didn’t like it as much as [b:Style|36434909|Style (The OTP Series #1)|Chelsea M. Cameron|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1508342142l/36434909._SX50_.jpg|50610178] or [b:Chord|40119493|Chord (The OTP Series, #2)|Chelsea M. Cameron|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1526305761l/40119493._SX50_.jpg|56995544] (which I both listened to, and loved how they were narrated by Sophie Daniels), I enjoyed it well enough.
I received a copy from the publisher and I am voluntarily leaving a review.
Jude was a few years ahead of Iris at school so they never had any kind of relationship at the time. She’s the last person Iris expected to see in Salty Cove, especially as she now works as a lobsterman, or rather a lobsterwoman. The attraction is instant and mutual, but both fight it, if only because Iris makes it clear from the start that she’s only back temporarily and will run to Boston as soon as she can. Jude is also hiding a dark secret, the reason why she’s lived a very lonely and isolated life for the past two years.
The problem with trigger warnings is that they are also spoilers. In this case, what Jude went through didn’t come out as such a surprise because of it. The author did a good job of bringing it up gradually, which makes it all the more unfortunate.
I often wonder why book people think you can stop yourself from falling in love, like that’s something you have any power over. I’m also glad they do, since if they didn’t, there would be a whole lot fewer romance novels around.
I found Jude interesting from the start, not only for her name (duh). I had a little more trouble figuring Iris out, so I decided to trust Jude, who very quickly seems to think she’s bright and shiny and wonderful. Also, her dog is called Dolly Parton, so that helped. I liked the way the relationship evolves, a little too fast but not in an artificial way. There were a few issues with the timeline, as if some paragraphs had been moved around, which added to the feeling of things moving a tad too quickly.
This was my third book by Chelsea M. Cameron and, while I didn’t like it as much as [b:Style|36434909|Style (The OTP Series #1)|Chelsea M. Cameron|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1508342142l/36434909._SX50_.jpg|50610178] or [b:Chord|40119493|Chord (The OTP Series, #2)|Chelsea M. Cameron|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1526305761l/40119493._SX50_.jpg|56995544] (which I both listened to, and loved how they were narrated by Sophie Daniels), I enjoyed it well enough.
I received a copy from the publisher and I am voluntarily leaving a review.
rainbowbookworm's review against another edition
2.0
A lot of build up and then the rest is fast forwarded. I think we're supposed to wonder why Jude moved back, but that is pretty self-explanatory. As for Iris, I don't know how she can be that naïve about her job prospects and future economic solvency when she let herself fall this deep in the hole.
nerdinthelibrary's review against another edition
3.0
content warnings: death of a loved one, mentions of a fatal car accident, references to homophobia, mentions of major workplace injuries
representation: lesbian main characters, f/f main relationship, sapphic side characters, f/f side relationships
This is my first Chelsea M. Cameron and, I gotta say, I really wish I had liked this more. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed it and would recommend it. It just wasn’t really what I wanted.
The Girl Next Door follows Iris, a woman who moved to Boston for college with no intentions of returning but has been forced to by circumstance. She’s now living with her parents again in the small seaside town of Salty Cove and can’t wait to leave again. She’s not the only person who’s come back home, though. Jude Wicks is now living alone in her parents’ house next door to Iris’ where she’s content to live out the rest of her days as a lobsterman after a tragedy that’s closed her off to the world. The two women start to reconnect and, unbeknownst to the other, begin to fall in love.
I’m always excited to read a sapphic romance, and in that regard, this was a slam dunk. Iris and Jude have amazing chemistry and I loved to read about them getting to know each other as adults. They have so many scenes where it’s just the two of the them talking, and it’s a little awkward but also nice because they start to realise that they’re the only people they feel comfortable around in this whole town.
On that note, I also loved the discussion of queerness in small towns in this. I love that there’s no overt homophobia but references to people being different once you come out and being scared to come out in high school because you have to spend every day with these kids and if they can make fun of you for something they’ll make your life a living hell. There are also moments between Jude and Iris where they mention how nice it is to talk to another queer person who has some understanding of what it’s like being a queer person in this town and feeling so alone. My favourite bit regarding queerness, though, was when Iris found a queer club and discovered how many queer people there were in her town. Because queerness isn’t something that you can generally tell just by looking at someone, it’s easy to feel isolated and like no one understands your struggle, so finding out that there are so many other people who have an idea of what you’re going through even if they’ve never gone through it themselves can be really nice.
In general, I was really loving the first two-thirds of this book, with the flirting between the two leads, references to Jude’s mysterious past, and Iris dealing with living at home again. But (spoilers, I guess) once the two main characters got together, I found it a lot less interesting. I thought the last third or so wasn’t well-paced and lots of things felt like they were being skipped over. I also wasn’t a massive fan of the sex scenes. When I first read them, I thought I just wasn’t in the mood to read something smutty but then I read a smutty book literally right after and was really into that, so I think I just didn’t love the writing of the scenes here.
But, to end on a positive note, here are two small things I loved so goddamn much: Dolly, Iris’ adorable dog that made me want to cuddle my own dog, and Iris’ dad, who can’t work anymore after a serious injury and now spends all his time reading various Young Adult books which just charmed me to no end. (None of the books are ever named but if you’re well-versed in YA you can definitely pick out some references. I’m almost 100% sure that Six of Crows and Ash were both featured in here).
I do wish that my first experience with Chelsea M. Cameron had been more positive, but I’m still excited to pick up some of her other books that seem right up my alley. I would also still recommend this because those first two thirds are really good.
representation: lesbian main characters, f/f main relationship, sapphic side characters, f/f side relationships
“Jude definitely didn’t want to kiss me, which was fine. That was her right. It made things a little difficult since I wanted to kiss her more than I’d wanted to kiss anyone in my whole life. I wanted to kiss Jude more than I wanted…well, just about anything. Not more than I wanted to leave Maine, that was for sure, but I wasn’t comfortable with how close those two were in the race for what I wanted.”
This is my first Chelsea M. Cameron and, I gotta say, I really wish I had liked this more. Don’t get me wrong, I still enjoyed it and would recommend it. It just wasn’t really what I wanted.
The Girl Next Door follows Iris, a woman who moved to Boston for college with no intentions of returning but has been forced to by circumstance. She’s now living with her parents again in the small seaside town of Salty Cove and can’t wait to leave again. She’s not the only person who’s come back home, though. Jude Wicks is now living alone in her parents’ house next door to Iris’ where she’s content to live out the rest of her days as a lobsterman after a tragedy that’s closed her off to the world. The two women start to reconnect and, unbeknownst to the other, begin to fall in love.
I’m always excited to read a sapphic romance, and in that regard, this was a slam dunk. Iris and Jude have amazing chemistry and I loved to read about them getting to know each other as adults. They have so many scenes where it’s just the two of the them talking, and it’s a little awkward but also nice because they start to realise that they’re the only people they feel comfortable around in this whole town.
On that note, I also loved the discussion of queerness in small towns in this. I love that there’s no overt homophobia but references to people being different once you come out and being scared to come out in high school because you have to spend every day with these kids and if they can make fun of you for something they’ll make your life a living hell. There are also moments between Jude and Iris where they mention how nice it is to talk to another queer person who has some understanding of what it’s like being a queer person in this town and feeling so alone. My favourite bit regarding queerness, though, was when Iris found a queer club and discovered how many queer people there were in her town. Because queerness isn’t something that you can generally tell just by looking at someone, it’s easy to feel isolated and like no one understands your struggle, so finding out that there are so many other people who have an idea of what you’re going through even if they’ve never gone through it themselves can be really nice.
In general, I was really loving the first two-thirds of this book, with the flirting between the two leads, references to Jude’s mysterious past, and Iris dealing with living at home again. But (spoilers, I guess) once the two main characters got together, I found it a lot less interesting. I thought the last third or so wasn’t well-paced and lots of things felt like they were being skipped over. I also wasn’t a massive fan of the sex scenes. When I first read them, I thought I just wasn’t in the mood to read something smutty but then I read a smutty book literally right after and was really into that, so I think I just didn’t love the writing of the scenes here.
But, to end on a positive note, here are two small things I loved so goddamn much: Dolly, Iris’ adorable dog that made me want to cuddle my own dog, and Iris’ dad, who can’t work anymore after a serious injury and now spends all his time reading various Young Adult books which just charmed me to no end. (None of the books are ever named but if you’re well-versed in YA you can definitely pick out some references. I’m almost 100% sure that Six of Crows and Ash were both featured in here).
I do wish that my first experience with Chelsea M. Cameron had been more positive, but I’m still excited to pick up some of her other books that seem right up my alley. I would also still recommend this because those first two thirds are really good.
I received an ARC of this book for free as part of a blog tour in exchange for an honest review.
loveinpanels's review against another edition
3.0
Totally fine, but I’m glad I borrowed it on Hoopla instead of buying.
CW for past partner death.
CW for past partner death.
onthesamepa9e's review against another edition
4.0
THIS BOOK:)
I *so enjoyed* The Girl Next Door! Iris and Jude’s story felt really unique (I mean Jude is a LOBSTER FISHERMAN) and their stilted yet earnest interactions were so wholesome!!! And hella relatable- I don’t know *what* the world will look like when COVID is over, but I’m certain I will be precisely that flustered around attractive people.
Something I really appreciated about TGND was the way each character went through the process of self-rediscovery. Both Jude and Iris are essentially in Salty Cove to lick their emotional wounds, and they approach that healing process really differently. And yet they’re SO RESPECTFUL of each other, and give space for the other to open up on their own time. It was really powerful to read!
I also just loved how PERFECTLY Chelsea captured the centeredness & freedom that comes from being around someone that you love :) This book was just all warm & soft deliciousness. Also like, I need a Jude of my own ASAP!! plz & thx
The *only* reason this isn’t a five star (though its a solid 4.5!!) was that I felt the pacing was off at the end- considering how slowly both Iris and Jude were moving throughout the story, the “I Love You” and the moving in felt a little rushed. Regardless, a phenomenal book I will totally be rereading & recc'ing to my pals :)
I *so enjoyed* The Girl Next Door! Iris and Jude’s story felt really unique (I mean Jude is a LOBSTER FISHERMAN) and their stilted yet earnest interactions were so wholesome!!! And hella relatable- I don’t know *what* the world will look like when COVID is over, but I’m certain I will be precisely that flustered around attractive people.
Something I really appreciated about TGND was the way each character went through the process of self-rediscovery. Both Jude and Iris are essentially in Salty Cove to lick their emotional wounds, and they approach that healing process really differently. And yet they’re SO RESPECTFUL of each other, and give space for the other to open up on their own time. It was really powerful to read!
I also just loved how PERFECTLY Chelsea captured the centeredness & freedom that comes from being around someone that you love :) This book was just all warm & soft deliciousness. Also like, I need a Jude of my own ASAP!! plz & thx
The *only* reason this isn’t a five star (though its a solid 4.5!!) was that I felt the pacing was off at the end- considering how slowly both Iris and Jude were moving throughout the story, the “I Love You” and the moving in felt a little rushed. Regardless, a phenomenal book I will totally be rereading & recc'ing to my pals :)
lily_pifferini's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25