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A review by audreyet
The Girl Next Door by Cecilia Vinesse
4.0
The Girl Next Door is a sweet coming of age story from the point of view of a high school senior who finds her dream senior year threatened when her boyfriend cheats on her with one of the most popular girls in school, and breaks up with her. She finds herself in a fake dating situation with the popular girl's ex girlfriend, who is also her neighbor and childhood friends. I enjoyed the author's use of the fake dating trope, and thought it was smart to include the childhood friends aspect, because I felt like it built their relationship up faster than it otherwise might've.
It did take me about a quarter of the book to really get into the main character's monologuing, especially because she so often thinks of things in terms of movie making, especially horror films, something I have little interest in. But Cleo was very likable to me, and she had flaws that were realistic, and she acknowledged them which sometimes doesn't happen with YA romances. Loved seeing her really grow as a person regardless of the romantic subplots. Her relationship with her dad was lovely.
I do wish that the 'Girl Next Door' herself Marianne, was explored just a bit more, especially because the ex boyfriend gets quite a bit of character exploration, but she was a dreamy love interest.
There are a bunch of side characters, who though they didn't monopolize much of the writing, were all fun to get to know and I was actually able to remember most of them easily which I sometimes have trouble with when reading YA books that take place in high school. There's a lot of queer rep in this, but in an organic way. Sometimes I feel like representation can be forced in just for the sake of representation, but not in this case. There is no closeting or homophobia present in this story.
The plots were fairly predictable, but that's not always a bad thing, and I recommend this for people who enjoy high school queer romances. It's a quick and fun read.
Thank you to Harper Collins and NetGalley for the ARC
It did take me about a quarter of the book to really get into the main character's monologuing, especially because she so often thinks of things in terms of movie making, especially horror films, something I have little interest in. But Cleo was very likable to me, and she had flaws that were realistic, and she acknowledged them which sometimes doesn't happen with YA romances. Loved seeing her really grow as a person regardless of the romantic subplots. Her relationship with her dad was lovely.
I do wish that the 'Girl Next Door' herself Marianne, was explored just a bit more, especially because the ex boyfriend gets quite a bit of character exploration, but she was a dreamy love interest.
There are a bunch of side characters, who though they didn't monopolize much of the writing, were all fun to get to know and I was actually able to remember most of them easily which I sometimes have trouble with when reading YA books that take place in high school. There's a lot of queer rep in this, but in an organic way. Sometimes I feel like representation can be forced in just for the sake of representation, but not in this case. There is no closeting or homophobia present in this story.
The plots were fairly predictable, but that's not always a bad thing, and I recommend this for people who enjoy high school queer romances. It's a quick and fun read.
Thank you to Harper Collins and NetGalley for the ARC