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A review by marie_thereadingotter
My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick
emotional
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
I had no expectations going into this book, I saw it was available to borrow as an ebook from my library so I did. The middle part started to lag a little so I went to the reviews to get an idea of what to expect, and while most of them were more or less positive, one thing that kept being said was that Jase was "too perfect", and I didn't see him as that. What I think has happened is, that in romance, YA Romance in particular, toxic behavior in the way of possessiveness has been romanticized for too long. Jase is just a normal guy. He is the third born in a large family, so he's had responsibilities that a lot of other male love interests don't have. He's watched many of his younger siblings for a large part of his life. He's just more mature, actually more mature, than most of his counterparts in the genre. Even more mature than the only other guy we meet his age in the book. Something else to point out is we also only see him through Samantha's eyes, and she might have a bit of rose-tinted glasses on when it comes to him.
I also had no idea what the plot was going to be. I only skimmed the synopsis since I did want to go into this book blind. A lot happens in a fairly short amount of time. It's mostly a summer romance, and a lot of how Jase and Sam's romance could be perceived as "insta-love". Sure, they lived next door to each other for years and never talked. She just watched the family, wondering what it was like to be part of it, and Jase admits to watching her watch them over the years. But I could see how they just had a connection, and if they had talked sooner they likely would have been in a relationship sooner. I think the people who thought it was too "perfect" just aren't used to seeing a healthy teen romance in books, and they thought it wasn't realistic.
The overall plot of this book is hard to pin down, and the realism level is hard for me to comment on. But these teenagers act like real people. They, more or less, have normal people problems. Samantha's mother is a senator, but her everyday is realistic. School, friends, summer jobs, Etc.
I wasn't sure what the conflict was going to be in this book, I had suspicions that it involved her mom's weird new boyfriend/campaign manager. I thought it was going to tie into Sam's father, who went MIA when she was a kid because when she see's the guy, Clay, for the first time she thought it was her father because he looked like the one picture she saw of him. I wasn't entirely wrong, but there were also two conflicts the main one with something her mother does, and a minor one that I hope that involves Sam's jealous friend Nan. Friends like Nan, are the kind of people who are friends with you only to feel better about themselves, and as soon as your life starts doing better than theirs they start to resent you. Sam doesn't need friends like that, Tim was a better friend to her than Nan ever was. I do think that there should have been some kind of consequence for what happened, but I guess the Garretts are just very forgiving people, and maybe in the spin-off book more of that comes to light, along with what the deal is with Nan.
Over all, this was a fantastic breath of fresh air in the YA space. More romance books for teens should show what a healthy relationship looks like. I do think this book would have benefited being told in dual POVs. Seeing things from Jase's perspective, especially when it came to Sam and everything that was going on would have been nice.
I found out when I was nearly done with this book that Huntley Fitzpatrick passed away. My thoughts go out to her family.
I also had no idea what the plot was going to be. I only skimmed the synopsis since I did want to go into this book blind. A lot happens in a fairly short amount of time. It's mostly a summer romance, and a lot of how Jase and Sam's romance could be perceived as "insta-love". Sure, they lived next door to each other for years and never talked. She just watched the family, wondering what it was like to be part of it, and Jase admits to watching her watch them over the years. But I could see how they just had a connection, and if they had talked sooner they likely would have been in a relationship sooner. I think the people who thought it was too "perfect" just aren't used to seeing a healthy teen romance in books, and they thought it wasn't realistic.
The overall plot of this book is hard to pin down, and the realism level is hard for me to comment on. But these teenagers act like real people. They, more or less, have normal people problems. Samantha's mother is a senator, but her everyday is realistic. School, friends, summer jobs, Etc.
I wasn't sure what the conflict was going to be in this book, I had suspicions that it involved her mom's weird new boyfriend/campaign manager.
Over all, this was a fantastic breath of fresh air in the YA space. More romance books for teens should show what a healthy relationship looks like. I do think this book would have benefited being told in dual POVs. Seeing things from Jase's perspective, especially when it came to Sam and everything that was going on would have been nice.
I found out when I was nearly done with this book that Huntley Fitzpatrick passed away. My thoughts go out to her family.