Book Review: My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

Okay, sue me. I read another novel although I promise myself that I wouldn't. I just feel that I'm addicted to it. I'm addicted to novel now.

         Anyhow, I just finished reading a novel titled 'My Life Next Door' by Huntley Fitzpatrick. It's an amazing book, let me tell ya! I found it when I was digging through some novel list in Goodreads yesterday and I read it and finished it 24 hours after that. 

        Below is the summary from the novel.

"One thing my mother never knew, and would disapprove of most of all, was that I watched the Garretts. All the time."

The Garretts are everything the Reeds are not. Loud, messy, affectionate. And every day from her rooftop perch, Samantha Reed wishes she was one of them . . . until one summer evening, Jase Garrett climbs up next to her and changes everything.

As the two fall fiercely for each other, stumbling through the awkwardness and awesomeness of first love, Jase's family embraces Samantha - even as she keeps him a secret from her own. Then something unthinkable happens, and the bottom drops out of Samantha's world. She's suddenly faced with an impossible decision. Which perfect family will save her? Or is it time she saved herself?

A transporting debut about family, friendship, first romance, and how to be true to one person you love without betraying another.

           So, Samantha Reed is the protagonist of this story and the love interest is Jase Garrett. Samantha comes from a well-to-do family with only a mother and a sister meanwhile Jase's family consisted of 8 people (10 people if you included their parents). Samantha's always looking at Garrett's family through her window, watching them for 10 years since they moved next door. Before that, she had never talked to them. 

“The Garretts were my bedtime story, long before I ever thought I’d be part of the story myself.” - Samantha Reed, My Life Next Door.

          Samantha's mother was uneasy with the Garrett's family. She didn't like them. But one day, a guy climbed up his trellis and asked her if she needed saving.

“Hey,” he says again, sitting down next to me as though he knows me well. “Need rescuing?” - My Life Next Door.

          Then, they got to know each other. Things started to unfold from that point. In my opinion, Samantha started living from that day onward, you know. The Garretts were an amazing family. Lots of people, compared to Samantha's life which only had a mother and a sister in a big, cold house. You can certainly feel the warm of the Garretts' house has when Samantha visited them for the first time. It was a nice feeling...

         So, that's it. My summary. Let's talk about characters now. I LOVE JASE! He was like the epitome of a perfect boyfriend you know. I've tried writing up a male lead like him lately, the one that analyses things carefully under his eyes, and yet I failed. But Fitzpatrick made it so easy! I love him the moment he climbed up the trellis and asked Sam if she needed a rescue. It was the perfect entrance! Not only that, he also made me like guys, more than before, because I've been fed about boys being immature and doing the right thing after they made a big mistake and bla bla bla. But, seeing Jase, reading him in fact, made me thinking that they might be guys like him out there. The one that's not a complete jerk.

“You can't do this. You have to give me a chance to fix whatever it is I've done. What have I done?”
...
“You're just going to walk away-like that? You're leaving it this way? Now? I love you. You can't...” - Jase Garrett, My Life Next Door.

          How about the girl? Samantha. I do like her. She was a perfect girl who has everything. Guys adore her, she's rich, her mother was a Senator, has a best friend whom she shared everything with (only at the beginning, though). But she was a perfect girl, in my view. There's no teenage angst with her. No emotional monolog, unhappy with her life, or whatever. But in some way, I can feel that her life, before meeting the Garretts was empty. Yes, she's living her life normally but there's nothing it in. Now, that I think about it. I think she's a plain girl, with a fresh air. No angst at all.

“Is Jase already gonna marry you?”
I start coughing again. “Uh, No. No, George. I’m only seventeen.” As if that’s the only reason we’re not engaged.
“I’m this many.” George holds up four, slightly grubby fingers. “But Jase is seventeen and a half. You could. Then you could live in here with him. And have a big family.”
Jase strides back into the room, of course, midway through this proposition. “George. Beat it. Discovery Channel is on.”
George backs out of the room but not before saying, “His bed’s really comfortable. And he never pees in it.” 

           When I was reading this novel, I kept remembering 'Anna and The French Kiss' because the undertone of the story was almost similar. (I still can't believe it was the debut novel for this author.) This story made me so fluffy and it was the best about it. It didn't rush anything, you know. Their relationship sounds so normal. There is no hot billionaire waiting you to sign a contract that makes you his submissive, or a vampire who wants to protect you from other vampires who want to drain the hell out your blood out of you, or a hot Hollywood actor who loves you so much with a flock of fangirls wanting to sink their nails in you, or guy with angsty past that just wants to manipulate you, keep you in his eyesight, controlling your movement, restricting your circle of friends, becoming a possible suspect for the death of a man who raped you when you were a kid and all that nonsense, while he went out with his ex-fiance without telling you and didn't even come up with a valid excuse and all that crap. It was none of that. It was only a guy next door. A normal 17 years old guy with lots of siblings. (Oh and, there's definitely no 'O' missing here.) 

“In movies, it's all beautifully choreographed, set to an increasingly dramatic soundtrack. 

In movies, when the boy pulls the girl to him when they are both finally undressed, they never bump their teeth together and get embarrassed and have to laugh and try again. 

But here's the truth: In movies, it's never half so lovely as it is here and now with Jase.” 

         It was a great novel with a nice pace to it. I would recommend it to my friends, but hey, they didn't care for English novel as much as I do. But this novel, is a beautiful gemstone hidden among all the novels I've read so far, (although I'm still new in this English novels business).

          That is all for today. I've got to sleep now. It's late. Laters!

Romance Novels Addict,

Liely