Review: My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

Title: My Life Next Door
Author: Huntley Fitzpatrick
Series: Standalone
Genre: Contemporary Romance/YA
Publisher: Dial Books For Young Readers
Publication Date: June 14th, 2012
Edition: Kindle Edition, 400 pages
Source: Library
Purchase: Amazon US | Barnes & Noble | BAM | Bookshop | Powell's | Thriftbooks

 

 

 

Synopsis:

   The Garretts are everything the Reeds are not. Loud, numerous, messy, affectionate. And every day from her balcony perch, seventeen-year-old Samantha Reed wishes she was one of them . . . until one summer evening, Jase Garrett climbs her terrace and changes everything. As the two fall fiercely in love, Jase's family makes Samantha one of their own. Then in an instant, the bottom drops out of her world and she is suddenly faced with an impossible decision. Which perfect family will save her? Or is it time she saved herself?
   A dreamy summer read, full of characters who stay with you long after the story is over.

 

*************

   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 had some theories, but was slightly off.
 

   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.