My Life Next Door: Huntley Fitzpatrick

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I’m not going to lie – I was quite impressed by this story at first. Samantha was an interesting protagonist, one who was suffering underneath her perfect disguise, yet she never let that get in the way of her interactions with others. She constantly tried to be the perfect daughter, the perfect neighbor, the perfect best friend, the perfect girlfriend, and I think that is something everyone can relate to. Yet, Samantha paled in comparison to the Garretts. In some ways, this novel reminded me of Cheaper by the Dozen – two loving parents with a large family of children do their best to make it work. Furthermore, these kids, despite their vastly different personalities, all love one another and seem to mesh perfectly as siblings. Seeing Samantha fit into this equation was nothing short of entertaining and only increased my respect for her.

Samantha is a young girl who, at first glance, appears to have it all. She's beautiful, wealthy, and has a determined mother in politics who keeps up a perfect appearance for their well-respected family. I hated Sam's best friend Nan and I loathed Nan's brother Tim. Although, he did get better toward the end. The Garrett's are everything Samantha's mother is not: unorganized, noisy, messy, and genuinely unconcerned with the opinions of others.I LOVED that this book put a smile on my face and made me laugh almost the entire book. Although it did have me teary eye a little bit at one point. :o)

Life won't give her a break, though. She is surrounded by cheaters, liars, addicts, so it's no wonder she secretly hangs out with the Garrets. EVERYONE around Sam is corrupt, mean and a bad influence but her. As the two fall fiercely for each other, stumbling through awkwardness and awesomeness of first love, something unthinkable happens and Samantha's world starts crumbling. She's suddenly faced with an impossible decision. I start coughing again. “Uh, No. No, George. I’m only seventeen.” As if that’s the only reason we’re not engaged. It is basically a clean romance; however Jase and Sam do explore their sexuality. The author was very responsible by making them responsible. Jase and Sam take their time with this life-changing event, and the author injected some humor to lighten the mood. The condom conversation was priceless. Another issue was the plot. There was no plot. The plot kinda started around the 75-80% mark, if I'm not mistaken. Before that, it was just Samantha's daily life and her growing relationship with Jase and his family. Samantha talks about her job, her mother, her best friend, her best friend's brother and just everyday events. I didn't like that. It made the book too long.He's [the Obvious Dad] even got Tim's pot plant in with his own plants, giving it Miracle-Gro. What kind of man was young in the eighties and doesn't recognize marijuana?" I'm aware that a certain degree of tension must be added in a story, but I'm not sure I loved the specifics of this one. It's not that the turn it took wasn't believable, but I felt my heart just wasn't all-in.

Stars!! This was a 5 plus star read for me…until the end, because there really wasn’t one, or at least not one that satisfied me. I only detracted a half a star, because the rest of the book was amazing. I enjoyed the comparisons and stereotypes of two completely different families. Teen MC really get me angry when they don't have a little attitude and listen to everything their parents say like some dogs. Sam was a very boring character, she was too good, and didn't do anything exciting like i think every girl her age should do. Have a little adventure! Sam's sister was okay. I hated Sam's mom and her moms young boyfriend, Clay that is helping her on her campaign on becoming a senator. He was the best first boyfriend you could have. Smart, cute, funny, and patient. I liked how open he was and honest, how he treated Sam so well even when things got rough. Also I loved how he was there for his siblings, for his parents, and I loved how he kept fighting for his dreams (figuratively speaking) even though there were such slim chances for them to come true. Where can I even start with how much I loved this book? How much it took me surprise, grabbed my heart, and wouldn't let go? This is NOTHING like your average contemporary read! It's still sweet and romantic and funny and brilliant. But I thought I had a good guess to what the huge plot twist would be, and boy was I wrong! I didn't expect it at all, which doesn't happen with me and contemporaries very often.Five YA novels that inspire author Lauren Morrill". Happy Ever After. 2012-12-12 . Retrieved 2019-05-16. There's this big, bad event that happens, and I don't think it made the characters grow. If anything, we just get a lot of anxiety, sitting around and waiting for something to happen. When it does, it was anti-climatic. The main character wasn't likable either. Till the very end, I couldn't decide if she was a good or bad person. She was described as having a perfect life, with perfect looks, perfect body, good grades and she's rich. But the main character fell flat for me, and there isn't much of an adjective I can use to describe her...except maybe vanilla. Bland. Perhaps cardboard. Definitely not memorable.