Review for My Life Next Door By Huntley Fitzpatrick

Author: Huntley Fitzpatrick
Title: My Left Next Door
Pub Date
Number of pages:
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A gorgeous debut about family, friendship, first romance, and how to be true to one person you love without betraying another “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, 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

 First Thoughts

Loved the cover and over the summer I heard nothing but good things about this book, and the blurb intrigued me.so why not?

My Thoughts                                           

I actually liked this book way more than I originally thought. This is a next door romance that is a little different than the average girl next door story.  But different in a god way!

Samantha is a pretty normal Teen. She is about to enter her senior year of High School, she has a job, great friends and good grades. Everything in her life is in order. Her sister is going off to college soon, and her mother is up for re-election in office in their town. Her mother basically controls everything Samantha can do and who she can do it with. One of her mother’s rules is to stay away from those Garrett’s next door. To her they have in ungodly amount of children and don’t keep their yard in order, and for those reasons alone they are bad news. But one thing her mother doesn’t know is that one of Samantha’s favorite things to do is sit of her terrace and watch the garrets. After years of watching them from a far, Jase climbs onto her terraces and starts a conversation. From there thing go from good, too bad, to worst.  

First off I’m so in love with Jase it’s not even funny. He was so sweet and always the gentleman. He helps baby sit for his mom, and loved being a big brother. He brought Samantha into the garrets hectic life and she fell in love with them as they did her.  The Garrett’s as a whole where amazing! I come from a home where I am the only child so the big family thing was so cool to me and I loved the way they interacted with each other. No one in the family had similar personalizes and it made it that much more enjoying to read. They were all so real and very relatable. George and baby Patsy were hilarious with a capital H. I might not have liked Sam all of the time but the garrets could do no wrong.

Favorite thing George says

"George gives me a smile, the same dazzling sweet smile as his big brother, although, at this point with green teeth. "I might marry you," he allows, "Do you want a big family?"

I start to cough and feel a hand pat my back.

"George, it's usually better to discuss these kinds of things with your pants on." Jase drops boxer shorts at George's feet, then sets Patsy on the ground next to him.

"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."

Back to the Review

Sam’s mother, Grace was HORRIBLE! I hated her she is the worst character in history. She shouldn't have been allowed to have children. Plus she is so JUDEMENTAL! She looks down on anything that isn't perfect so of course the Garrett's were at the top of her hate list. Sam just had sucky people in her life before she came into the garrets life, her best-friend (Nan) and everyone else.

 One character that got my attention was Tim is character really developed from the beginning to the very end.This book goes from sweet romance, funny, to very serious, and changes the whole pace and dynamic of the book! The only thing I hated was the ending I felt it was so abrupt. I was searching for more pages but there weren't any :(

With all that said and done, this was pretty good. I laughed,I almost cried, I fell in love with some characters, and hated other’s. It had everything I could ask for in a contemporary fiction.