My Life Next Door

Product Information

The paperback was published by Speak, another imprint of Penguin Random House, almost a year later on 13 June 2013. I couldn't believe the way the mom acted when a certain accident occurred, it made me feel sick, and to think Samantha has to live with that woman. Throughout the course of the novel, Sam struggles to make her own decisions and pull away from the person her mother is trying to make her be to become herself. The republished paperback edition from Electric Monkey has a lifetime sales figure of 8601 units in the United Kingdom. Avid baseball fans (or not-baseball-fans like me) will know that after three strikes, you are out and boy, was this book out – out of my shelf, out of my life, out.

She can’t see how good and loving these people are because her mind is clouded by the stereotype; messy yard, large brood equates to trailer trash! It was a simple romance story between two teenage next-door-neighbours who are, in some sort of way, star-crossed lovers. It has nothing to do with how things look from far away and everything to do with the how they are up close. I've read so many bad books lately and those autors didn't have the excuse of first attempt in their writing carieers.What I mean is that I have no clue about why this (wonderfully profound as always) sentence is blush worthy. Then there is Duff and Harry, the trouble-makers and George who is constantly worrying about things that are very unlikely to happen and little one-year old Patsy. I'm extraordinarily pleased with it — so much so that I plan to reread it this summer — and will certainly be back for more from Fitzpatrick in future. Samantha is the daughter of the Connecticut Senator and has lived next door the large Garrett family for many years.

I liked all of these things, but somewhere after the half-way point of this book, everything began to go downhill.Before I started reading, I expected it to be a reasonably thin, fluffy and light novel that I would enjoy but not feel quite so moved by. Sam and Jase are SUCH great characters and I really enjoyed seeing them fall in love (even if it was a little bit of insta love). I didn't have anything to post, so I scrolled through my drafts and I saw quite a few reviews from 2013/2014 that I had forgotten about.

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. When Jase, the third eldest Garrett child, introduces himself to Samantha, her dream of becoming part of their life comes true.

If Fitzpatrick's future heroines turn out to be even a tenth as good as Sam was, I'm in for a real treat. Seeing Samantha fit into this equation was nothing short of entertaining and only increased my respect for her. I found being in Sam's head a very pleasant, refreshing, and, often times, spontaneously hilarious experience when compared to many of the female narrators of her genre.

But when a mortar blast outside the hospital where he worked as an orthopedic surgeon sent him home from Afghanistan with devastating injuries, the dilapidated cabin he'd inherited from his grandfather seemed as good a place to regroup as any.

Obviously Jase is my favourite, but George — Jase's adorable 4-year-old brother who watches too much Discovery Channel for his own good — was a close favourite! A heartrending event occurs in the book that affects both families and I don’t really want to say too much, other than I felt like someone punched me in the stomach.