Book Review and Author Interview: My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick!

My Life Next Door

By Huntley Fitzpatrick

Release Date: 06/14/12

Hardcover/e-book

395 pages

Book Description from Goodreads:

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.

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When I first saw the gorgeous cover for My Life Next Door I was expecting a light and sweet summer book.  While it did feature a beautiful romance, it was also a pretty deep story about family and acceptance which I was not expecting but it worked perfectly with the story.

Everyone thinks Samantha Reed has it all.  A perfect family, a perfect mom (who is also the state senator), a perfect house and a perfect life.  But nobody knows that Samantha wishes her family could be like her neighbors, the Garretts.  The Garretts are a big family (8 kids!) and they are the perfect functional-dysfunctional family.  Even though Samantha has been watching the Garretts from her window for 10 years, she has never talked to any of them because her mother highly disapproves of them.  But one day one of the Garrett boys, Jase, climbs over to her window and starts talking to her and invites her over to his house.  Samantha feels at home right away with the Garretts and with Jase.  Although Samantha and Jase take things slow, they soon end up in an intense and serious relationship which she keeps from her family and friends. 

The relationship between Samantha and Jase was one of the most realistic ones I have seen in a YA book.  They start off as friends and actually get to know each other first before they start dating.  It’s not one of those typical insta-love stories and they have to deal with some pretty serious issues such as dealing with their families and making the right choices.  Seeing their love grow and blossom into something real and beautiful was such a nice thing to be able to witness.  Unfortunately, towards the end Samantha makes an awful choice which had me feeling like throwing my book against the wall.  Luckily, her bad choice is (somewhat) quickly rectified but is it a case of too little too late?

Since most YA books have either dysfunctional or absent families, it was such a refreshing change to read about the Garrets which were as real as you can get.  They were such a huge contrast to Samantha’s family, which only consist of her judgmental mother and rebellious sister.  It was so easy to understand why Samantha has always been so drawn to the Garretts and why she fit in with them so easily.  While I loved Samantha and Jase and every single member of the Garrett clan, my favorite character was Tim, Samantha’s best friend’s brother.  He starts off as a trouble maker and a stoner and a really big loser but the more time he spends with Jase and the Garretts, the more you can see how much he changes throughout the book and how hard he tries to turn his life around and although I hated him at first, he ended up as my favorite character-hands down!  There are so many unanswered questions about Tim at the end of the book that I would LOVE to read his story. (wink, wink)

My Life Next Door was such a pleasant surprise it had everything I was looking for in a summer romance book plus so much more!  Romance, realistic and lovable characters, and a beautiful story that will stay with you long after the story is over.  Huntley Fitzpatrick is another author to add to the list of 2012 great debut authors and I can’t wait to read what she has for us next.  I have some serious cover crush on this book and I’m glad the story inside was as beautiful as the cover!

4.5 out of 5 sparkly stars!

Some of my favorite non-spoiler quotes from My Life Next Door:

-The Garretts were my bedtime story, long before I ever thought I'd be a part of the story myself.

-“Why would I need rescuing?  This is my house, my roof?”

“I don’t know.  it just hit me, seeing you there, that you might be Rapunzel.  The princess in the tower thing.  All the long blond hair and…well…”

“And you’d be?” I know I'm going to laugh if he says “the prince.”

Instead he answers “Jase Garrett.”

-“Jase?”

“Mmm-hmm?” He lifts up on one elbow, his face barely visible in the twilight.

“You have to kiss me,” I find myself saying.

“Yeah.” He leans closer. “I do.”

-“Give me a break.  They must have handouts with better lines than that at Cheesy Villain School.”

-But what I loved was the view.  And for so long, that was who I was.  The girl who watched the Garretts.  My life next door.

But I'm not that watcher anymore.

-It has nothing to do with how things look from far away and everything to do with how they are up close.  That won't change.

***Interview with Huntley Fitzpatrick***

1.      What are you working on after My Life Next Door?

My next book, now tentatively titled, WHAT I THOUGHT WAS TRUE, takes place in the same region as MY LIFE NEXT DOOR, but features a very different couple—one who have had a rocky history. Gwen Castle has come from a long line of fisherman and cleaning women on her small, exclusive Island. Cass Somers is heir to a boat-building business, and Gwen’s Biggest Mistake Ever. Now that he’s spending the summer slumming it on “her” Island, can they get beyond their rocky past and find common ground.

2.      Describe Samantha in 3 words or less…

Reticent, thoughtful, careful.

3. Describe Jase in 3 words or less…

Easy-going, athletic, open-hearted.

4.  Is there a song you could list as the theme song for your book or any of your characters? Tim’s is IT AIN’T ME, BABE.

5.  What is your favorite non-spoiler quote or scene from My Life Next Door?

I like the scene where Samantha comes over to Jase’s house for the first time and is interrogated by his four year old brother:

“Is Jase already going to marry you?”

I start coughing again. “Uh. No. No, George. I’m only seventeen.” As if that’s the only reason we aren’t already 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 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.”

The door closes and we both start laughing.

 6.  Who is your all-time favorite book couple and why?

Help! Too many to name. I love all of Jennifer Echol’s couples, I love Travis and Morgan in Trish Dollar’s SOMETHING LIKE NORMAL, I love Wes and Macy in Sarah Dessen’s THE TRUTH ABOUT FOREVER, I could just go on and on. I go through phases where I read about one couple again and again, trying to get to the heart of what makes them magic. Of course I never do.

7.  Which celebrity crush do you wish you live next door to?

Again, too many to name. Matt Damon. (my best friend lives next to him and I’m totally jealous). Pierce Brosnan. Dennis Quaid. All people I’ve had crushes on for years (I am faithful, if obsessive). And if we are going to edge younger, Zac Efron, Liam Hemsworth, Dave Franco.

8.  What book(s) are you looking forward to the most this year?

SUCH A RUSH by Jennifer Echols.

9.  What is something people would be surprised to know about you?  

I once kissed a complete stranger on a train.

10.  Tim turned out to be one of my favorite characters.  Is there any chance we might get to read more about him?  Maybe in the form of a companion novel???

I am so very happy to hear this. Tim kind of snuck up on me--one of those characters who winds up taking over a lot more than you'd planned.. I've actually written a whole book for him, but it's not signed. I had a blast writing it, so I hope it someday sees the light of day....

11.  Describe your book in 10 words or less…

A girl who watches and a boy who knows it.

(LOVE this answer, so perfect!)

 

About the Author

Huntley Fitzpatrick grew up dreamy and distracted in coastal Connecticut, attended Concord Academy and Yale. She flourished in a family of bookworms where the library was always the most important room in the house. She kept an exhaustively thorough journal which frightened her boyfriends but has proved very useful in her career as a writer. Her debut contemporary Romance, MY LIFE NEXT DOOR, will be published in June of 2012 by Penguin-Dial for Young Readers. Now she laughs with and eavesdrops on her six children who provide her with perspective and material. She is represented by the amazing Christina Hogrebe of the Jane Rotrosen Agency.

Visit her blog at: http://www.huntleyfitzpatrick.com/

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Review posted by Nereyda @Mostly YA Book Obsessed

www.MostlyYABookObsessed.com