My Life Next Door..

This book started off great! It made me laugh, sigh, and kept me entertained. And then it had the worst ending known to man and I wanted to scream ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

Here is the description from Amazon:

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.

My Thoughts

I was having a hard time deciding on exactly what to write about this book. I didn't know if I should have said I completely hated the book just because of the ending or say that I loved it but hated the ending. It is a toss up between the two, I am still neutral but I promised a review on this and there is one thing I do not break.. and that is a promise!!

Samantha is a very likable character. She is sweet, funny, sarcastic, beautiful, hard working etc. You could relate to her and even though her mother was a snobby hot mess she never acted like she was too good for everyone, she was just Samantha. 

She lived her life on the inside looking out on the world because her mother tried to shelter her and keep her as busy as she could manage with school activities, school, social engagements etc. Samantha did not need to work because her mother provided well for her but she worked two jobs over the summer to pay her own way in the world. One of her favorite things to do was to sit outside her bedroom and watch her neighbors, the Garrets. 

They were a rambunctious family with 8 children, age ranges from 1-20, but they were well-mannered, sweet, and hard working children. Each of them had their own personality that added to the richness of the story and made it more interesting to read. Jase was the 17 year old in the family that unbeknownst to Samantha saw her staring at their family almost every night and he also watched her, while she watched them. He finally went to talk to her one night when she was sitting out on her roof and they formed a friendship. Jase's mother of course recruited Samantha to help her babysit when she needed someone and that is how Samantha was introduced to the world of the Garretts. Not only did Samantha fall in love with Jase but she fell in love with his family. She saw how a family could be and how much love there was between parents and their children. She didn't have that in her own home so she craved it while watching them. 

Of course the plot twister, I never saw coming! It was different from what I was expecting, and I actually liked that the author made it so different. Samantha's world gets turned upside down and she is now altered, her whole world gets shifted and she is now seeing things less in black & white and more in gray and different shading. She doesn't know whether to do the right thing and hurt people she loves or keep quiet and hurt people she loves. It was a lose-lose situation for Samantha and the readers are left feeling very sympathetic towards her and wondering what descision they would have made in that same situation. 

Like I stated before, the story ended rather abruptly and with no second book in sight I have to say that I am upset. The author left so many stories open, I had to create my own ending for them and at that point I was so mad that I pictured the whole town blowing up and everyone dying... the end!! When I finally calmed down from the disappointment I was still feeling bereft but I decided that I won't let the ending ruin the WHOLE book, I will just warn everyone that the ending will leave you hanging and hoping there will be a second book to finish off the characters that were left with their stories unfinished! 

So hopefully everyone that reads this book will harass the author enough to get her to write an epilogue, chapter, second book.. SOMETHING that will complete this book and make it whole because as of right now it is incomplete.  

I can't decided what to rate this book but I will recommend it to others because it is overall a good story and if you want to check it out for yourself, here it is on Amazon: