My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick

My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick
Published: June 14, 2012 by Dial Books (Penguin Teen)
Received: ARC for review from NetGalley & Penguin - thank you!

"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. {goodreads.com}

I can't stop thinking about this book.  It's the kind of story that lingers with you, even when you're not reading it.  I had a feeling I'd fall in love with the pages of this one, but I had no idea just how much it would capture my heart.  My Life Next Door holds all the elements for what I see as a perfect YA contemporary novel.  There is young love, passion, conflict, friendship, trials, and so much uncertainty that comes along with those precious adolescent years.  I feel as though I know these characters.  I may even live just next door.  So much of their world, has become a part of mine.  Their stories are edged in to my mind, fitting comfortably where I never want to forget them.

Samantha comes from a very strict one parent household.  Her mother is currently running for election, with her desires to please the local seaside New England town before attending to her own daughter's needs.  Nothing is ever looked at too carefully, bits and pieces of their crumbling life are continuously swept under the rug (or sucked up in Samantha's mom's vacuum).  But there is a family next door, a large vibrant family, which has captured Samantha's attention since she was a little girl.  Always peeking inside their windows from her balcony next door, wondering what it would be like to be a part of such a pulsating family.  Then one day, Jase, the second oldest son to an army of children, climbs Samantha's trellis and invites her inside their world.

I was completely captured by the Garrett family.  From the strong, yet laid back so-in-love parents... to the colorful array of siblings.  Each one came alive through the pages and I found myself wanting to be a part of this family almost as much as Samantha.  And then of course, there is the boy.  Oh sweet Jase.  He has stolen my heart.  Such a good, good boy.  I adored his will to step in when the family needed him most, but I also admired his innocence when it came to falling in love with Samantha.  These two characters hold a winning prize for strong, yet easily shattered characters as they should be in YA lit.

There is laying on the grass, hands intertwined, all while star gazing.  Climbing up trellises and into open windows in the middle of the night.  Taking late night swims to cool off from the summer heat.  And the sweetest, softest, most desirable first everything's for what a true teenage romance should be.  I adore this novel so, so much.  I was expecting a summer romance, but got a story that went so far beyond that.  I know this will be a contemporary novel that I will revisit time and time again.  How could anyone say goodbye to the Garretts?