The Boy Next Door (Boy, #1) in Around the World in 80 Books

Mar 19, 2011 Amanda rated it liked it

Shelves: 2007-reads, fiction, total-read

This is a recommendation from that really cool website I found a while back.Htere are several boooks by these two authors - the woman writes the part of the woman in the book and the man writes the part of the man in the books, in alternating chapters. Or maybe they write the chapters of the opposite sex... no I'm pretty sure they write their own.

Anyway, interesting way to tell a story though admittedly, it's a litle gimmicky. The authors are British and I am really beginning to enjoy British fi This is a recommendation from that really cool website I found a while back.Htere are several boooks by these two authors - the woman writes the part of the woman in the book and the man writes the part of the man in the books, in alternating chapters. Or maybe they write the chapters of the opposite sex... no I'm pretty sure they write their own.

Anyway, interesting way to tell a story though admittedly, it's a litle gimmicky. The authors are British and I am really beginning to enjoy British fiction... or at least British fiction of the low brow variety.

This story resonated with me because it's about two kids who are friends, then turn into high school sweethearts, then get driven apart and are reunited in their late thirties, after she's had a kid and just before he is getting married. Just like PB and me. JK, we missed everything from "high school sweethearts on". Otherwise it would be a much cooler story.

But I can totally relate to the idea of falling in love at one point in your life, at a very young age and that transforming who you are and what you turn into it. PB and I did that - it's hard to imagine how very different my life would be if we weren't together. And when you start dating so young you literally grow up together and influence who you become as adults.

Listen to me, I make it sound like we got together when we were 7.

Anyway, enough about that, this is the blog about books. So I already pretty much summarized the store (minus the drama of a father who is criminally shady and literally dies a fiery death, a glimpse at a boarding schoool for boys and a loveless marriage in between). The story is told, like I said, from alternative points of view, and also in flashback to fill in what happened to them as kids / young adults.

It's a fun read. Quick too. My only really big complaint is that the ending was *much* too abrupt for my taste. And I didn't really connect with the female lead, I was much more interested in the male lead. Hmmm.... wonder what that says about me? ...more

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