Thursday, January 8, 2015

Review: The Boy Next Door by Katie Van Ark

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/21853719-the-boy-next-door
The Boy Next Door
by Katie Van Ark
Website | Twitter | Facebook

Publication Date: January 6th 2015
Publisher: Swoon Reads
Pages: 368
ISBN: 9781250061461
Genre: Young Adult | Contemporary
Source: From Publisher for Review

Add to Goodreads

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Book Depository

Maddy Spier has been in love with the boy next door forever. As his figure skating partner she spends time in his arms every day. But she’s also seen his arms around other girls—lots of other girls.

Gabe can't imagine skating with anyone but Maddy, and together they have a real chance at winning some serious gold medals. So, he’s determined to keep thinking of her like a sister. After all, he’s never had a romantic relationship that lasted for more than two weeks.

But when their coach assigns a new romantic skating program, everything changes. Will this be the big break that Maddy’s been hoping for or the big breakup that Gabe has always feared? (Goodreads)
I was really looking forward to reading The Boy Next Door as it seemed like it would be a really cute read. I really enjoy contemporary novels, so I had high hopes when I started reading the book.  This was definitely a cute, fun, and at times, very dramatic read.

Maddy has been in love with Gabe for as long as she can remember, but Gabe is a player who never keeps a girlfriend longer than two weeks. Gabe considers Maddy as a best friend and neighbor and nothing more. Or does he? When their coach assigns their new skating routine to none other than Romeo & Juliet, in hopes of getting them to the world championships, everything they know changes.

The story is told from alternating viewpoints between Maddy and Gabe. I always enjoy books that have this because we get SO much more information from and about the characters. The growing relationship between Maddy and Gabe was sweet at times, and trying at others. I found myself to be a bit frustrated with both characters a few times throughout the story. At times I wanted to shake some sense into both of them and tell them to open their eyes and see what everyone else plainly saw between them. The sweet times in the novel more than made up for the frustrating times.

My most favorite character in the story would have had to have been Igor, who was Maddy and Gabe’s skating instructor. He was so unintentionally hilarious that he totally had me rolling at times. I love a character that can make me laugh.

The storyline for the book was interesting, and had quite a few twists and turns as the story progressed. I really enjoyed the theme for the book. I’ve always been a bit fascinated by figure skating, especially when I was younger, and I thought the descriptions of the performances to be really interesting. While turning the pages, I found myself wanting to ‘see’ these characters perform and experience what their audience was seeing. It would have been great, I imagine. This was a lot of fun to read.

Overall; The Boy Next Door was a cute and fun read. Although I had a few frustrations as I turned the pages, it was still a nice read to kick off the new year with.



1 comment:

  1. I have this book so I really cannot wait until I can start reading it! This doesn't sound like anything too heavy, but just a light and fun read, probably a quick one as well. I think I might save it for when I don't feel like anything to deep but just want to hear about characters and a nice love story.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for stopping by! :)