Title: The Boy Most Likely To (My Life Next Door #2)Author: Huntley Fitzpatrick
Publisher: Dial Books
Release Date: August 18, 2015
Genre/Age Group: Young Adult, Realistic Fiction, Contemporary Romance
Source: Gifted
Add it: Goodreads
Rating:
A surprising, utterly romantic companion to My Life Next Door—great for fans of Sarah Dessen and Jenny Han
Tim Mason was The Boy Most Likely To find the liquor cabinet blindfolded, need a liver transplant, and drive his car into a house
Alice Garrett was The Girl Most Likely To . . . well, not date her little brother’s baggage-burdened best friend, for starters.
For Tim, it wouldn’t be smart to fall for Alice. For Alice, nothing could be scarier than falling for Tim. But Tim has never been known for making the smart choice, and Alice is starting to wonder if the “smart” choice is always the right one. When these two crash into each other, they crash hard.
Then the unexpected consequences of Tim’s wild days come back to shock him. He finds himself in a situation that isn’t all it appears to be, that he never could have predicted . . . but maybe should have.
And Alice is caught in the middle.
Told in Tim’s and Alice’s distinctive, disarming, entirely compelling voices, this novel is for readers of The Spectacular Now, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, and Paper Towns.
MY THOUGHTS
I don’t think I’m the only one who was incredibly excited for the companion novel to My Life Next Door, so imagine what Gaby showing up with a surprise ARC did to my nervous system. However, it’s impossible to review this book because of a certain spoiler that happens pretty early on and drives a lot of story but isn’t really mentioned anywhere. So I’m going to leave some general impressions here, give away the spoiler in the first spoiler tag for those who just want to know what it is and whether it’s a dealbreaker for them, go into specifics in the second tag, and then spam you with a few quotes, because I honestly see no other way for me to review this book.
Two things I kept thinking over and over again while reading The Boy Most Likely To is that I should have reread My Life Next Door beforehand and that I wasn’t loving it as much as I wanted to. Rereading MLND would have been handy because the companion waits a while to recap some events that are relevant to the current story lines and relationships, such as the fact that Tim’s sister plagiarised his papers or that he vomited on Alice once. I can’t believe I actually forgot that one, but two years is a long time in bookish memories. The less practical reread reason is that I wanted maximum Garrett feels. Of course they’re still there, and the Tim/Patsy interactions are pure gold, but they’re pushed to the background in favour of Tim and Alice’s personal arcs.
As for not loving it as much as I was hoping to, that’s a risk that sadly happens way too often with highly anticipated books (see also: The Wrath and the Dawn). One thing that definitely disappointed me is that Alice’s character felt underdeveloped. Large part of her arc is focused on taking care of her family now that her dad is in the hospital, which includes going head to head with Grace Reed when she decides to stop paying their bills, but she’s not really memorable as a character. I never took any notes for this book, so I’m wholly going off memory, and the only word I can come up with to describe her is “frustrated”. Usually I love dual POV, but I don’t feel like her chapters added all that much to the story. You could tell that the main focus was on Tim, both in page time and character development, and I just wish their chapters had been balanced a bit more.
Also, and this is something I’ve noticed before in Fitzpatrick’s work, what’s the deal with introducing skeevy guys and then just sort of letting it go? The whole subplot involving Alice’s ex Brad was fucking scary, and I mean take-out-a-restraining-order scary, but for some reason that plot point is just dropped right after he triggers a major anxiety attack that could have gotten her killed. It’s almost like he’s used as a trigger alone and not recognised for the stalker and harasser that he is. It reminds me of that guy in What I Thought Was True who was showing clear signs of predatory behaviour – seeking out girls with “break” lines or whatever (I tried to bleach that from my brain) because he knows they’re vulnerable enough for him to manipulate them into hooking up with him – and yet he still becomes a fixture in their friend group. It’s weird and unhealthy and I’m not entirely convinced the narrative is fully aware of this.
Wrapping up: I liked Tim a lot. He goes into the same category of self-destructive assholes who give you more feelings than should be humanly allowed as Tom Mackee and Josh Mitchell. The Sam/Jase cameos are cute. Tim and Alice have a moment that’s a nice callback to “You have to kiss me.” “Yeah, I do.” Except for Tim and Patsy, and spoiler spoiler spoiler, the relationships often fell flat for me. I mildly ship Tim and Alice, but again, they’re not that memorable. For those interested: the sex is of the most fade to black variety. Jase and Tim kept mentioning that they’re best friends but I don’t really feel it. The language tends to go very earnest and slightly cheesy. There are some funny moments, most of which involve George Garrett, not that anyone’s surprised. The reason I sound so negative about most of this is because a lot of my favourite moments involved the spoilers.
Unamusing, very spoilerific twist that wraps up this story line that I want to mention somewhere but apparently WP doesn’t allow you to nest spoilers: [View post to see spoiler]
Just liking a book you wanted to wholeheartedly love is the worst.
MEMORABLE QUOTES
Taken from the ARC.
“Of course not. I never kiss and-”
“I missed the part where we kissed? Wait, let’s rewind. I promise not to put up a fight.” He dodges in front of me, smiling, holding up his hands in surrender. “You’d take me anyway. And I’d let you.”
“What’s a virgin?” Harry asks loudly.
“Something about a forest,” George whisper-yells back.
“Hi!” George says cheerfully. “You’re Tim’s friend?” He sticks out a hand. “Name of George. That’s me.”
[This is a text conversation with Tim’s mental commentary and for some reason it really made me laugh.]
NOT COMFORTABLE WITH THE WAY WE LEFT THINGS
UNDERSTAND THAT YOU’RE ANGRY BUT THERE ARE TWO SIDES TO THIS
WANT TO HAVE A CONVERSATION LIKE ADULTS
After the last one, I text back, totally misspelling because I’m furious.
Is that what we air? Not seenin huge materity level going on here.