My Life Next Door

LOVED IT! The premise completely charmed me. I love the idea of a big family, I always have. I can definitely relate to Samantha and how she feels very drawn to the Garrett family, what with all the messiness and chaos and cuteness. I had a good friend in high school who has 8 siblings. I loved going to their house, it always felt so full and warm and fun. I'm sure it's not always everything it's cracked up to be (something the author of this book highlights towards the end), but in my mind the Garretts are The Perfect Family. :)

The characters we care about (i.e. Sam, the Garretts, and Tim) are so well-developed; they're people I genuinely want to know in real life. I've already said how I love the Garrett family, so I won't overemphasize that again (ha). But to be more specific - OMG, George?!? Is probably the best 4-year-old brother you could possibly ask for. I was quite young when I had a 4-year-old brother, but he definitely could have learned a few lessons from George on how to be awesome. So yeah, back on point, this book had mostly great characters. However, some of the minor characters (Sam's mom, Clay, Nan) were very one-dimensional, and hard to believe. Especially towards the end, after the, dun dun dun...

Big Traumatic Event(what would a story be without it's conflict?)
I won't spoil it, but I will say: actual tears. I know it's a bit overdramatic, but when a well-written main character has a Big Time Meltdown because Her Life Is Falling Apart, I can't help but cry with her. My only complaint on the drama front is that I wasn't completely clear on how that all got resolved. It was just kind of a vague/abrupt ending.

No biggie, though, I still loved this book enough to buy it & reread it at least once a year, which is really the mark of a 4-5 star book in my opinion.