Dash-“I’ll call you in a few hours.”  Amelia-“Promise?…If you don’t, you’ll wreck my world”. By that night, his truck is gone. His word is worthless. And my heart is broken.

Hello Everyone,

Let me start by saying I have read a few books by this newly discovered author and have thoroughly enjoyed them. But for some reason, I just didn’t enjoy this one. I will endeavor to articulate why I didn’t enjoy this book. Just know it will be hard.

So, I enjoyed the first book in Ella James’ Off-Limits series Crown Jewels. And I enjoyed her erotic fairy tale anthology Hansel, Red & Wolfe and Beast (can you say steamy?). Sloth was deep (the feels man, the feels-sigh) and I am currently reading the first book in the A Love Inc. series Selling Scarlett, which I am thus far enjoying. I just didn’t enjoy The Boy Next Door, the second book in the Off-Limits series. Although it held my attention, it wasn’t because the book was enthralling, but rather that I had invested so much time in wanting to know what Dash’s secret was, that I just kept reading. Discovering what the secret is was anti-climatic. By that time, I just didn’t care anymore. The secret was pretty creepy and I did feel sorry for Dash, just not enough to really care. Let me try to explain another way.

The Boy Next Door tells the story of Amelia & Dash, who met when Amelia was six and Dash was nine after he saved her life. He was the boy next door; her best friend’s brother whom she adored. Dash helped her deal with her mother’s death and the two became good friends often spending hours at their favorite spot talking. One summer night, when Dash returned from college on break, while Amelia was still in high school,  their friendship changed forever. Dash disappeared after and Amelia vowed to move on. Fast forward 5 years and Amelia is now a writer of children’s films, who has just been hired to work at a company where she is surprised to find that Dash is the lead animator.  “It can’t be. It can’t be him! I want to ravage him, abandon him. I desire to make him bleed. Do to Dash what he did to me. Eviscerate.”

The story jumps from the past to the present. It is easy to follow along. It is also easy to see why Amelia acts the way she does. Dash’s actions on the other hand just didn’t make sense to me. I don’t know why the secret needed to be kept considering Amelia’s reaction, which I am pretty sure she would have reacted the same way even as a teenager. She took his side when the everything came out, making it obvious she would have in the past. Their romantic reunion was anticipated, but again, I still didn’t get why he kept an emotional distance and his mouth closed for a secret that shouldn’t have been. That made the back and forth uninteresting to me. Honestly, Dash got on my nerves. Every opportunity he had to reveal his secret was squandered, even after tragedy hit. The way it came out and Dash’s reaction as it was revealed was kinda stupid to me. So no, I didn’t enjoy this book because Dash got on my last good nerve.

That being said, I would still recommend this book. It is well written and admittedly hot. It has been in the Amazon top 100 since its release. My disappointment doesn’t take away from my desire to read the next book in the series-Fractured Love coming July 19th. I cannot wait to read about foster siblings who fall in love, are separated and find themselves thrown together as medical residents at a hospital. It’s going to be epic.

Happy Reading,

The Book Diva