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The boy next door. That’s what he was. Dash Frasier—my hero from the day we met, when I was six and he was nine. His sister was my best friend, the three of us one happy crew. Then one sweaty summer night changed everything.
No one understood me like Dash. No one made me feel so loved. That’s why, when he skipped town, it wrecked me.
Now I’m older. Wiser. I’ve just snagged my dream job, writing at a film studio. The lead animator on my project? You guessed it.
He’s not the boy next door. Not anymore.
I’m guarding my heart this time.
But Dash has secrets that could break us both.
So let me start off by saying I love Ella James. Her writing always captivates me and her characters are always so well written. My expectations were set really high for this book and sadly, I was letdown a bit.
The blurb of this book hooked me immediately. It’s a boy next door story (title makes that obvious) and those always have some sort of angst built into it. The book flowed ok and moved at a good pace. However, I felt like a lot was left out – the connection.
We got to see how they met and how they stay connected throughout the year, but what was missing was why Amelia fell for him. He’s hot – we get that throughout the book. But there isn’t anything aside from that showing why he meant so much to her. And then there’s this whole secret that Dash has that he keeps from Amelia.
Amelia made up excuse after excuse for Dash – all the while he never once explains himself or really apologizes to her. She just lets shit go and accepts back him into her life like nothing happened. She comes across strong yet is very mousy when it comes to Dash.
Dash – while I do realize he is hot and is very into drawing and such, he comes across as a douche. I didn’t feel sorry for him – I didn’t really feel anything for him. I felt that as he got older, with how smart he was, he should have been able to understand the ramifications of things and handle it better. And yes, he let it dictate his life. So yea, didn’t really like him too much.
Overall, the story flowed ok. I just hated how the secret came out too late and was pretty much just swept under the rug like it didn’t cause all this shit between Dash and Amelia. I just felt it was dealt with too easily and wrapped up too quickly. But that’s me.
While I enjoyed the book, these things sort of knocked the book down slightly. I expected there to be more angst and wanted to see more of their connection and why each of them fell for the other while growing up. The book had so much promise but it just fell flat for me. But you might feel differently, give it a try.
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Ella James is the USA Today bestselling author of sixteen teen and adult love stories. She’s an angst-a-holic who loves exploring difficult situations and the emotions of the people caught up in them. Also, smut. But always, always romance.
Ella’s obsessions include vanilla cream soda, hiking, other weird, crunchy things like rock collecting, and the antics of her three little monsters.
To find out more about her projects, follow her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ellajamesbooks, tweet her at author_ellaj or follow her on Instagram (authorellajames).
Interested in the foreign rights for one of Ella’s books? Contact her agent, Rebecca Friedman, at rebecca@rfliterary.com.
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Sorry to hear that. I like Elle’ s books, too.
Great review court, shared on all my socials!!