so not every return to a small town from the big city book is bad. and actually, i really enjoyed the girl next door quite a bit. iris and jude find themselves back in their small maine town for different reasons. jude is grieving and iris is struggling to find her way forward in life.now, here is my only nitpick with this story. allegedly iris is twenty-two and jude is three-to-four years older so about twenty-five or six. how either of them have managed to get all the life experience they claim to have before coming back to town makes no sense. at twenty-two iris would have just graduated school, so would she really have had a series of jobs and failed to earn enough money to make rent? possibly, but unlikely, unless she barely gave her time in boston a chance, and honestly that doesn't seem right. likewise, jude seems to be a lot more worldly than her age would imply.
they might just be real mature twenty-year-olds, but i wish that the author had given their ages something that rang true to both the characters and the back story.
but otherwise, this story is really about coming home and finding the place you were always meant to be and the person you were meant to be with. the way iris peels away jude's protective layers is really sweet and the connection the two characters have just completely works. all in all, just an enjoyable read.
**the girl next door will publish on may 26, 2020. i received an advance reader copy courtesy of netgalley/carina press (carina adores) in exchange for my honest review.
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