ARC Review: The Boy Next Story (Bookish Boyfriends #2) by Tiffany Schmidt

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The Boy Next Story
Series: Bookish Boyfriends #2
Author: Tiffany Schmidt
Published May 21st 2019 by Harry N. Abrams

Goodreads Synopsis
The second book in a series where your favorite literary characters come to life, inspired by the timeless classic, Little Women!

 There’s no one better than the boy next door. At least not according to Aurora Campbell, fourteen, who has been in love with Tobias May since their very first sandbox kiss. The problem is, he’s in love with her older sister, Merrilee. And Merri is already dating one of his best friends.

 Rory is learning all about pining as her class reads The Great Gatsby, a book she doesn’t find “great” at all. Also not great—her GPA, something she needs to fix, quickly, if she’d like to apply for the chance to spend a week studying art with her hero in New York City over winter break. But when Ms. Gregoire assigns her to read Little Women for extra credit, Rory discovers more than she expected—both about herself and Toby. Maybe she wasn’t in love with the boy next door. . . but the boy next story.

 Love is complicated, and it’s all about to get even trickier for Rory at Reginald R. Hero Prep . . . where with the help of one quirky English teacher, students’ fantasies come true, often with surprising consequences.
Goodreads

Review
I received an Advance Reader Copy from the publisher. This in no way impacted on my view.

 After immediately finishing my copy of A Date With Darcy, I hate to dive right into book 2, The Boy Next Story. Now, I adored the romance in the first book, and was really intrigued by Rory (Aurora), so had high hopes for this book. I wasn't disappointed, but I will admit, early on, that I wasn't as invested in this book as much, but that's basically because the Pride & Prejudice story line was my favourite, and The Great Gatsby and Little Women, which are the books Rory reads in this instalment, aren't classics I'm overly keen in. Rory, the little sister of the Campbell family, has always felt a bit left out by her sisters. Lilly and Merri always seem to do everything together, and treat her as an afterthought, if she is ever lucky enough to be included. A fantastic artist, she knows that when she grows up she wants nothing more than to pursue that career path. But, like her sister, she is a bit of an outsider at school, and in her advanced art class, the other students, bar one - Huck (who seems to be her only friend in school - treat her horrendously, even going so far as to destroy her artwork as they are jealous of her skill. Luckily, she gets to spend her commutes to school with neighbour, and long time crush, Toby; the only issue here, he's been irrevocably in love with her sister, Merri, for as long as she can remember. She wants to get over him, and when reading The Great Gatsby in English, she realises she is the Gatsby, and it won't turn out well. Trying to get over him, her friends, Huck and Clara, create a plan to make him jealous, with Huck standing in as a fake boyfriend, and, you know what, it seems to work. Toby becomes her maths tutor, after Rory failed a class test, and is on academic report, and we can see the chemistry start to sparkle and fizz in their interactions. As soon as Ms. Gregoire decides that Little Women would be a perfect book for Rory, everything starts to fall into place, with the youngest sister, Amy, resonating with her so well. 

 I sort of liked Rory's character a bit more than Merri - she seemed more rounded and real - but the Gatsby plot really didn't interest me. Once we got to the Little Women plot, that's when I became more invested in the story, and I loved Rory's independence, what with her taking ownership of her feelings, standing up to Toby, and to her bullies, and earning her place at the prestigious artist camp in New York of the Christmas holidays. She really grows and matures from the start of the book, until the ending, and I felt like her character was just more of a proper person, you know? Her and Toby grew on me. At first, I thought it would be forced, but as we got past the half way mark, I could see the real feelings there, and began to ship them so much. I loved how her self worth, and realisation that she deserved more, manifested, not just in her romantic relationships, but also with her relationship with her sisters, which were quite bad at times. The ending of this book left me feeling so warm, that I immediately had to go to twitter and ask Tiffany if there would be more books, and there's going to be 2 more! I can't wait for next year now :)


Dates Read:
July 27-28, 2019

Rating
4 Stars

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I'm a book lover and teacher from Durham, England.

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