Ellie is a tomboyish girl who, one day, finds out she has a new neighbor -a hot boy. She starts to spy on him thru her window, especially while he is working out. Her big sister Angela joins her. One day, while she is outside, a big dog jumps on her making her fall. Does this plot sound familiar?
That is what I thought. It looked like a totally fun, romantic, light, young-adult-ish book. And after I have read "Being Jamie Baker", written by the same author (a book I liked a lot) I was very enthusiastic to read this one.
Turns out it is nothing like the movie. She is nothing like Monica Potter's character. And he is no way like Freddie Prinze Jr.
I could not like either Ellie or Seth. At all.
First Ellie. She is beautiful (blah blah), a tomboy girl who likes to play sports and hang out with the boys. I like tomboy girls (Kristin from the series Baby-sitters Club was my favorite babysitter after all). But Ellie was too much. I get that she does not like to dress up, that she likes boys stuff instead of girly stuff. But punching other people for no reason? Just no. For example, when she was at the mall with Angela and she punches this guy dressed like a big hot dog because he laughed at her for some random silliness. Or her constant need to say 'Dude'. Ugg, I could not stand it. And she seriously had some anger management, always intense and defensive.
And Seth. I think I would have to write a hundred of pages about this guy and his issues. So I will just mention some moments that scream 'PSYCHO!' with neon lights:
- He sneaked into her room to play her videogame just to leave her a very romantic message...on her scoreboard (or however it is called). Meaning, he typed ONE word in each one -9 words in total-. Meaning, he played at least 9 times, while he was eating dinner with her family. Meaning, while Ellie and her family were thinking he was in the bathroom, he actually was in her room playing games to leave her this note!
- When Ellie was kissed by Dave in a party, Seth was so angry he punched the wall with his fist and grabbed Angela by her throat, blaming her for 'killing Ellie with her selfishness'.
- When Ellie was caught in his house, she tried to run away. So he picked her up like a bag of potatoes and took her to his room, where he kept her trapped until she would talk to him and tell him why she was constantly avoiding him.
- When Ellie's best friends (3 boys) arrived and hugged her after not seeing each other for the whole summer, he was so angry he controlled himself to punch the boys and slammed his front door. Just because the boys were hugging innocently his girlfriend.
- He is a very skilled boy with knifes... and has this creepy obsession of playing with them.
He is super jealous, super possessive, a stalker, has a personality disorder, he is completely obsessed with Ellie and at the same time, he is somewhat insecure of himself (because of Ellie). He is a totally alpha hero. Which is weird in a YA book.
If I were Ellie I would have run away from him without doubt. I don't care how hot he is. Just think about this. If he were not this hot, would he be someone you would hang around? NO. He is just waaay too intense. And dangerous.
Angela was the only character I liked. She seemed she was going to be the kind of big sister who likes to mess up with her sister and just being pretty. And she turned out to be a big sister who really cared about her baby sister (unlike Ellie, who was a total bitch most of the times) and was not selfish at all.
Would I recommend this book? Not really, but I would recommend this author. I am biased because of the other book, which is the reason I don't rate this 1 star.
Oh, and I could not read the extra material. Not interested in read Seth's creepy POV. I guess most girls are over heels for this kind of guy. Not me.
