I really enjoyed this book! It didn't take me long until I was fully engaged in the book. The characters were well-developed and I found myself immediately drawn to the relationships in Mallory's life. The only downside is that I felt it was somewhat predictable, However, was still pretty enjoyable. Would definitely recommend it.

This book really took me by surprise. There were things that bugged me a bit–which I’ll get to–but for the most part, I loved this story.

I’ll start with the things that I was a bit annoyed by …

Our heroine is homeschooled, and along with that came all the “homeschooled kid” stereotypes. She’s naive, very unsocialized, and so awkward around other people that I actually cringed while reading it. Now, I’ll be honest; this is a huge trigger for me because I was homeschooled. All growing up, my peers would ask me how I could understand how to interact with people if I didn’t go to “real school” or my friends’ parents would express “concern” over my not going to a school building every day. I’ll admit that every time I hear someone is homeschooled, I cringe, just waiting for the sarcastic remarks and not-so-witty quips about that person being naive, unable to socialize, and unable to interact with people in a normal way. As I said, this is a trigger, lol. BUT, I will say, the reason behind her homeschooling and super strict upbringing is brought up again later and given much more explanation and I was satisfied with it. It was just the initial “I’m a lonely, homeschooled girl who can’t figure out how to talk with people” that terribly frustrated me. It probably wouldn’t bother me if I didn’t have the experience I do, but I want to make sure I write my reviews authentically and let my readers know what was going through my head while I was reading. In any event, I’ll move on now, lol.
TL;DR: I was homeschooled and reading about the stereotypical naive, socially awkward homeschooled kid is super annoying and slightly offensive.

Aside from the initial impression, I actually really liked Mallory. She’s a sweet, curious, intelligent, and sassy character. While spending time in her room, she’s watched her next door neighbor, Troy, from her window for the last several years–pining for him from afar. The only interaction she’d had with him was when they were younger, and it wasn’t a great one. In fact, she’s convinced that’s the reason he stays away from her–although she thinks it’s rather silly of him to hold a grudge for something so insignificant. But Mallory has a plan; she wants to spend her senior year in public school, and she’s determined to get the sexy bad boy next door to notice her once and for all.

The interaction between the two at the beginning is somewhat predictable; she tries to get to know him and he tells her to stay away from him. She refuses, he’s surly and somewhat mean to her, and just when she starts to give up, he decides he can’t stay away from her any longer. This is kind of YA Romance’s MO, but honestly? I am SO here for it. I absolutely love the boy ignores girl/girl tries harder to get his attention/boy tells her to stay away/girl gives up/boy realizes he can’t stand not having her around trope. I know some people are tired of it, but I still love the teenage angst and I loved the slow build up between these two.

And speaking of the characters, Troy is so different from what I first expected. When you first meet him, he’s brash, rude, obnoxious and seems just a hair too into himself. Honestly, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Sure, he’s definitely got the bad boy, rebel without a cause thing going for him; he’s an underground fighter, rides a motorcycle, takes no shit, and he’s definitely played the field plenty of times in the past, but there’s much more to him than what you see on the surface. I was pleasantly surprised with his character and he’s quickly become one of my favorite book boyfriends <3

While the first part of this book was frustrating for me, I found myself greatly enjoying the rest of it. The main characters, after their initial resistance, have such amazing chemistry and the love they share is so beautiful and raw. The secondary characters were also explained well and were given fantastic and distinct personalities. I enjoyed the friendships between each of the characters and the relationships never felt static or unrealistic. They were genuine and fun and I liked how most of the first impressions of these characters ended up being wrong. There’s also extraordinary growth that we get to see in Mallory and that was impressive to me; she learns that she was too quick to judge and had been selfish in the past and she vows to change her ways. It’s extremely admirable and I love a story where there’s a good lesson involved–this one, in particular, I think everyone should be reminded of, regardless of age.

Also…there’s a major twist in this story that I didn’t see coming at all. And the way the author tied in all the various characters involved was absolutely amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and I would wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone who enjoys the young adult genre :)

Happy reading!

I Spy The Boy Next Door is a delicious, heart-rumbling, heart-warming whale of a tale.

I mean if Troy could just pin me down with those ocean blues, that’d be great.

I’m very much a fan of the boy doesn’t want the girl (pretends not to), but the girl wants the boy, boy fights it, but they eventually wind up together trope.

Mallory is homeschooled and home-bound. But, that doesn’t stop the crush she has on Troy, The Boy Next Door.

Every day around 4, she watches him come running down the block all sweaty and hot. She’s fine with that, for now. But, her 18th birthday is approaching and she wants to go to school. Real school. The kind that requires she leaves the house. Much to her parent's chagrin, they let her go.

It’s in this letting go that Mallory finds herself and she also discovers that her crush is not so one-sided.

Troy was a boy of few words. But when he spoke and moved, it was arresting. From the way the author describes his come-hither stares, his just-barely-there smiles, I practically melted into a puddle of goo.

The romance in this one was an excruciating slow burn that had me panting for the hookup. When it does happen, it’s slow like the pouring out of ketchup in a class Heinz bottle.

But, it’s so good. So painstakingly good.

All of the characters are three dimensional and fitting and perfect for the story. I really enjoyed how the author built up relationships so efficiently and timely.

The story itself is perfectly paced and well-written, very.

And the climax to the story was surprising, I definitely wasn’t expecting it—and it gave the story a nice mystery quality.

Unpredictable, and stimulating, TBND is a great read—with an even better writer at the helm. Very enjoyable, I can’t wait to read more from this author.

Every story has its up and downs and I'm still a little on the fence of where I land on this one. There were parts I really enjoyed and parts that left me a little unfulfilled. Let me try to capture my feelings.

Mallory is an interesting character. While I sympathize with the whole home-schooled, live in a bubble, upbringing it seemed overused as an excuse for her naivety. One of her main character traits is her impulsiveness: sneaking out, drinking, fights, snooping, etc. which seems contradictory to her very sheltered outlook. For me, it seemed like two extremes that didn't quite make sense in my brain. I understand the venturing out for the first time excitement, but with her anxiety and panic attacks I feel that she would have more trepidation doing all these things. The fact that she was spying on her neighbor for 5 years while pining for him is a bit creepy as well, but let's hope that was just her naivety and social anxiety.

Despite the slightly weird "I know you've been spying on me for years" vibe that Troy has, his character is very well written. He is guarded and has several reasons to be. There's a lot of family history that makes him who he is and I really enjoyed the reveal of his angst and guarded-ness with Mallory. Forbidden fruit you might say.

There were some surprises and I did enjoy how things ended up between Mallory and her friends and family. There were some plot holes that never quite got filled but overall it was an interesting coming of age story. Learning about life, love, and how sometimes are parents are right.

I completely and utterly loved this book! I read it completely in a day I was that drawn in by the characters. This isn't your normal teen romance it had twists and turns that kept you in the dark until the very end, and what an ending! I've never read any of Samantha Armstrong's work previous to this but I've already downloaded her other publications. Its been a while since I've been sad at a book ending but this one has. Mallory and Troy are definitely staying with me for a while yet!

Maybe it's me, and I've outgrown this type of book, but I could barely get through this one, and skimmed a lot. I understand Mallory is homeschooled and sheltered, but unless she lived in a commune with no electronics her level of naïveté was astounding. And the set up to have her attend public school was laughable. So maybe I was just so annoyed at the start that I never connected with the book. But it was loooong and nothing happened until everything happened all at once near the end. Just didn't do it for me.

****4 out of 5 STARS****

This book was filled with twists and turns I wasn't expecting. It was breath of fresh air! I like to think I'm usually a pretty good guesser of story lines, and although I had a few hunches, this one left me surprised.

I Spy the Boy Next Door had elements that reminded me of some of my favorite romantic reads, it took me back to the indie community back around 2013ish.

There were a few parts that were a little slow for me. I felt that the MC's had depth but other characters were slightly lacking.

Overall though, I loved the story! And Troy, did I mention TROY?! *le sigh* I found a new book boyfriend y'all. He was that perfect broody, mysterious bad boy.

This was my first ARC that I requested and was approved to read through @netgalley ! I was really excited to read the book and felt disappointed ☹️.
Synopsis: Mallory is about to be a senior in high school and has been homeschooled her entire life. She sits at her window most days and spies on the boy next door, Troy Parker. She convinces her parents to let her go to high school for one year and finally sees Troy up close and personal. But is Mallory the only one doing the spying????
The story takes a while to “get going” with most of the dialogue consisting of Mallory’s observations and longings for Troy, short conversations between the two of them, and Troy mostly grunting as he pulls a hand through his hair. The interaction between the two main characters reminded me a little of Twilight 😐. The plot didn’t really pick up until the last quarter of the book and then felt rushed at the end. However, I did not see the twists in the story coming, so I felt excited about them! But then let down that there was only less than a quarter left in the book and knew this would all wrap up too quickly. Overall, I was left wishing I had more; in particular, more character development and a more developed plot line.
If you want a quick mystery and has the typical teenage angst and a plot twist that comes out of nowhere, this is your book!

To be honest, I was looking forward to reading this book, the blurb seemed cute and i liked the simple cover. However, while I do like reading books about highschool and cute love stories, this felt less nostalgic and more like the kind of book that was probably intended for a younger audience. That being said, I do feel the novel had too many things it wanted to be but nothing felt really developed properly, from the characters to the relationships. Unfortunately, for the most part this book fell flat for me and I kept speeding through it. The plot felt disorganised and a bit slow but then suddenly the last 1/3 of the book had several plot twist that felt too rushed and underdeveloped. I keep thinking maybe I'm just not the audience for this book. Although if this was for a younger audience I would prefer some content warning, like murder and domestic violence also can we all stop romanticising a guy sneaking in to someone's bedroom to watch them sleep, its not cute or sexy or romantic.

Funny, thrilling, laugh out loud teenage drama with loads of twist and turns. Reading this was an experience. I wish my teenage years were filled with so much excitement. Great characters, great story. Enjoyed every minute of it. It was a great book. Just can't wait to read more of samantha armstrong's books.

I really liked the start to this book and couldn't put it down through the 50-60% mark. However the plot twists that came with the second half, felt like a bit of a stretch in unbelievability. I think i would have been ok with a couple of the thematic elements but it felt like too many all at once and out of nowhere compared to the first half of the book.

Spoiler:
Also it annoyed me that the author had the Witness Protection program being oversaw by an FBI agent. It might seem like a minor thing, but it would have been easier to check accuracy and make the father a US Marshall who are the ones who monitor that program.

I think this will be a fun summer read for high schoolers but its not anything spectacular.

I enjoyed this. I connected to the character and it felt like I was right there with her, especially during her more embarrassing moments haha. All the other characters (secondary as well) were great and likable. The story held my attention until the end. Overall a good YA read!

This started off good with a 17 year old girl who has a huge crush on the boy next door that she would spy on from her bedroom window. While I thought the book was good, it got to point where it took a huge turn and then I felt it was rushed. I wish the suspense had been there more and could have had time to build instead of being thrown at me. However, I would suggest this book for YA readers. It was a good read.

I Spy the Boy Next Door started off great. I randomly started reading it, expecting nothing and everything at once and was pleasantly surprised when I found myself refusing to put it down. Soon enough, I got the impression that the story could have started somewhere at 20% of the book and it would have been a bit better since some things were just unneccessarily mentioned. But I still enjoyed it. A light young adult read was what I had been missing for some time without realising it.

Troy, the ultimate book boyfriend of the story, is the one Mallory is spying on - her neighbour. She's not really spying as much as she's crushing on him and always just watching him come home. Seriously, the 'spying' in the first chapter is as spy-like as it gets. The rest is pretty simple. Since there was a Travis Maddox remark by the author (Beautiful Disaster by Jamie McGuire), I couldn't help but picture Troy just like I have been imagining Travis for years. There are so many similarities as well, the main similarity being the boxing Troy does professionally and also illegaly. It's so easy to compare these two characters and I actually feel sorry for it. There's just so much an author can think of without making their character appear to have been copied out of another book. It can't always be an extryordinary original character. I get that. It didn't feel like cheating or copying.

Mallory had to grow on me, and just as soon as I started liking her, some things made me dislike her again. Me growing fond of her was when the author decided to give her a little confidence boost. Going out that much out of a sudden didn't seem all that natural for me, but I still liked to think that Mallory was finally doing something for herself, finding herself and who she wants to be. I mean, she never really got the chance, her parents being very strict, homeschooling her because of their angst.

And her friendship with Nic was a very special aspect for me. Nix is Mallory's best friend, her only friend up until some point of the story and her internet friend. They've never met. And what can be considered creepy is described as a well-functioning friendship. Which I loved. Seriously, more books should include that. All people having found friends online via boards (they used to be a thing around 2007), social media or something else will understand. There's always a danger involved online, but I'm glad the author didn't focus on that. It wouldn't have fit to the story.

While the beginning was a bit dragged, toward the end things were speeding up way too fast for my taste. Mallory's behaviour wasn't something I understood or could relate to - her change was way too sudden. The genre changed from young adult to new adult without warning (and without the characters aging), but the characters' behaviour giving that away. And there was just too much happening all at once. It was hard to keep track. So many informations to process, so many actions to understand. Sometimes less is more. It wasn't messy exactly, but the structure was missing. As though the author was surprised by her invention of that weird plot twist (it's really weird, coming out of the blue) herself and had too many thoughts going on, wanting to write down everything.

I Spy the Boy Next Door is a book I'd recommend to anyone who hasn't read a young adult novel in a while but is looking for a solid one. Also for those who don't mind that huge genre jump in the middle of the book. It can't be considered as my new favourite, but I still enjoyed it, kept reading because it had me hooked.

Mallory, a homeschooled naive virgin spy's on the tattooed boxer motorbike driving boy-next-door Troy. Let's give a point or two for my favourite trope (boy next door, not the rest). It .<i>was</i> a total cliche and like a mash up of other books (beautiful disaster and hopeless come to mind) but it was executed pretty well. It kept my interest and had an original twist. I won't say I didn't enjoy it but I won't say I didn't have issues with it.

There was almost <b>too</b> much happening in this story for what I assumed was going to be a cute YA. I believe it should be marketed as a NA because there were adult themes, and detailed sex. The timing of the sex scene was actually quite questionable and it's quality was hard to believe. The leads had this strong physical attraction that inspired some great chemistry, <b>yes</b>, but they never really verbally got to know each other.. so it wasn't realistic that they were promising forever. I neither liked or disliked the characters, they were all pretty cookie cutter.

I wouldn't shove this book in anyone's face but if you fancy picking it up it's not too bad.

Mallory has a huge crush on the boy next door. The only problem is that she is homeschooled and doesn't have a chance to really know him, until she begs her parents to let her attend public school. Troy Parker, the boy next door, is everything she hoped he would be. Troy acts distant from Mallory at times, yet at other times he is completely protective. This throws Mallory into a complete emotional spin as she is trying to figure out exactly what is going on with Troy and all of his mysterious ways. Does he love her or is he just playing with her emotions?

I Spy the Boy Next door is the typical high school drama of the good girl trying to get the bad boy. I think many teenage girls had this experience and the author creates a scenario in which the good girl does get the out of reach bad boy. He is protective, mysterious, romantic and a little rebellious, but still meets parent approval. The author writes with enough romance and suspense to keep your attention. The book is overall a very fun summer read that allows the reader to escape the real world for awhile.

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I will be publishing my review to the blog on Friday, May 10th, 2019. Thank you for the free copy!

I received an electronic ARC of this title from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This one hooked me from beginning to end. Mallory and Troy's story is a sweet tale of first love between the ordinary nerdy girl and the super hunky boxer who lives next door. She is a self-professed peeping tommette who lives for the time every evening when he comes back from his run and strips off his shirt in his driveway. But she doesn't know that he knows she's watching. And then one day the flames ignite.... and she sees it wasn't indifference that kept him away, but smothered feelings. The plot is nicely done, with a completely unexpected twist that nearly throws a wrench in the happy ending. This was a five star read for me.

I will not lie, it was the cover that led me to request the book for reviewing. However, the story did end up surprising me, with the clever plot twists and hidden secrets. The book starts at somewhere, follows in a different direction and ends up at a whole new place – yeah, it’s like that.

I loved Mallory's character a lot. She was just a young girl with a massive crush which led her to do some weird stuff to get his attention - and man I related to her so much. Her asking Troy on a co-drive truly cracked me up alright! I couldn't stop laughing!! At times, I did find her annoying though. Especially towards the end when she got too determined to do stuff her way. However, I excused it on the terms that she was just too curious and shaken up from the truth.

Now Troy surprised me. He was a broody young man, mysterious and secretive. His motives were completely unknown, and even though I knew he would ultimately fall for Mallory (because hello YA), I enjoyed the development nonetheless. It was adorable to see him trying to impress Mallory's parents and help her in any way. Also I totally loved him climbing into her room, no matter how scary and creepy it was.

I absolutely loved that internet friendship portrayed in the book. It was healthy and so so beautifully captured!


On first look, this book might appear to be a cliche girl and boy falls in love kinda book. But no, there’s no much more to it. The first half mostly handles the growing relationship between Mallory and Troy, and both of them working out their lives and problems. It is in the second half of the book that things start to happen, and secrets starts to unfold.

To tell the truth, I wasn’t at all anticipating or expecting such a truth bomb to burst. We learn about Mallory’s true upbringing and why she had been homeschooled for years. We learn the truth behind Troy’s hostility and his initial dislike towards Mallory. We learn so much more about the lives of the characters, and how they were intertwined.

Overall, this was an interesting and engaging read. I loved the twists and the climax! And that beautiful cover is an added bonus!

Thanks to netgalley for providing me with an e-arc of this book. All opinions expressed are fully mine.

Oh, boy. I have a lot to say about this book, and unfortunately none of it is good.

I wanted to read this book because I really liked the premise. It had a lot of potential and I love the whole secret crush on boy next door setup, and I was like... oh, this is going to be awkward/cute. Alas... I quickly realized this book was a mess, and I should've just stopped. Instead, I kept reading, and it only got worse.

First, this book is one cliche after another. The love interest, Troy, is a "bad boy" who rides a motorcycle, has tattoos, is a champion boxer, and--for kicks!--also participates in illegal underground fighting. (!!! Like, honestly! Are we missing any other "bad boy" YA mainstay here? Mother of god.) He has no personality or actual character development. All he does is "growl" and look at Mallory "seductively" when he's not being a jerk and running hot and cold with her for reasons or being Mysterious Bad Boy.

Mallory, for her part, was a bit more fleshed out because this is told from her POV, but she's a frustrating character. She's extremely sheltered, so I expected her to be naive when she started school, but unfortunately the writing is just bad. I'm sorry that is harsh, but there is something really amateur about this, and I can't think of another way to explain it. None of of the characters are relatable or sympathetic or fully realized human beings.

Their romance is honestly ridiculous. She can't even speak to him in full sentences but he's overcome by lust, I guess. And this book also romanticizes very toxic behavior that I'm really tired of seeing in romances, let alone YA. First off, she didn't just crush on the boy next door. She literally watched him from her window every single day at a set time. I mean... whatever, she perved on him. But they NEVER SPOKE except ONE TIME. And she's totally smitten with him? And he falls for her so quickly. HOW? THEY DON'T EVEN TALK. Then he starts sneaking into her window each night, and while she does eventually come to expect it because it's arranged, he sneaks in while she is sleeping. THIS. IS. NOT. ROMANTIC. I'm so sick of this TWILIGHT-throwback TOXIC behavior. Stop writing this. Period. Especially not for teens! (Also, how the hell was he able to sneak in and she able to sneak out ALL THE TIME? Her parents are VERY PROTECTIVE for ~reasons~ and watch everything she does but magically no one hears someone climbing in and out of a second story window and up/down a trellis EVERY SINGLE NIGHT?)

SPEAKING OF TEENS, I was so incredibly uncomfortable by everything sex-related in this book. Let me be clear: I think there is a place for sex in YA. Some teens have sex. Some don't. Fine. There are really responsible ways to handle this in a way that doesn't feel grossly inappropriate for TEENAGERS, like it does here. Troy may be 18, I guess, but he's still in high school. Mallory is literally a minor at 17. I do NOT need to read about Mallory's "core" and her getting turned on. If this were adult romance, it would be very tame, but it's still too explicit for YA, IMO. This is marketed as "mature YA/NA," which is... another can of worms I don't want to get into here. It's very clear to me that this is NOT written for teenagers or with teens in mind. That's a huge problem with YA right now, I'm aware, but sexualizing protagonists in books presumably written for teens, and making them completely not-relatable, is just... wow.

The pacing of this book is very off. Some of it absolutely drags, and then suddenly a ton of things happen at all once in the end. The last 1/3 or so of the book goes totally off the rails. (CW in this part for IPV, gun violence, murder.) There are some "plot twists" that I suppose made the book more interesting but also THAT MUCH MORE RIDICULOUS. Mallory in particular behaves in completely irrational ways that are unsafe. Also the research for the big plot twist... YIKES. There is so much going on, I felt like the author threw the kitchen sink into this book and didn't know what to do with it. It felt like a different book, and it wasn't well thought out or well executed. There are too many loose ends and things that are never explained, as well as things that just flat out don't make sense because either the author didn't do her research (hello, FBI) or didn't plot this tightly enough.

I was so beyond frustrated with this book and I'm left with honestly nothing positive to say about this. I absolutely DO NOT recommend reading this book.

Granted, this book had the major cliche of boy-next-door and bad boy, I still enjoyed it. I think this book was well written and had a great balance of the cute and the drama. All the cuteness comes from Troy and Mallory's relationship. And gosh, y'all how no idea how many times I felt secondhand embarrassment on Mallory's behalf, lol. I really liked the secondary characters, especially Nic. I'm pretty sure we all have our own versions of Nic in real life.

P.S. I think I want Evie and Dax to have their own book.