I had a good time the first 30% and was intrigued by the meta concept of book within a book but quickly became disinterested. I really don't care for the amount of dishonesty and fake behavior. I was trying to excuse it in the first case but when it became evident every character was just lying and fake I checked out. I was pretty over it at 70% and tempted to DNF. I really wasn't rooting for any of the characters as a I finished it.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

If you know what's good for you, you will read this book. I could not put it down.

I felt like I was on a rollercoaster, let me tell you. There were a lot of ups and downs, and a lot of people were hurt. It was written so well MY heart hurt to see these characters hurt. There was so, so much growth for both MC as well as a few others, but Nora and MC by far grew the most.

MC is a people pleaser to say the least, and puts everyone's feelings before her own. She lets people walk over her to get what they want and she'll hold their hand while they do it. Nora is quite literally the opposite, and she doesn't give a damn what anyone thinks about her. There was so much realness to this book, and there were characters I didn't want to like, but couldn't help myself and loved them anyways. What I loved was that MC put in the effort to rebuild her relationship with her brother and reconnected, realizing that she missed a lot more than she thought.

Y'all almost had me at the end, and I NEED MORE. Girl Next Door may ruin books for me for a bit because it's the type of book that makes you feel like "what could literally be better than this one?" I'm gonna need a day or two to recuperate from this 100/10 book, and I WILL be purchasing a copy when it comes out to simply read it again.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC, and thank you Rachel Meredith for writing a fantastic novel.

I very much enjoyed this book about small towns, high school, journalistic ethics and falling in love. The use of MC for themain character made me chuckle many times.
Recommend!

I normally am not the biggest fan of romance novels but I decided to pick this one up on a whim and I'm really glad I did! I really enjoyed this book but kept yelling "JUST TELL EACH OTHER THE TRUTH!!!!" while reading it. This is a fun and light hearted read that I could see myself picking up again whenever I need to be pulled out of a reading slump.

A nostalgic hometown romance that hooks you right from the start. Every character in Girl Next Door has something to hide, and those secrets get revealed in the midst of a juicy love story full of twists and turns. Rachel Meredith has crafted a moving story about reckoning who you once were with who you want to be.

Okay, when I tell you everything going on in this book, you're going to think Rachel Meredith is simply Doing Too Much — but you would be wrong! She stitches together every element of this second-chance romance with deftness and elegance!

In high school, MC and Nora were kinda friends/kinda colleagues at their high school's literary magazine. Nora was cold and bossy, which MC thought was because Nora didn't like her. Turns out Nora was *extra* cold and bossy to MC because she super-duper liked her. They haven't talked in almost a decade, but when MC finds out Nora wrote a secret best-selling romance with their high school friendship as the thinly veiled plot, she heads home to find out why. What she discovers is that she's remembering part of their relationship right and part of it wrong because she was too insecure to see what was actually happening with her and Nora when they were teenagers. MC starts falling for her all over again, almost immediately. The flashbacks of their high school years made me swoon, their present day romance made me swoon, their texts made me swoon, the way Nora wrote their fictional counterparts made me swoon, even the POETRY made me swoon. I always say that the best romances feel like getting sucker-punched, and Girl Next Door did it to me MULTIPLE TIMES.

My only issue with this book is I think Joe's a real villain! Other than his quick forgiveness subplot, I absolutely adored it.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Perennial for the opportunity to read this book and provide an honest review.

It’s gay and it slaps! My penchant for queer romance has led me to read a lot of just okay books, but every so often I hit a gem. Girl Next Door is one of those gems. The premise is fantastic: M.C. 's best friend Joe, a culture writer, discovers that the anonymously-published bestselling book “Girl Next Door” is essentially a direct retelling of their high school years with M.C. 's analog starring as the love interest opposite her real-life neighbor Nora. The kicker? Nora and M.C. never dated. According to M.C., they were barely acquaintances. Joe, desperately looking for the big story that will save his career, begs M.C. to return to their small town and get the scoop on Nora so that he can reveal her identity for clicks. This reconnaissance mission goes awry when M.C. finds herself catching real feelings for Nora.

All of the characters in Girl Next Door felt incredibly real. Our main love interests and the supporting cast all had history and the relationships between them were complicated and messy. Girl Next Door doesn’t just explore a burgeoning romance – it also explores the complexity of sibling relationships and the lack of direction that comes from being in your mid-twenties.