The Boy Most Likely To (My Life Next Door, #2) by Huntley Fitzpatrick
Series: My Life Next Door #2
Published by Dial Books on August 18th 2015
Genres: Contemporary
Pages: 432
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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A surprising, utterly romantic companion to My Life Next Door—great for fans of Sarah Dessen and Jenny Han Tim Mason was The Boy Most Likely To find the liquor cabinet blindfolded, need a liver transplant, and drive his car into a houseAlice Garrett was The Girl Most Likely To . . . well, not date her little brother’s baggage-burdened best friend, for starters.For Tim, it wouldn’t be smart to fall for Alice. For Alice, nothing could be scarier than falling for Tim. But Tim has never been known for making the smart choice, and Alice is starting to wonder if the “smart” choice is always the right one. When these two crash into each other, they crash hard.Then the unexpected consequences of Tim’s wild days come back to shock him. He finds himself in a situation that isn’t all it appears to be, that he never could have predicted . . . but maybe should have.And Alice is caught in the middle.Told in Tim’s and Alice’s distinctive, disarming, entirely compelling voices, this novel is for readers of The Spectacular Now, Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, and Paper Towns.

Is it any surprise that this book is getting 5 shoes from me? Contemporary is my jam and Huntley Fitzpatrick is amazing. If you thought My Life Next Door was good, you’ll  love this one just as much, if not more.

It took me no time at all to dive right back into the world of the Garretts.  I admit that I re-read My Life Next Door right before starting this one so maybe that had something to do with it but the re-read was not necessary at all.  I’ll say now that I do recommend reading My Life Next Door before you read this one though (I mean, if there is anyone out there who hasn’t read it already.)  The Boy Most Likely To picks up right after the events at the end of My Life Next Door and being able to read from Alice’s point of view shows things in a whole new light.  Alice and Tim each get about equal time narrating and I wasn’t sure how I’d feel about that at first.  I was really looking forward to reading from Tim’s point of view but I didn’t care all that much for Alice in My Life Next Door.  I felt the same way at the beginning of The Boy Most Likely To but she grew on me pretty quickly.  Alice and Tim are both forced to grow up too soon because of their circumstances.  Tim’s circumstances have more to do with his own crappy decisions but that didn’t change how I felt for him.  Alice, on the other hand, didn’t really have much of a choice when it came to her situation.  Because of the accident with her dad, it was on her and her older siblings to take care of the little ones and keep the shop open and attempt to figure out how to pay for everything.  I was exhausted just reading about all she had to put up with because of the accident.  Lucky for her though Tim stepped up his game and was there to help.

The Garrett family takes center stage in The Boy Most Likely To and I only thought I adored them in My Life Next Door.  I only have one sibling and I always thought that was enough for me but if my siblings were anything like the Garretts, I would want a ton of them.  George was just as cute as ever but I think Patsy really won me over in this one.  Her, I guess you could call it relationship, with Tim was so dang cute.  Oh my gosh, she adored him.  Who wouldn’t, right?  That girl may be a baby but she’s already got good taste.  Any time Tim was in the room, she wanted to be with him.  And to make Tim even more perfect, he loved her too.  And I can’t mention the Garretts without mentioning Jase.  Yes he’s back, yes he’s awesome, yes I still love him.  I don’t think that boy could do anything to make me not love him.  I don’t know what I would do if someone told me to choose between Tim or Jase because I love them both for very different reasons.

It’s hard for me to go into detail without giving things away about the story but let’s just say that Tim’s situation wasn’t really surprising to me at all but that doesn’t mean Huntley Fitzpatrick didn’t surprise me more than once in The Boy Most Likely To.  From the very first page of the book I was proud of Tim for taking things into his own hands.  He royally screwed up his life but he realized what happened and he decided it was time to change things.  Sure he continued to do some stupid things but he always found his way back on track.  I think Alice helped a lot with that and of course Jase did too.  Alice was a hard nut to crack.  She was a little cold and standoffish at first but that was just her way of protecting herself and her family.  I came to understand her pretty quickly and her relationship with Tim didn’t make sense but it was perfect for them.  That wasn’t the only relationship of the book though.  Tim and Nan really had to take a look at how they affected each other.  I’ll admit, I’m still not a fan of Nan, but seeing her with Tim really showed how she became that person.

I think one of the things about Huntley Fitzpatrick’s books that just gets me is how they aren’t just romances.  There is always something more going on with the characters and there is always some kind of lesson that can be learned if you look hard enough.  I’m not saying her books are preachy or anything like that but they also aren’t just fluff.  They are the perfect balance between the two.  And yeah, the romance doesn’t hurt either.  If you thought Jase and Samantha had chemistry, just wait until you read about Tim and Alice.  Ooh boy!

Overall, The Boy Most Likely To broke my heart and put it back together again.  If it was up to me I’d just have Huntley Fitzpatrick write books about all the Garretts.  Seriously.  I’d read that series over and over again.  However, since that probably won’t happen, I’ll settle for rereading My Life Next Door and The Boy Most Likely To over and over again.

What others are saying about The Boy Most Likely To:

Christina Reads YA’s review: “Although I liked My Left Next Door more — because I am more like Jase/Sam and I would take Jase over Tim lol any day — I’m pretty sure that fans of MLND will love this sequel and the rising stakes that have been laid.”

The Eater of Books’ review: “Overall, I liked the book – I just did not love it, and felt disappointed by it.”

Universal Longings’ review: “As far as characters go, I think this is Huntley Fitzpatrick’s strongest book yet.”