I spy the boy next door by Samantha Armstrong

Mallory Taylor has been homeschooled for all her life. When she was a child, she was almost kidnapped, so understandably her parents have a good reason to be overprotective (although their later behaviour in the book made me question this premise). Now that Mallory is almost 18, she finally gets her wish granted- she can go to the local public school and finally meet her long time crush/ neighbour Troy Parker.

Mallory might excel at maths and physics, but as far as human relationships go, she hasn't got much experience. Her only friend Nicole is also homeschooled and they have never even met in real life. Her parents have been hoping she would form a close relationship with Kaitlyn, their friend's daughter, who was pulled out of school because of bullying, but they just never clicked. Once Mallory is at school, she is surprisingly quick to make a few friends, and start dating the object of her inexplicable obsession Troy. A series of unexpected twists and what started out as a YA romance turns into quite a thriller.

I'm still in two minds about this book. On one hand, it was a very fast read and I didn't feel tempted to skip anything and go to the end. On the other hand, a lot of it sounded too familiar.

As far as the characters are concerned, Mallory was a bit of hit and miss with me. Some of the things she said didn't sound natural or necessary (why she had to swear at Troy is a bit of a mystery for me as well as his lack of reaction to being called a few unpleasant names). Troy's character and motivations could have been developed more, but here I'm willing to make allowances, as we have only Mallory's POV. I would have also liked to know more about Mallory's new friends and a lot more about her parents.

The ending was a bit too fast for me, while some of the explanations that were supposed to tie the loose ends just confused me. Personally, I would have preferred a tiny bit of foreshadowing.

Thank you to NetGalley and Samantha Armstrong /Expresso Book Tours for the ARC provided in exchange for an honest opinion.