I loved it! It had everything I love in a book - romance, drama, first times, reconnection, HEA. The MCs were adorable (although how one doesn't know a cock has been inserted in your ass, I don't know) and were equally as flawed and relatable once grown up.

My only complaint is that I would have liked a little more drawing out of their reconnection. It felt a bit rushed, but I do like my angst so it could be just me. :)


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I always love G.A. Hauser's books, they are easy to read and very romantic, with a 'acid' side, it's not easy to explain, but her romances are never too sugary, since there is always a bit of naughty side in her characters.

The Boy Next Door is a coming of age book. I didn't expect that a great part of the book is dedicated to the relationship between Brandon and Zach when they where stil two teens in heat. Brandon and Zach always live next door, and since they were one years old, everything they did they did it together: the first sexual curiosity, the first hot glances to a naked body... and since they did all together, they did also the first sexual experience together and with each other. First kiss and eventually first time sex. But unfortunately their parents were not so glad of it and they torn them apart, sending Zach to Boston and Brandon to New York and Zach's parents managed to lose contact. When Brandon meets again Zach, he is a successful journalist, openly gay, and instead Zach is a soon-to-be divorced womanizer... something is happened in Zach's past. Is he ready to leave the past behind and build something new with Brandon?

I always like the story involving teens, and so I'm very happy to find that most of the book is spent telling us the story of Zach and Brandon as young boys. My only regret is that the book is relative short, 170 pages. I said 'relative', since this is not a short novel, but since the two characters are so nice, and I like them, I'd like to read more, and I think it'd be interesting to read about Zach and Brandon as adults, and how they manage to be together; I feel like the second part of the story is too fast, and like I'm not just ready to leave Zach and Brandon and their story.

Brandon is apparently the shier boy, he has already realized to be in love with Zach but he fears to reveal his feeling to the other boy, he doesn't want to be reject by Zach. And so he is surprise, but happy, when the other boy makes the first move. But Zach, even if eager to be with Brandon, and always the first to push the sexual boundaries and to experiment with their young bodies, he is also the first to fear the reaction of the people, above all of their parents, but also of strangers. He thinks to be ready to give free rein to his body demands, but he is not ready to openly claim his sexuality. In this aspect, Brandon is much more adult.

After all, probably nor Zach or Brandon were enough grown for what they had. Since they were always together, they arrived too much soon to something that other people find further in their life. And since they were not ready to claim their love, it was easier for their parents to stop them. But as adults, I don't think the situation is much more different: Brandon is still the more balanced between the two, and Zach is still the one struggling with his own sexuality.

Both Zach and Brandon are not 'noble' characters. This is one of the characteristic that I always find in Hauser's characters: they are men who mistake and mistake badly, but more often than not, find a justification for their action and with it an absolution; worst, sometime they also continue to behave badly, if this allow them to obtain what they want, sooner and in an easy way. So why I like them so much? maybe since they are not the perfect hero of the fable and they are more similar to the real people, and so to me.

In all the book I found only one thing that didn't ring right to me: the easiness in which Brandon and Zach approach sex, above all anal sex... it was all too simple, all went to right and without problem... don't know maybe it's only a 'female' perception, and for two boys things are different.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B001BXWMD8/?tag=elimyrevandra-20