Across The Hall
I just finished this one at about 2am Thursday night (a work night, no less), so as you can imagine, I enjoyed it well enough. It may have robbed me of a bit of sleep, but my adrenaline levels remained steady (which means, I didn’t get to freak out 🙁 . Bummer, because I LOVE to do that when I read).
While the writing flow, to me, had it’s “iffy” moments in the beginning, it eventually held my attention, and had everything it needed to have (a troubled past, a love triangle, a scary situation and a heartbreaking moment). That said, I was glad when I was done. In fact, the end was a bit drawn out for my taste, but that’s probably just because I was ready to go to sleep, and this book wasn’t ready to say goodnight.
So here goes:
Sylvia O’Mara lives in an apartment building with her four best college friends (two guys, two girls, they’re all coupled up). She’s single and finally starting to “live” again after a four year devastating heartbreak over the boy she thought she was going to marry (what!? Four years it took her to get over him? – WOW!). He dumped her. Right before going away to college. She cried. LOTS.
But she got by with a little help from her friends (I loved all of ’em!), and she’s finally interested in dating again. And she picked up a hottie bad-boy! He’s a bit rough around the edges, and I wasn’t quite sure where “we” were going with him. I couldn’t quite crush on him fully… the author left me on the edge of their possible love story, instead of bringing me in. I wondered why.
… her eyes flew back to Sylvia. “I swear Sylvia, I didn’t know.”
Then I found out why. Someone moved across the hall from her. Someone that would most certainly catch her attention, cause lots of commotion in her new “love life” and have her second guessing her feelings, for her new boyfriend, her “new neighbor” across the hall, her past… her future.
“The bad things in life open you eyes to the good things you weren’t paying attention to before.”
But it’s not all fluff and rainbows just because she’s got a two guys vying for her attention. Because there might just be a bad guy in this one… and her personal life gets flipped on it’s head as she tries to figure out which one.
“You. Are. No. Longer. Part. Of. My. Life.” She punctuated each word with a sharp poke. “I don’t know why you are here now, and whatever the reason is, I don’t want to know it. Just stay the hell away from me.”
There were lots of sweet and fun moments with her best friends, and a heartwarming “take care of the sick friend” weekend (I love those in books because it’s where all the quite sweet bonding moments happen).
I knew I was dawdling. I wasn’t needed anymore, but I wasn’t really ready to leave, either. Suddenly my weekend alone just felt lonely.
Plenty of scary tension and aggression, but best (and saddest of all) was a HUGE emotional part. It broke my heart, and yet I connected to her the most at this point, because she felt true to life, here.
Despite frequent flipping back and forth in terms of character point of view, the interruptions eventually didn’t feel so out of place, and I could “go” with it. I picked up on the character’s rhythm, and the story really started to come together.
Overall I summed it up to my friend this way:
“I’ve finished it! It’s good. Not the end of the world great, but the tension picks up and there are a few very sad parts, and to me a very realistic moment/breakthrough. I liked it well enough, but… I might be broken now ’cause of the Christian Grey books, and think nothing compares. I can’t tell if I’m biased, and maybe really good books are just ‘good’ to me. Maybe it’s too soon 😉 ”
So there you have it. It was a good read, but I’m too anxious to find our next great read, and this wasn’t exactly it.
Oh, and… I think I think I may have found one of those *somethings* by way of my Facebook friend Ivie. One book in, (I read it in one sitting), and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it all evening. I’m dying to continue the series. More to come, cause I’ve still got to catch up on a few reviews. 😉
3.75 stars
Yeah I’m kinda with you Maryse….this book was good, but it wasn’t ‘Fifty Shades’ intense good!
I’m starting to think though that we won’t find another Fifty…it’s kinda hard to beat that kind of perfection…..we can only live in hope though!
I just finished a book called Hidden Heart, & it was very, very good! Couldn’t put it down, great story! I recommend it….
Book 2 & 3 in the Shadowlands series get even better! But I just started 4, and “meh” so far…..
Ivie!! Whaaaa?? How can Cullen only be “meh”?! I just finished book #2 (good, but I prefer #1 for some reason – I’ll explore it in my reviews). But I’m SUPER excited for Cullen….
I just finished book number 3 in Shadowlands. Prettttttttty good if I say so myself, but no where near as amazing as Grey. I think no one will be able to TOP him. Ha. Ohhhhhhh so dreamy all these men are though. There is just something about a pure Alpha male. Yummmm
I was SO excited for Cullen!!!! Maybe that’s the problem. I am only about 40% done, but so far, I really don’t like the female lead in this story. She is latin and mutters a lot of spanish under her breath…..I’m having a little more trouble relating. But it is getting better. 1 & 2 were tied for me, 3 added a little more story outside of the club. But still, Z is my fave. <3 Though #3 has the most story…
Oh GOOD!! That was one of my only complaints – that I wanted more “life” outside of the club…
I do believe Grey did ruin other books. Because I did read this one before I finished both Greys and I really did like this one besides the stumbling begining. And I thought this was good. That’s probably why I didn’t read Grey right away because I wanted to hold out and read a couple of other books first. Just like Travis alot of other books just didn’t compare for a long while. So if you haven’t read Grey yet I think this one would meet some of those expectations:) But I could be wrong too.