The Boy Next Story (Bookish Boyfriends #2)

by Tiffany Schmidt

Overview

The second book in a series where your favorite literary characters come to life, inspired by the timeless classic, Little Women!

There’s no one better than the boy next door. At least not according to Aurora Campbell, fourteen, who has been in love with Tobias May since their very first sandbox kiss. The problem is, he’s in love with her older sister, Merrilee. And Merri is already dating one of his best friends.

Rory is learning all about pining as her class reads The Great Gatsby, a book she doesn’t find “great” at all. Also not great—her GPA, something she needs to fix, quickly, if she’d like to apply for the chance to spend a week studying art with her hero in New York City over winter break. But when Ms. Gregoire assigns her to read Little Women for extra credit, Rory discovers more than she expected—both about herself and Toby. Maybe she wasn’t in love with the boy next door. . . but the boy next story.

Love is complicated, and it’s all about to get even trickier for Rory at Reginald R. Hero Prep . . . where with the help of one quirky English teacher, students’ fantasies come true, often with surprising consequences.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781419734366
Publisher:	Amulet Paperbacks
Publication date:	05/21/2019
Series:	Bookish Boyfriends , #2
Pages:	448
Sales rank:	475,068
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.10(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	12 - 18 Years

About the Author

Tiffany Schmidt is a former sixth-grade teacher living and creating mischief in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. She’s married to a saint, the mother of three impish boys, and the owner of a pair of mischievous pups. She is the author of many acclaimed young adult novels, including I’m Dreaming of a Wyatt Christmas, Send Me a Sign and the Bookish Boyfriends series. Tiffany believes in happy endings, reading under the covers, make believe, eating dessert before dinner, and writing the kissing scenes first.

Editorial Reviews

"This light rom-com holds heartbreak, surprises, and significant Campbell family dynamics that will hit home with many teens."

Booklist

"This light rom-com holds heartbreak, surprises, and significant Campbell family dynamics that will hit home with many teens."

Booklist

06/14/2019

Gr 7 Up-In the second book of this series, Rory takes center stage. She is deeply infatuated with Toby, the boy next door and her older sister Merri's best friend. When Rory's new friends Huck and Clara offer to help her get Toby's attention, Rory decides it's worth a try. At the same time, they're reading The Great Gatsby in English class. Seeing parallels between her life and Gatsby's, Rory decides to change her course and give up on Toby. She struggles with all her classes except art, which is the one good thing about transferring to Hero High. Toby offers to help her with math and the more time they spend together, the more Rory realizes she never really knew the boy next door at all. Rory is a relatable narrator. She faces struggles with school, meeting new people, and the anxiety of feeling not good enough. The story is easy to follow even if it changes halfway through from a loose retelling of The Great Gatsby to Little Women. There are several laugh-out-loud moments and the secondary characters are developed. VERDICT Recommend to fans of the first novel and fans of realistic romance.-Natalie Struecker, Cedar Rapids Public Library, IA

School Library Journal

2019-02-20

The Campbell girls' (mis)adventures at Hero High pick up without missing a beat in this follow-up to Bookish Boyfriends (2018).

Merri has adjusted to high school and is now dating Fielding, the headmaster's son. She's also assisting older sister Lilly with her upcoming nuptials. Meanwhile youngest sister Rory is feeling like the odd-man out. Rory's sophomore mentor, Toby, who is supposed to help her acclimate to the school, is so smitten with Merri that he does not always seem to remember Rory; Toby certainly doesn't notice that Rory has fallen for him. Merri and Lilly leave Rory out of wedding planning, and ordinarily, Rory would escape into her art, but upperclassmen jealous of her talent are deliberately sabotaging her work. What's a girl to do? If English teacher Ms. Gregoire has anything to say about it, Rory will take a page from a classic. If The Great Gatsby, with its pining protagonist, doesn't suit her, then how about Little Women? Told in the first-person, Rory takes cues from literature, attaining great insights about her self-worth and expectations for love. The love focus is so exclusive that secondary characters and plotlines fall into the background, including the possibility of a life-changing opportunity to study with an illustrious New York City artist. The Campbells are white, Toby is Latinx, and ethnicity is difficult to determine for other characters.

Even if one-note, Rory's story will still ring a chord with die-hard romantics. (Fiction. 12-15)

Kirkus Reviews