The Next Door Boys by Jolene Perry

From Goodreads: With her body still recovering from last year's cancer treatments, Leigh Tressman is determined to be independent. Despite the interference from her overprotective brother, physical frustrations, and spiritual dilemmas— not to mention the ever expanding line of young men ready to fall in love with her— Leigh discovers what it actually means to stand on her own and learns that love can be found in unexpected but delightful places.

This is an LDS fiction novel that I picked up on NetGalley.  (Don't we just love NetGalley?!)  I wasn't sure how I was going to like this book because I was afraid that it was going to get too drama-ish for me based on the whole cancer part of the story.  I tend to like to avoid books that deal in depth with hard, real life sort of stuff.  I live THAT life.  When I read, I want to escape.  I'm happy to say that this was for me, a perfectly happy balance of real life and romantic fiction.  The real life issues were there without dragging you down.


Even though Leigh thought her family to be overprotective, she also realized just how much they loved her and wanted her to be happy.  I thought Leigh's feelings of being smothered and overprotected were understandable and I felt like I gained some insight into how someone might feel in her situation. Cancer is such a hard thing and so many people struggle with it's effects.  It's such a crummy thing.


The characters all felt very real to me.  Imperfect people trying to do good and be good, making mistakes along the way.  Often it is those very mistakes that mold us into the better people we need to be.  I think it's experience and wisdom and that leads to empathy and understanding.  Hopefully.


The light and fluffy romance was fun and flirty but it was the slow developing romace that ended up being very satisfying in the end.


I really enjoyed this book.  It was a pleasure to read.  :)