The Boy Next Door by Katie Van Ark

TITLE: The Boy Next Door
AUTHOR: Katie Van Ark
 (TWITTER: @kvanark)
PUBLICATION DATE: January 6th 2015
MY RATING: ★★★★★ 
MORE ABOUT THE BOOK
Amazon | Indiebound | Barnes and Noble

I was originally going to give this book a 3 stars but as I was typing, I grew more and more annoyed with this book, so one star it is.

Maddy Spier has been in love with the boy next door forever. As her skating partner, she spends a lot of time with him. Gabe, can't imagine a life without the girl next door. She's been his skating partner since they were children. And together, they have a big chance of winning gold medals. When their coach assigns a new romantic program, everything changes. Could this be Maddy's chance to be viewed as a girl, not a sister, or could this be what Gabe has been always afraid of, being a guy who haven't had a relationship that lasted for more than two weeks?

I've read a blurb of this book last year, when I was reading another Swoon Reads book and it got me really excited. Just from reading the synopsis, I knew I'm going to like it.
Halfway through, though, I was pissed with the characters and the flow of the story. This was angst-ier than I imagined it would be.

The pacing is slow. The characters, Gabe and Maddy are a royal pain in the ass; they're so dramatic and their disagreements are immature. Yes, they're sweet with each other but it feels forced.
I thought that was the end of it, but no, they have to add more drama so that it wouldn't be just another young adult romance. The problem was, the added drama is a bit spineless; it isn't really explained that well. It's just another drama that passed by.

To say that I was disappointed with this book was an understatement. I really had an unmet high expectation.