Early Book Review: The Aussie Next Door (Patterson's Bluff) by Stefanie London

The Aussie Next Door by Stefanie London is the first book in the Patterson's Bluff series. It is currently scheduled for release on August 27 2019. 

American Angie Donovan has never wanted much. When you grow up getting bounced from foster home to foster home, you learn not to become attached to anything, anyone, or any place. But it only took her two days to fall in love with Australia. With her visa clock ticking, surely she can fall in love with an Australian—and get hitched—in two months. Especially if he’s as hot and funny as her next-door neighbor. Jace Walters has never wanted much—except a bathroom he didn’t have to share. The last cookie all to himself. And solitude. But when you grow up in a family of seven, you can kiss those things goodbye. He’s finally living alone and working on his syndicated comic strip in privacy. Sure, his American neighbor is distractingly sexy and annoyingly nosy, but she’ll be gone in a few months. Except now she’s determined to find her perfect match by checking out every eligible male in the town, and her choices are even more distracting. So why does it suddenly feel like he—and his obnoxious tight-knit family, and even these two wayward dogs—could be exactly what she needs?
The Aussie Next Door takes two wonderful people, with their own trust issues, and makes them work for a happy ending. Angie has been through in her life and all she wants is love and to help others. She slaps on a happy face and acts like everything is perfect even when her world seems to be crumbling around her. Jace needs his routines, and is set in his ways. He does not believe that he can be loved and accepted as he is because of his past. They both are so worried about getting hurt or ruining things that they are the cause of the majority of their own issues. I enjoyed getting to know both the characters very much, and liked hpw Jace's autism was handled in a matter of fact and realistic way. I love that it is a slow burn, friends to more story- and that the small town and big family tropes are also used. All of the characters and the setting are so well described and real to me that I want to go visit and meet them all- if only the trip would not take so long. I loved Jace's family- and think that the introduction of the secondary characters was well done, leaving me wanting to know more about what might happen to them and how they might find their own happy ending, but not with cliff hangers or big questions to leave me in suspense. It was a good balance. 
The Aussie Next Door is a sweet contemporary romance with a realistic look at how we are sometimes our own biggest barriers when it comes to making relationships work. It is sweet, tackles some real issues, and offers a believable HEA.

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