Early Book Review: Her Marine Next Door by Aliyah Burke

Her Marine Next Door by Aliyah Burke is currently scheduled for release on December 14 2020. My next door neighbor Parker Jax is not my type. He’s covered in tats, rides a motorcycle, and his parties keep me up all night. The fact he’s sexy as sin doesn’t change the fact we are oil and water. I’m a quiet artist. He’s a rowdy marine. I’ve got a broken heart. I’m convinced he doesn’t have a heart at all. Thankfully, my bad-boy neighbor is on leave from the Marines for only thirty days. But then the jerk has to go and show me that he has a soft side beneath all those hard muscles. He actually leaves his own party to help me, and he didn’t even have to. I’m not worried, though. What are the chances he’ll need me to do anything before the month is up? But when a woman shows up with a kid at her side, knocking on Parker’s door, it turns out those chances are pretty good.

Her Marine Next Door is a frenemies to love romance. Parker and Skylar do not get along, they spar verbally just about every time the two neighbors interact. The attraction is just as strong as the irritation they seem to cause in each other. They both have more issues tan apparent at first glance, and there are more than are examined in the story. I felt like we got a bit more of Skylar's trauma than Parker's, and I feel like he has some lingering childhood issues based on some of the family interactions in the book. Those that do not like frank words about physical attraction are going to be annoyed right of the bat with this book, but I like the fact that Skylar is honest with herself about her attraction to Parker, even though she has no intention of exploring it at first. I thought some oft he secondary characters were very well built, and I would have liked to know more about most of them. There were some great moments of interaction and self reflection for both Skylar and Parker, and there were other moments that a little flat to me, lacking emotion or depth. I think the ideas were great, but maybe the amount of emotional subplots each needed a substantial amount of attention and there was just too much to give each part the attention it deserved. 

Her Marine Next Door is a solid contemporary romance with several layers and plenty of heat.