Graham Wallace is a likable 16 year old boy, who live in a very small town near Williamsburg, VA. He feels like he's loved his next door neighbor and friend Sarah Clarke his whole life. Buts she been dating his best friend for the two years. It's almost Christmas when he makes a wish on a shooting star. The next morning he wakes up and finds that Sarah is his girlfriend.

Things I liked:
Squeaky clean (some kisses), YA novel
Nice holiday vibes - Christmas dance, tree decorating contests, Christmas parade
Unusual in told entirely from Graham's POV

Things that didn't excite me:
When Graham gets his wish he doesn't become the positive boyfriend he should be. For example, he wants Sarah's family to like him but intentionally slows down in the contest. It takes him mom to point out ways he can be positive for Sarah. He kind of wants boyfriend status without putting in any effort.
Not really sure why he loves Sarah other than he's known her forever.
The drama with Piper at the end turns makes the book turn very serious.

Overall a quick, easy holiday read. I enjoyed it while I was reading but thinking about the details afterwards I realize I'm not sure what he learned from the experience other than everyone ends up with who they should. Thank you to NetGalley and Wise Wolf Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a light YA holiday romance with a protagonist I found only mildly tolerable. In the beginning, his feelings for Sarah made me sympathetic towards his situation, but then his behavior began to irritate. He was jealous over someone other than his girlfriend. He was pushy and kept wanting Sarah to be how she was before the wish. One particular moment that made me dislike him even more was how he treated Sarah’s family after asking them to let him participate with them in a Christmas competition. He was disrespectful about their competitive spirit despite insisting he be part of the team.

While not exactly along the lines of the blurb that being together brings out the worse in Sarah and Graham, being together doesn’t bring out the best in them. Their changed behaviors are part of the ripple effects of the wish, and I thought this was done fairly well. I liked how this is a gradual realization with Graham understanding that a single decision can have unintended consequences. In turn, he grows as a character and belatedly comes to realize that the things you wish for are not always what is best. Yes, the grass is not always greener on the other side.

While the book doesn’t offer anything particularly new, it reminded me why I love books and movies with these plotlines. They’re reminders for us to appreciate our present, and maybe things happen for a reason. We might not get everything we want, and, sometimes, what we want isn’t necessarily what we need. There might be something even better waiting around the corner if we are patient enough. Readers who want a holiday read and are looking for a predictable plot without the angst will enjoy All I Want for Christmas is the Girl Next Door.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wise Wolf Books for my copy of All I Want for Christmas is the Girl Next Door by Chelsea Bobulski in exchange for an honest review. It publishes October 28, 2021.
I just love these books! Bobulski is such a skilled writer, and makes YA enjoyable again! I've been so bored or annoyed with YA that I've given up hope of ever enjoying it again, but these sounded so cute, and I'm glad I tried!
I loved the feel of this, it reminded me a bit of Hallmark-type movies from yesteryear. Not the same formula you typically get, but little familiar elements with a good twist of unique!
I can't wait to read the rest of the books in this series!

Some things are just meant to be.

This was such a cute christmas read. The story was very sweet and the content was very clean, so it is definitely appropriate for younger readers as well.

Graham has always wanted his dream girl, the girl next door. He gets his wish, but as the story continues to unfold, he will realize how not everything we think we want, is really meant to be.

Can't wait to read the other books in this series.

Be careful what you wish for!

Graham has been in love with his best friend Sarah for years, unfortunately for the past 2 years she has been dating his friend!

He is silently standing by and waiting for them to break up. Until one night he wishes on a star and the Be careful what you wish for!

Graham has been in love with his best friend Sarah for years, unfortunately for the past 2 years she has been dating his friend!

He is silently standing by and waiting for them to break up. Until one night he wishes on a star and the next day he finds out he’s been dating Sarah for 2 years, so he finally has the girl of his dreams, so why is he constantly thinking about Piper, the new girl in town and his co-worker.
Graham’s wish changes everything, more than he could ever expect.

This was such a fun book to read. There are some laugh out loud parts and some really sweet parts.
This is my first book by this author and it will not be my last next day he finds out he’s been dating Sarah for 2 years, so he finally has the girl of his dreams, so why is he constantly thinking about Piper, the new girl in town and his co-worker.
Graham’s wish changes everything, more than he could ever expect.

This was such a fun book to read. There are some laugh out loud parts and some really sweet parts.
This is my first book by this author and it will not be my last

Such a fun Christmas read!

This YA Contemporary Christmas Romance was beyond cute!

Graham wants his gal best friend Sarah as more than friends. but she is dating his guy best friend. So what does he do? Graham makes a wish for Sarah to have been dating him for the past two years instead of Jeremey. And oh the life lessons Graham will learn through this one tiny wish!

If you are looking for an easy, quick read for this Christmas season, I highly recommend giving this book a go. It’s got humor, witty banter, bookish nods, and romance! I’m really excited to read the next story installment to this series!

This is a good book. The two main characters are Piper and Graham. Graham has been friends with the girl next door for all his life. He thinks he is love with Sarah his next door neighbor. But he comes to find out he is just friends with Sarah. He is really interested in Piper. Graham and Piper has some issues to work out together. They fall in love.

This is a teen adaptation of It's A Wonderful Life. I enjoyed this book, and it's definitely not as cheesy as some of the others I've read this year. But there were a few times I put it down to read something with more plot. I definitely didn't expect the climax or falling action- unexpected in a good way. This is a great gift for a teen who celebrates Christmas.

I received this book for free for an honest review from netgalley #netgalley

Wonderful story. It was very engaging.

Rating: 3.5 Stars

Graham had heart-eyes for his neighbor for years. The only problem was that he was solidly in the friend-zone while Sarah dated his best friend. After a disastrous reveal of his true feelings, Graham wished upon a star and woke up in a world where he and Sarah were together. When reality doesn't match his expectations, Graham was left hoping he could undo this wish.

This was cute. I definitely saw the It's a Wonderful Life threads running through the story. Bobulski did a nice job with the ripples his wish caused in his world, and I was very pleased with Graham's growth. I will tell you right now, Graham's behavior before the wish was a bit unacceptable, however, I understand that I needed to see him at his worst in order to appreciate how much he progressed.

One thing I liked most about this story was one of the BIG reasons I wanted to read it - holiday fun and feels. The town of Christmas was all sorts of adorable, and I reveled in all the holiday activity. That's where this book shined for me and warmed my Hallmarkie heart. I also enjoyed the Graham's family and the friendship that formed between him and Piper.

Overall: I enjoyed this riff on It's a Wonderful Life which was filled with lots of holiday warmth and cheer.

*ARC provided in exchange for an honest review.

I requested this book on a whim and I’m so glad I did! It was cute, sweet, fun, and a very realistic YA. One of my favorite movies from childhood is the Disney Channel Original Movie Wish Upon A Star (starring Katherine Heigl as a teenager) where two sisters wish on a shooting star that they could have the other’s life. It comes true and over the course of the movie, they learn a lot about themselves and what they truly want out of life.

That movie with a little It’s a Wonderful Life?! So fun and so festive but still has a ton of heart without leaning into the Hallmark Christmas cheese.

Synopsis:

“It's a Wonderful Life meets Wish Upon A Star in this Christmas-themed young adult contemporary romance.  

Graham Wallace has been in love with the girl next door for a decade. Unfortunately, she's been dating his best friend for the past two years. Out of sheer desperation, Graham makes a wish on a shooting star—all he wants for Christmas is Sarah Clarke.

When Graham wakes up the next morning, everything has changed, and he's the one who's been dating Sarah for the past two years, not his best friend. Graham assumes the wish would have only come true if he and Sarah were meant to be together, but as it becomes clear that he and Sarah bring out the worst in each other, not the best, and as he starts to fall for the new girl in town, Graham wonders if some wishes come true in order to show us what's not meant to be. “ —NetGalley

What I Liked:

The Story—It’s a Wonderful Life meets Wish Upon a Star? Sign me up. I love the trope of thinking you have what you’ve always wanted, only to come to the realization that the life you wanted isn’t the life you need. I thought it was so cute and well done!

The Pacing—I started this book at 9pm one night and stayed up til midnight, then finished it right when I woke up the next morning. Less than a 12 hour read. It moved, I wanted to keep reading, the story made sense.

Perfect Amount of Christmas and Contemporary—It may take place in a small town called Christmas, but I didn’t find the story to be too cheesy at all! It felt very To All the Boys I Loved Before.

What Didn’t Work:

Mentions of Diet Culture—One character is a ballerina so in the alternate universe, she takes things to the extreme. It does not go into ED territory, but there are several mentions of dieting, starving oneself, “supporting” a partner who’s on a diet and I didn’t like it. However, I do understand it was the alternate reality, so it may have been extreme as a device.

Mentions of Religion/God/Spirituality—I normally don’t like this, but I didn’t find it to be too obtrusive to the story. But, a heads up if small mentions of spirituality/church bother you. It is NOT preachy in any sense, but just something I feel like is important to note. It doesn’t take away from the story.

Content Warnings:

Dieting

Character Authenticity: 4/5 Steam Rating: N/A as this is a YA novel! Overall Rating: 3.75/5

This was nice read. Good for a holiday love story or if you’re in the mood for a light, fast read. It’s definitely Hallmark material with a sweet, predictable ending. It was nice to see pining from a different perspective. Guy wants girl until her realizes maybe he doesn’t. My only problem was it didn’t feel like he had much chemistry with either girl. Still, it was a decent read and I would recommend others check it out.

Thanks to NetGalley and the Publisher for ARC.

Honestly, I could not make it through this book. The pacing is incredibly slow, and the dialogue does little to move it along. The first act, as it were, was slightly convoluted and more than slightly wordy, making it hard for me to concentrate and absorb any plot points. I'm really sorry!

I really enjoyed this book and appreciated the fact that it was just an innocent story about a boy who loves a girl (of course there's much more to the story than that). It was nice to read a story without profanity, drug and alcohol use, explicit sex, etc.

Thank you to Chelsea Bobulski, Net Galley, and the publisher for allowing me to read an advanced copy.

For anyone with unrequited love on the brain and they wonder "what if" the object of my affection is mine, this title may have you realizing the dream isn't what you think it is.

Graham has been in love with his next-door neighbor Sarah for years. They are close friends, but she is another friend's girlfriend.

After confessing his love, he sees a shooting star and makes a wish. That Sarah was his girlfriend.

He gets the wish, but soon discovers that they are not good for each other like he thought.

Fun Christmas themed story.

A sweet and compulsively readable YA romance starring a male lead and a town called Christmas. Five stars.

Graham has been in love with his best friend, Sarah, forever - but Sarah is dating Graham's friend Jeremy. With the Winter Formal looming and nobody to go with except the new girl, Piper, Graham's holiday season isn't looking too festive. Then Graham's shooting-star wish that Sarah were with him instead of Jeremy is granted... launching an alternate reality in which Sarah and Graham are together. Everything is perfect, except Jeremy and Piper aren't too happy... and neither, it turns out, are Graham and Sarah.

This book was such a fun read. I loved the male protagonist's narration, his relationship with Sarah in the two realities, and the various quirky side characters. I would have liked to see more pages devoted to the original reality, especially in the opening chapters to flesh out Graham and Sarah's relationship and his love for her. I would also have liked to see more of Graham and Jeremy's friendship in both realities. The fact that Sarah is dating someone Graham really cares about is a wonderful plot complication, and the consequences for Jeremy and their friendship when Sarah is with Graham are worth more exploration.

So, my complaints about this book are basically that I wanted more of it. It was a fun, quick read, fairly light except for an uncharacteristic chapter or two near the end. I can't wait for the author to write another novel - maybe even set in the town called Christmas?

If you're a fan of Hallmark Christmas movies, you should check out All I Want For Christmas is the Girl Next Door. Because this book feels like a Hallmark movie--which is both a good and bad thing.

It's a good thing in that it has all of the cozy, Christmas story vibes. And if that's what you're in the mood for, All I Want For Christmas is the Girl Next Door will meet that need.

But the Hallmark vibes is also a bad thing in that it makes the story really predictable. But the blurb for the book already hints pretty strongly at what's going to happen in the story, so you're probably not really reading it to be surprised by the plot.

The characters were good, but I think that they could have been developed and rounded out a little bit more. While Graham's flip-flopping feelings about who he actually likes might annoy some readers, it did make sense to me. After all, he's thrown into a different reality where he's been dating Sarah for two years, but he doesn't have the deeper relationship/feelings that would have developed over the last two years. And before he's thrown into the alternate reality, he is already starting to possibly like Piper a little bit.

While the worldbuilding wasn't as important to the story as it would be in a different genre, like fantasy, I still would have liked there to be a little bit more worldbuilding and to get to see what makes Christmas (the town) really Christmas. How exactly small-towny is it? We're told about the town via Graham, but we don't necessarily really get to learn about the town ourselves. Aside from being told that Christmas gets super Christmas-y at Christmas time and seeing a little bit of that, Christmas feels a little bit like any small town.

Like I said above, the plot was kind of predictable, but it wasn't bad. It was like a Hallmark movie. :)

If you're looking for a cozy read or like Hallmark movies, All I Want For Christmas is the Girl Next Door might be a great read for you.

This book was a cute fast read. I wasn't a fan of the love rectangle or whatever it was but I am glad that everything ended the way it ended.

I am also glad Graham came to his senses and would have liked to seen more of what happened after he returned at the end.

It was a three star rating since it was just good. Thank you Netgalley and publishers

I always enjoy reading love stories with a guy as the main character/narrator. I don’t know what it is. This story was paced well and even though it wasn’t necessarily “original” I liked the spin on having it be told from the boy’s perspective.

This was a very meh book for me. I don’t usually read YA, but the concept sounded interesting. I enjoyed the beginning half, but then later half and ending, I was not a fan off. It kind of got dark there for a minute, and seemed to wrap up super fast. I would have liked to read about more time in the “real reality” after he went back. I found the main character to get really annoying at times.

This was a quick, easy read, but not what I was expecting from a Christmas book, I guess.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC in return for an honest opinion.