The Aussie Next Door by Stefanie London

The Aussie Next Door by Stefanie London

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Angie is an American who hightailed it to Australia to escape her notoriety back home. Not the good kind either, she is like a celebrity without celebrity status. No one can know her true identity because she pleasant little life will self-destruct. She finds herself a quaint little cottage to rent off a super hot, if not very serious, landlord and she is set. Well that is until her visa is set to expire and she is out of extensions. Well there is just one left, get married in less than 60 days.

Jace loves routine, his body craves it actually, he has ever minute of every day planned out in advance. He was diagnosed as high functioning autistic spectrum when he was younger and routine helps keep his mind in order. You could never tell by just looking at him on the outside but his inside gets all jumbled up during even the simplest things. He has a hard time with facial expressions, knowing when to keep a conversation going, and forget about sarcasm, it goes right over his head. When a friend of his mother’s asks him, well bamboozles, him into dog sitting her 2 dogs his nice calm life just went out the window. Factor in Angie’s hair brained scheme to find a husband in 60 days and he just may explode.

Angie wants the fairy tale, to fall in love with someone and build a future and a family. Family is something that she never had growing up. She lives in a world of hope and smiles and happiness, even as your heart is breaking you put on a smile. She hopes to convince Jace that he wants that too, but his feelings are the complete opposite of hers. She wonders why he feels so strongly against marriage?

Jace and Angie traverse life in Australia with all its confusion and happiness front and center. Although first appearing extremely different, the more I read the more similar they became. Each with their own set of idiosyncrasies and quarks that make them more relatable to the audience. Having a family member on the autism spectrum made this book even more special as he now can have a voice out there like his.

I am an uber fan of Ms London and will continue to devour her novels as quickly as she writes them. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance copy without expectations. I enjoyed hearing more about Ms. London’s homeland of Australia, Angie threw in quite a few “sayings and slang” to enjoy. 4 ½ stars for this ripper of a book, Good on Ya Stefanie.

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