MICHELLE’S REVIEW

NEXT TO YOU is both a standalone and part of a collection of stories called FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS. As a big fan of Daisy Prescott’s work, I was really excited to give her first true standalone a read and I was not disappointed.

This is the story of Stan and Sage- two friends who find themselves crossing that ever blurry line. Now- let me just take a moment to tell you about how Stan is described. South African. Rugby Player. Man Bun. So like some of this:

mixed with some of this:

So basically my dreams come to life.

And Sage is a heiress with the heart of a hippie. She’s also the kind of heiress I always thought I would be- rich but not a jerk about it and with a heart of gold. And actually her status doesn’t matter much in this book but it did make me fall in love with her even more when it came to light. .

So the basic premise here is that Stan and Sage have been best friends and neighbors and after Sage has a short and unsuccessful relationship with Stan’s teammate Landon, Stan puts her on the no touch list for the Rugby guys. He does this to protect her from getting mixed up with any of those guys that aren’t good enough for her. But when Stan has a chance to cash in a bet- he uses the opportunity to make Sage his fake girlfriend. Of course- as expected- the fake and the real start to blur and in their case- it blurs so perfectly because they were obviously meant to be together.

One thing I thought was interesting about this book is that the conflict isn’t super huge- mostly some unsure feelings- but it’s enough to cast some doubt. And both Sage and Stan have to come home to their respective families to find the home they have in one another. My only desire for this book would have been to see more. I thought that Sage had a pretty off kilter relationship with her father from the way certain things were described but then they seemed to have a great relationship. And on the flip side- Stan had a terrible relationship with his father and I found their showdown a little underwhelming. While those plot points did not make or break the story in any way- I would not have minded more on those story lines.

But- this book was fun, sweet and perfectly sexy. I enjoyed it from start to finish and it’s a very quick read. If you haven’t read Daisy’s books before, this is a great place to start! Also you can have this image in your head the whole time reading: